Abgeschickt von Nicole am 28 Dezember, 2005 um 15:41:06:
Christmas in GoondiWindi is over and we are going to visit David Sirl - our fourth housemate from Brisbane - at his home in Moree on the 27th.
You have to drive about 4 hours to go to GoondiWindi. The drive to Moree will last about 1,5 hours and it is one more hour to Sirls farm, which is about 14.000 acres large, big, simply: huge!
The drive is exciting. On the right and the left we can see how the landscape is changing. From almost nothing to high dry gras to many trees. There are huge fields of cotton, corn and wheat.
We also see signs like "don't die for a deadline" or "every k is a killer". (The speed limit on australian roads is 100 km/h)
Unbelievable, but we also see signs which are saying "flood". Here? There is no water to see but a flood sign and an indicator with a scale about 1 metre high? Time to ask our friends!
There is a simple answer: when there is to much water in the rivers or creeks - even when they are far away - the whole area will be flooded because it is so flat.
Later we see a sign which leads us to "Lynden" - Sirl's farm. A few kilometres later we can see a house which is obviously the family home. A warm welcome and a nice lunch are already waiting for us!
After a few minutes rest we start a trip across the farm. Fortunately we can use an airconditioned car!
We get a first impression of 14.000 acres. It is really just huge. Through a lot of doors we reach a shear station. (well, it is a sheep farm. nobody knows exactly how many thousand sheeps are living here at the moment, but it must be a few :)
The shear station is quite old with about 100 years and it is very interesting. It looks exactly like in the old australian movies.
Futher across the farm we find a water hole with quite hot - almost cooking - water and a lot more stories about farm life in Australia.
On the way home we see emus, kangaroos and hazes. We also meet some cattle in the middle of the sheep farm. Everything is quite exhausting because of the hot sun and so we decide to have a swim in the pool next to the house.
In the evening - it is not really cooler - we meet the 5 dogs and now we will also see the main attraction: George and Michael, the favourite sheeps of the family. Both grew up with milk out of bottles and the family just loves these two. They are very friendly and they really enjoy all the love and attention from the visitors. They both stay near the fence for a long time and on the way back to the house we have company from Michael.
After feeding the sheeps it is time to feed the visitors. Firstly, we get this great cheese. After that, a really good and big meal is waiting for us. Finally, we get desert which is a christmas cake with ice cream and custard. YAM YAM!
Well, this was the day in Moree and it is evening already. We will also get a lift back to Brisbane. We are really lucky girls! Australians are just unbelievable friendly.
Herdis and Doug were happy about that, too, because they don't need to get up too early. But we wake them up at around 7 to say good bye :)
On Wednesday we drive back to Brisbane. And now we have to crab all important things for our backpacking experience for the next two months. At 4 a.m. a taxi will bring us to the airport. Very early!
Good night!