Where to begin, the last two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of going from one place to another without spending a lot of time anywhere. Two days of travel, three days in Sydney, five days on the training station and now three days in Dubbo. Settling in at my job in Walgett, NSW will be really good. I expect to be there at least until June sometime so that will give me some time to catch my breath at least. 

   The training station was an experience I don’t think i’ll ever forget. We got there sunday late afternoon after a six and a half hour drive from Sydney through the Blue mountains which are more hills than mountains in my opinion. The ride up was pretty quiet, just imagine 11 people that don’t know each other cramped in a van, a little awkward. But once we got there and settled in everyone started to relax a little and started talking. The group consisted of one Canadian, five Germans, four English and one Icelander. So not to much diversity but enough to be interesting.

   Monday morning we were up at 7 am and got everyone together to go over what the course would be about and such and then headed into Coonabarabran to get us all outfitted with boots and hats and bank accounts. Craig, the instructor guy, is a really interesting character. He liked nothing more than to play a practical joke on people and was super good at it too. He is super intimidating and was very hard to read so I wasn’t sure half the time if he was playing us or actually serious. It got annoying at times but whatever, we put a ton of stress on him. 

   Once we got back from town we all got a lesson on quads and motorbikes, talk about chaos! Some of the students had never done anything like that before so there were bikes running into quads, sheds and just about anything that couldn’t move fast enough to escape! Since I have driven quads before and a bike isn’t much different, I had no problems so I sat back and laughed at all these people struggling to figure out the gears and such. Entertaining to say the least. Once everyone had gotten a bit of a handle on it we went out to the paddock to practice driving through ditches and puddles. Well thats where Ollie and Daniel put their quads into the pond, and Craig blew a gasket! I have never seen someone that frustrated. It was a stressful afternoon. The whole time i’m thinking that this must be the worst group to come through Outback Packers but later around the fire Craig said that we had done really well, I don’t want to imagine what a bad group is like!

   Tuesday all twelve of us piled into a jeep that should seat five, it was a clown car experience. The back seat had been taken out so that made it a little better. We then headed out to his other property where we saddled up some horses and did some horseback riding. I found out really quickly that it had been a long time since I had done anything like that, my bum was actually bruised the next day. That actually went surprisingly well compared to the bikes. Did a bit of a trail ride through the bush. At the end of the trail was a pond where we unsaddled the horses and rode them bareback into the water, it was a good time. Got some good pictures there. My horse wasn’t to pumped about swimming but eventually got him to go where I wanted him.

   After the trail ride we sorted some sheep out and sheared a few. I tried it and cut the sheep pretty bad, its hard to get the right angle to shave a squirming sheep. But apparently I did well for a first timer so that was good to hear. Every day of the week we treated some sheep that had become flyblown, the had magots in the wool and were actually being eaten alive. It was pretty disgusting.

   Wednesday we did a lot of sheep mustering, drafting and shearing. It was a probably the hardest and longest day of the week. Drafting is the australian way of saying sorting. Thursday we brought some cattle into the yard and did some drafting there as well. Put some through the cattle crush so we could check their mouths and such. The English girl, Becky, got to shove her hand up a cows bum to preg check it, without a glove. I would never have thought she would actually do it but she didn’t even hesitate to long and just shoved it right in there! It was hilarious to see everyones reactions to that! One guy was gaging and almost threw, some couldn’t watch anymore.

There were all kinds of little instances throughout the week that just amazed me how someone could be that dumb. The one german guy, Jakob, he did very few things right the entire week but I gotta admire that he never quit even though he got reamed out at least once a day.

  Friday was a little bit of fencing and chainsaw work and then that was it for the course. At four pm I was taken to town to catch a bus to Dubbo to spend the weekend and on Monday I hop on another bus and head out to Walgett to work. Dubbo is a city of 41000 people but feels like a much smaller town, at least the part im in. Its a country town with saddle shops, shearing shops and a flour mill right beside the hostel. Saturday night was St. Patty’s day and there are a few Irish staying in the hostel im in so there was a big drunken party here until four or five in the morning. Didn’t get much sleep. 

   I don’t know when I’ll have internet access again to update this blog again but I will as soon as I can. I am having a really good time here but I do miss talking to people that I know. Everyone I run into is a stranger, so getting to know some locals in Walgett will be really nice. I miss everyone back home and hope you all keep me in your thoughts and send me a message sometime eh. I would love to here from everyone.

Cheers!