Saturday, July 5, 2008
♥ Karoonda!
Hurray! It's the holidays, and everyone is enjoying themselves, working or relaxing, and the vet students have to do 4-page essays HURRAY! Me and Gezzel have to do two of those so even better right! WHINE WHINE WHINE... Anyways not to say that i didn't have fun at the farm caz i did!
Gez on the train (she shall be the model for this entry)
So, after 3 1/2 hours on the Vline train from Southern Cross, we finally reached the quaint little town of Bairnsdale, and we had 3 hours to wonder around before the bus took us to Karoonda park. So I went to Subway to grab a sandwich, and we ate a MacD's for lunch. After which, we ventured to the church to have a look see at the pretty painted walls. We then walked around and Gez stopped by at the bookshop to buy a book, and we went to the pharmacy to buy facial sunblock+moisturiser (which was a good choice, caz my the water and weather is a drying).
3 hours later, we boarded the community bus and headed for Karoonda Park at Gelantipy, which is located on the snowy mountains (which does not have snow FYI). On the way there, we stopped at a popular tourist destination, Lakes Enterance to have a little stretch, and it was quite pretty!
Lakes Enterance, Isn't it pretty!
Then we had a few other random stops at Nowa Nowa, and the little township of Buchan, which was the little 'city' of the area. By city i mean 2 cafes and 1 post office, and little houses.
Buchan
And finally after a drive up long and winding roads, we arrived at Karoonda park, which was also a school camp destination, hence the 100 odd high school kids. When we arrived they were busy preparing dinner for the school kids, and we stood clueless in the kitchen, quite hungry and tired. And it was pretty odd not having phone reception at all, but thankfully they still have landline, and wireless, which gez's miracle ipod detected and we were able to use wireless.
The first night was horrendous, not to be a princess or anything, but even with 2 blankets we could not sleep, caz it was freezing cold, and the room had no heater. Thankfully 2 nights later we shifted to a warmer room.
Karoonda Park is quite extensive, and this what what we see mostly:
Rolling plains of drought-affected pasture and hilly lands.
They had hereford cattle (beef cows)
And they are pretty cute you have to admit hahaha.
Every morning and evening, we have to heave 20kg+ buckets of pelleted feed and pour it into their troughs, and every two days we get to unroll huge-ass hay bails, and build muscles at the same time. The two farmers teaching us were Paul and Ron, who were really old guys with 3times our strength, and are really really nice and funny. Nope there were no hunky cowboys if anyone is wondering. There were 3 dogs Telly and Ted are ultra smart cattle dogs, and Morgan is the owner's pet corgi, who is so spoilt and so cute, and tried to bite my hand twice caz i was trying to move his fat arse along.
My favourite animal there is Billy, a hand-raised heifer who is like a 200kg puppy dog that jumped on me to try and unintentionally crush me to death.
Isn't Billy sweet!
There two are the other 2 calves in the hospital pen, the one who is standing is Crazy, and she is mentally challenged, and the fluffiest cutest calf you will see.
The one lying down is Olay (yup we named them) who has a spinal problem and can't stand, so we had to heave her up everyday to allow circulation in her legs.
Look at how much wet poop is on the floor! Our jeans and boots were always muddy, shitty and dirty (in a good way somehow haha). And we rode around on the back of a truck, in the toyota that fitted 3 people but we had 4 so gezzel had to sit on mine and ron's lap, in a tractor which gez had a chance to drive, and on foot. Cool right!
We also got to vaccinate sheep and calves, and watch Paul gut and kill sheep, and shoot pigs which have horrible smelling blood and skin and gut them. And yes they are allowed to use hunting rifles. Paul also shot a wombat that had a mange, and blood was bubbling out of its nose, when we got close to see it
We also got to ride horses twice, which was fun, and in our spare time, we walked around, petting pretty horses, and feeding them grasses that we plucked along the fence, and also watching DVDs. And we had to walk alongside some kiddies riding horses, on tracks meant for horses not humans, so we had to jump logs and climb steep paths (I felt like throwing the kid off the horse at points, i'm sorry to say).
Gezzel chatting up some horses
This was a new patient in the hospotal pen. He's a bull, and not the biggest in the property, but look at how huge his head is! He's almost as tall as me, and roughly 500kg.
The food there was so nice, and there was so much to eat and snack on. We also have morning and afternoon tea, which included the yummiest muffins, chocolate slices, and, apple pies, and other fatty stuff that we pigged out on.
I'll definately miss that place. Hope the next one's a blast!
Gez on the train (she shall be the model for this entry)So, after 3 1/2 hours on the Vline train from Southern Cross, we finally reached the quaint little town of Bairnsdale, and we had 3 hours to wonder around before the bus took us to Karoonda park. So I went to Subway to grab a sandwich, and we ate a MacD's for lunch. After which, we ventured to the church to have a look see at the pretty painted walls. We then walked around and Gez stopped by at the bookshop to buy a book, and we went to the pharmacy to buy facial sunblock+moisturiser (which was a good choice, caz my the water and weather is a drying).
3 hours later, we boarded the community bus and headed for Karoonda Park at Gelantipy, which is located on the snowy mountains (which does not have snow FYI). On the way there, we stopped at a popular tourist destination, Lakes Enterance to have a little stretch, and it was quite pretty!
Lakes Enterance, Isn't it pretty!Then we had a few other random stops at Nowa Nowa, and the little township of Buchan, which was the little 'city' of the area. By city i mean 2 cafes and 1 post office, and little houses.
BuchanAnd finally after a drive up long and winding roads, we arrived at Karoonda park, which was also a school camp destination, hence the 100 odd high school kids. When we arrived they were busy preparing dinner for the school kids, and we stood clueless in the kitchen, quite hungry and tired. And it was pretty odd not having phone reception at all, but thankfully they still have landline, and wireless, which gez's miracle ipod detected and we were able to use wireless.
The first night was horrendous, not to be a princess or anything, but even with 2 blankets we could not sleep, caz it was freezing cold, and the room had no heater. Thankfully 2 nights later we shifted to a warmer room.
Karoonda Park is quite extensive, and this what what we see mostly:
Rolling plains of drought-affected pasture and hilly lands.They had hereford cattle (beef cows)
And they are pretty cute you have to admit hahaha.Every morning and evening, we have to heave 20kg+ buckets of pelleted feed and pour it into their troughs, and every two days we get to unroll huge-ass hay bails, and build muscles at the same time. The two farmers teaching us were Paul and Ron, who were really old guys with 3times our strength, and are really really nice and funny. Nope there were no hunky cowboys if anyone is wondering. There were 3 dogs Telly and Ted are ultra smart cattle dogs, and Morgan is the owner's pet corgi, who is so spoilt and so cute, and tried to bite my hand twice caz i was trying to move his fat arse along.
My favourite animal there is Billy, a hand-raised heifer who is like a 200kg puppy dog that jumped on me to try and unintentionally crush me to death.
Isn't Billy sweet!She was placed in the 'hospital pen' with the other two calves, and when she was moved to the main pen it was so so sad, caz the other heifers didn't like her, and she always wanted to escape. When it comes to feeding time she also got pushed away. Poor baby! Anyone wanna provide me with the space to adopt her!!
There two are the other 2 calves in the hospital pen, the one who is standing is Crazy, and she is mentally challenged, and the fluffiest cutest calf you will see.The one lying down is Olay (yup we named them) who has a spinal problem and can't stand, so we had to heave her up everyday to allow circulation in her legs.
Look at how much wet poop is on the floor! Our jeans and boots were always muddy, shitty and dirty (in a good way somehow haha). And we rode around on the back of a truck, in the toyota that fitted 3 people but we had 4 so gezzel had to sit on mine and ron's lap, in a tractor which gez had a chance to drive, and on foot. Cool right!
We also got to vaccinate sheep and calves, and watch Paul gut and kill sheep, and shoot pigs which have horrible smelling blood and skin and gut them. And yes they are allowed to use hunting rifles. Paul also shot a wombat that had a mange, and blood was bubbling out of its nose, when we got close to see it
We also got to ride horses twice, which was fun, and in our spare time, we walked around, petting pretty horses, and feeding them grasses that we plucked along the fence, and also watching DVDs. And we had to walk alongside some kiddies riding horses, on tracks meant for horses not humans, so we had to jump logs and climb steep paths (I felt like throwing the kid off the horse at points, i'm sorry to say).
Gezzel chatting up some horsesThis was a new patient in the hospotal pen. He's a bull, and not the biggest in the property, but look at how huge his head is! He's almost as tall as me, and roughly 500kg.
The food there was so nice, and there was so much to eat and snack on. We also have morning and afternoon tea, which included the yummiest muffins, chocolate slices, and, apple pies, and other fatty stuff that we pigged out on.
I'll definately miss that place. Hope the next one's a blast!
9:28 PM
