Still at the cattle station!! would have been cool to have stayed a few days really! the other thing we did the night we arrived was learn to crack a whip and it was so painful!! gav caught on really well, i guess knowing how to crack a teatowel helps! i think i hurt myself more times that i like to remember, i had bruises all down my arm, on the back of my shoulder, on the wrists and hands, my hand was so painful i couldnt bend 2 of my fingers! still i managed to do it in the end!

The next day we went for horse ride, gav did the goat mustering which means gathering, you basically walk around them and get them into a pen shouting and making funny noises at them! i went off for a bit of a gallop around some fields which i was a bit nervous about at first but once off i absolutley loved it!!! we joined gav and the goat mustering team to round up the second lot of goats and that was pretty cool too, quite satisfying seeing them all in the pen! and some of the billies were cute as!

the next thing we did was goat rodeoing where as a team we caught turned and branded the goat! gav caught the goat which was so funny running around a pen trying to grab hold of a goat with BIG horns! he did well though, then the other guy turned it (as you can see) as i ran to get the brander to brand its arse!! was a lot of fun and our team did it in the fastest time! woo! was funny watching the other teams chasing the goats, the first team, their goat jumped the 10ft fence so they had no chance - that was hallarious!!

oh, then the last thing we did was clay pigeon shooting! gav did well he hit 4/5, i did fairly well i hit 2/5! felt a bit silly though, the first shot i had the guy said to me "did you see it" and i said "no, i cant see well out of my right eye" (have to shut left so can see down the barrell) so then they all laughed at me and made me do it lefthanded and it must have worked because i soon hit 2 of them! tell you what though, i had not idea how powerful the back shift it sent me flying! was so much fun! and true to being on a cattle station we had 2 fantastic beef meals, not as good as gilman beef but close! yum yum! had a great stay here, lots and lots of fun!

Our next stop was the beautiful 1770 named after the year it was discovered! we only had a few days here but could have stayed for ever, not only for the beauty but also for the cheepness of everything! it has everything - newly discovered coral barrier reef, dophins that come to the shore, and an eastern point to that you watch the sun set over the sea! beautiful!! we had our first surf lesson here and the teaching was fantastic, the waves were cool and by the end of the 3 hours we were both getting up! surfing is a lot of fun but had definitely underestimated the amount of paddling involved, its HARD work!! was a lot of fun and have since had a few more goes and getting a lot better! one thing we did do was a scotteroo tour around the area, the guy ran out of bikes so i had to go on the back of his but that was good fun! saw loads of kangaroos and wallabies, rode around the beautiful scenery was a really good afternoon! at the end we all go to a pub for wedges and watch the beautiful sunset however we had lots of rain and clouds so the sun set was non existent! oh well! we had a lot of fun, and a guy let me ride his bike on the way home so i had a turn and it was awesom! felt so cool riding a mini harley! the pic is us with everyone on the tour, with jimmy, kelly and andy on the bikes with us, cool guys had fun with them! had planned to watch the turtles lay their eggs and picnic with them but the weather wouldn't allow that either - poo weather, no moon = no turtles laying! oh well we had a top time there!!

our next stop was the brilliant fraser island trip! and it was bloody FANTASTIC! this is a picture of us with our group on the amazing lake mackenzie beach! the sand was like whitehaven beach, the water was fresh so you could drink it as you swam! the surroundings were just amazing and the people in our group were a lot of fun! we had top few days here! driving around the island was a lot of fun, lots of tree roots, lots of sand (biggest sand island in the world), which basically meant we went bumping along the tracks, sitting in the back was an adventure in itself you never knew when you were going to go flying in the air! gav was sitting near the back and one big bump and he was laying all over everyone! poor them! we both had a go at driving and it was a lot of fun even if a bit hazardous!! front or back was a lot of fun! the beaches and the lakes were incredible, i feel a lot more fraser island photos coming on! what a trip!!!!