Melbourne Cup today

Today is the big day. It is Melbourne cup day like on every first Tuesday in November. On the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne 24 horses and jockeys are going to show their talent and their today’s condition. The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race, it is called the race which stops the nation because a lot of businesses and shops are closing for the race time. A lot of people also bet on their favorites for the Melbourne Cup.

The Melbourne Cup is held since 1861 and just the distance has been changed a little since then. 3200 meters the horses and jockeys have to accomplish now since 1972. The world record at the moment is 3min 16.3sec, Kingston Rule was the lucky winner of 1990. The total prize money for the Melbourne Cup 2011 is $6,175,000. In addition to that there are trophies valued at $125,000.

The nation is going crazy on this day nearly everybody is dressing up and like we told you most of the businesses are closing to fever with the riders and horses and to have a look how lucky the maybe are. So did you also bet on a horse or even two?

How do you celebrate Melbourne Cup?

 

Halloween Party

The Weekend is over and this time, we really have to tell you something.

We went to the best Halloween Party you can imagine. It was on Charlotte Plains, 50kms out of Cunnamulla.

The lovely hosts Claire, Robert and Robyn Russell prepared eveything and the highlight was absolutely the SPOOKY HOUSE for the kids where they got their sweets in the end after they could be scared for a while like you're supposed to be on Halloween.

Everybody was dressed in the scariest but also funniest costumes and it was amazing that all of the guests had at least one thing which was Halloween-like.

The party started at 5pm with a lot of vegetable sticks, bread and biscuits and a variety of delicious dips, as well as fruit or cheese platters. The main course was delicious as well with a lot of meat. Pork, Beef, Lamb - everybody found something he was happy with. Besides there was a huge pot of salad with fetta. Afterwards you could enjoy wonderful cupcakes, fruit salad, pudding and brownies. It was amazing and we were eating all night long :)

It was nice to get to know new people. In the end there were 28 adults and 14 children running around and having fun.

We had one of the best evenings you can imagine and we really want to thank the lovely hosts for the best Halloween Party ever!

Food Day

Today is Food day again. As we are getting prepared for Christmas we are also going to offer lunch specials. This will start next week. Of course we want you to take part in this action. We need to know what your favorite dishes is. What do you like to eat for lunch? Do you enjoy a hot and spicy Thai curry, some delicious pasta with chicken or a Greek salad?

In fact also sweets and desserts are important as well. Do you favor cake and slices, ice-cream or fruits? Share your thoughts on this topic and let us know so we can sort out what you are going to have for lunch.

We will start next week on Monday with or lunch special seasonal salad with garlic toast.

Come over and taste it and comment about your preference for lunch.

Warming up in Cunnamulla

It is definitely warming up here in Cunnamulla. We had to turn on the air-condition and it is nearly not possible to stay outside in the sun without sweating all over. If you want to do sportive activities you have to get up quiet early. So you will see a lot of people jogging around at five o’clock in the morning, going for a walk at six or enjoying some laps in the Cunnamulla pool at half past seven. Even Mary-Ann who manages the pool offers water aerobics in the morning, Thai-Chi or you can join the local triathlon team on Sunday mornings. So if you want to cool down jump into the pool and have a nice swim or enjoy a bath in the Warrego River. In fact be careful of the Jabbies they could be quiet unpleasant sometimes if you step on them! Otherwise there is of course also the opportunity to eat a cold ice to enjoy a icy cold drink or just sit inside a air-conditioned office or house.

What are you doing to get cool? Are you joining the Cunnamulla pool or do you prefer the Warrego River to have a swim?

 

 

Birthday Party

Here are the pictures for the birthday party I told you about. Have a look.

There are our party guests, the vegetables and the damper and the jam roll. It was delicious!

It's Monday again.

Good Morning everyone.

Once again, the weekend was passing by faster than you could imagine and it's Monday again. I don't know why the time on weekends always seems to run faster than during workdays. But I think that's normal and if you like your job like we do here at Out The Back Australia, it's no problem to start another working week.

I told you about the birthday party we arranged for Les on Saturday. He was really happy and his family, too. They spent a wonderful evening here in Cunnamulla and enjoyed a delicious dinner which was almost completely cooked by our German intern Larissa. It was perfect although she never cooked something like this on her own before. Therefore everybody made her compliments for the lovely dinner. Her damper was perfectly done in a camp oven under a thick layer of coals. Normally Les is doing the damper and he was it who showed Larissa how to bake one. It made him proud to see that Larissa has baken such a wonderful damper.

On Sunday our German interns had the possibility to visit another farm. Of course they were both pleased to do that and so they spent the day out of Cunnamulla, seeing sheep and cattle and a lovely property. They had fun racing over the farm with a little car and climbing around a few caves.

It's really good, that they get the possibility to see a lot of the area. They will never forget their stay in Cunnamulla, will recommend it and maybe they will come back one day. Right now they're having another 2,5 months left, a fact to be happy about. Although sometimes homesickness is a well-known feeling, but it's normal to feel like that when you're far away from home. And it's always just a temporary thing, Cunnamulla and its inhabitants are way too nice to be homesick for a longer time.

Are you homesick sometimes? Or even somewhere in the world and homesick for Cunnamulla? We could totally understand that!

Have a nice day!

Birthday Party

Today is Les Capewell's birthday. He told us that he never had a birthday party in his entire life which means we really wanted to change that. Therefore we're celebrating his 76th birthday today here in Cunnamulla with his family.

We're already cooking dinner. Beef and vegetables and a jam roll as dessert because it's his favourite cake. Hopefully he will enjoy the evening, because he's always there if somebody needs help and so we can make him happy, too.

If you're not going to a birthday party tonight maybe another possibility is to go to the pool. Swimming is good and fun for the whole family, especially during these hot days.

 

Enjoy the weekend.

Halloween

I know, we have some time left till Halloween, but we already got an invitation for a Halloween Party which means we'll have to dress up... Oooh, that's going to be exciting!

So we already started thinking about possible costumes and ideas for hair and make-up. That's very funny and hopefully our own result in the end will be as good as the templates we've found in the internet.

The most likely costumes at the moment are witch and ghost, because it's relatively easy to make on your own, but being a pumpkin would be something really great too :) but in fact, making a pumpkin costume is way more difficult.

It's the first outback-halloween for our German Interns and both are excited about it, although they didn't celebrate Halloween often at home in Germany. So it will be another experience and lots of fun. Hopefully it's not going to be too scary ;)

Do you have nice ideas for Halloween costumes? Please help us.

And do you celebrate Halloween every year?

6-day Tour "Get Down and Dusty"

Unfortunately, today is the last day of our 6-day tour. We really enjoyed having our guest Sam here for this time.

But, let me tell you about the last three days. We were pretty busy, because our itinerary was filled with actions and sights.

On Monday, we started early to visit Charlotte Plains, a working sheep and cattle property, half the size of Singapore.

At first we had to pat the cuddly little lambs which were running around our legs. We had tea with the station owner Robyn Russell and her family and got a tour around big parts of the property including the shearing sheds and the artesian bores. Afterwards we enjoyed a bath in the hot bores which was really relaxing. Charlotte Plains is abolutely one of the most beautiful places in the world. Every time I'm going there I am more amazed by the size and beauty of the surrounding nature and landscape.

In the afternoon we headed to Bowra where we had the possibility to see a lot of birds e.g. a rainbow bee-eater and a lot of cockatoos. Back in Cunnamulla we had Campfire Dinner with our local entertainer Les Capewell, who showed us to crack a whip.

 

Tuesday, we started early again to visit the opal fields of Yowah. We've seen how to cut and polish opals and could go for searching our own opals.

It was lots of fun and really interesting to see how much work you have to invest to have such beautiful jewelery in the end. We went up the Bluff in Yowah and enjoyed the amazing view km over the area.

After opal mining in Yowah we went to Eulo to visit Palm Grove Winery and Date Farm, where Sam our guest took a mud baths. She was promised to look 20 years younger afterwards. In fact, it's absolutely relaxing and healthy for your skin.

 

Today she has been on a River Cruise on the Warrego River, which is a wonderful way to see birds and nature along the river.

Later, she will have the possibility to see the "Artesian Time Tunnel" in teh Cunnamulla Fella Centre and get information about the Great Artesian Basin and history of Cunnamulla. After lunch she will leave us by coach and train, which is really sad because she was fiun and nice company.

WallabyBaby

Today, I want to tell you again about our WallabyBaby.

She doesn't have to be in her bag all the time. We made her a little yard where she can be outside and sit in the grass, but we still feed her with milk additional to the grass she started to eat.

She's a really pretty little girl and we're looking after her almost a thousand times a day. Hopefully she doesn't feel lonely out there.

In the evening we catch her and take her with us in her bag, because she shouldn't be outside all night. Our German Interns take her with them to their house where she can spend a more comfortable night than outside.

A few new pictures that you can see that she's really a cutie :)

 

Gemma and WallabyBaby

WallabyBaby in her Yard

6-day Tour "Get Down and Dusty"

Rocky Bridge

6-day Tour "Get Down and Dusty"

Rocky Bridge - suspended footbridge

6-day "Get Down and Dusty"-Tour

Hello,

after a nice weekend I have time to give you some new information.

We're still on our 6-day tour and everything's absolutely amazing. Unfortunately the weather on Friday evening wasn't that good and therefore the game of bowls we wanted to take part in couldn't take place, but we had fun in the Cunnamulla Bowls Club anyways with a few games of Pool and nice chats.

The next day, Saturday, the weather was brilliant again like the rain had washed the sky. Nothing could prevent us from continuing our tour and so we went for a walk in and around Cunnamulla, did the "Town and Industry"-Tour that our tourist could get an insight of the area and went down the river. In the evening our German Intern were responsible for Dinner and everyone was satisfied with their work in the end and it tasted really good.

Sunday started early with the trip to Rocky Station. We did the Wallaby Walk although no wallaby wanted to appear for us, but the way along the river was lovely anyways. Afterwards we walked over the 70m long Indiana Jones Style suspended footbridge and enjoyed tea and lunch with the station owners in their beautiful homestead.

The evening we spent in the Pub watching the Rugby Worldcup semi-finals - Australia vs. New Zealand. New Zealand was the winner in the end and our tour guest was pretty happy about it, which was understandable considering the fact that she has been the only Kiwi in the Pub. After another delicious dinner we went to bed to start early again this morning to see Charlotte Plains, a working sheep and cattle property.

Wallababy :)

Our little Baby is still little but it gets more and more curious. It started eating grass and we made him a little yard to be outside. We still give her milk everyday, because the little bit of grass she's eating now wouldn't be enough at the moment.

I am sorry, that I didn't upload pictures until now except on facebook, but I will do that right now that you can keep informed :)

Isn't she cute?

Rearrangements :)

Today I just want to tell you a little bit about our shop and the work we're doing here.

Right now, we're having kind of rearrangements in the cafe. Now you can sit outside in the sun or if it gets hotter of course in the shadow and not to forget about the air-condition we're heving inside, that's for sure. Outside we arranged something like a little terrace, decorated with old tools and saddles which we got from Les Capewell who has a lot of interesting stuff you could even use for a museum. It looks really nice.

Our new coffee machine arrived, but it will take another few days to install it and get it ready for customers, but soon everyone can enjoy a delicious cappuccino or espresso in our cafe.

Rearrangements everywhere and so we don't stop after the outside. At the moment the inside is getting a new look and we started with decoration for Christmas, but not only for Christmas. We try to give the cafe a new look that our customers can feel more comfortable than they already did. Everything's sorted after colours now and our intern, Larissa, is pretty busy in planning and working how to arrange all the furniture and the displays and shelves. There's still a little mess because we're not finished yet, but you can really see all the progress and it already looks nicer than before...

If you want to come over, don't be shy we're happy to welcome everyone!

Christmas Preperation

 

 

 

Christmas is coming soon, so get ready to clean your windows for fabulous Christmas decoration. There are a lot of opportunities. Sticker, lights, garlands, Christmas ball ornaments, window paintings and so on. Of course it is just October but time is running these days. Be the first one to have a perfectly decorated house. Take a picture of it and a lucky person will win a Christmas surprise. The competition is running till 15^thDecember. Have fun and of course Merry Christmas J  

 

Cooking and Baking

Our German interns (and not only these two) started to have a look on Australian Cooking Books and Receipts. Especially receipts of the area around Cunnamulla interests them.

Maybe you've already seen the topic FOOD we're writing about on Facebook and Twitter every Wednesday, this week we'll talk about Veggie Burger, because one of our interns is Vegetarian.

Yesterday we thought, alright let's bake a cake to try all the nice receipts we found out about. In the end we decided to bake a fast chocolate cake. Unfortunately we didn't have eggs, which means we replaced them by using more butter. In fact the result was a really delicious, soft chocolate cake.

The next time we will decide during the week what to bake and buy all we need before the weekend :)

Might be easier. We're already having a lot of ideas what to bake next: another damper, quiche, brownies, chocolate crisp tiramisu, lemon cheesecake and so on. The list ist going to be endless, but maybe you want to help us and send us your receipts as well. We're looking forward to new ideas and try more or less everything.

Thanks for your help and have a nice day.

Holidays and Travel Talk

We have been not available for a few days now. Tanja has been on holidays with her parents and Larissa was travelling around Brisbane and Cairns to inform Backpacker via Travel Talk about the special package we offer in cooperation with the YHA. For both it was an exciting time. Tanja saw a lot of Australians Tourism sights like Fraser Island. She has been to several beaches and experienced real Camper life and dirt roads. All in all she was happy to see her family and to enjoy 10 days with them. Larissa started her Tour in Brisbane during her stay in the City YHA she met a lot of different people and enjoyed the Travel Talk on Tuesday night with free pizza and several nice chats. On Wednesday she left Brisbane at 5 o’clock in the morning and flight straight to Cairns where she will do another Travel Talk tonight. So really exciting for two young German girls. They both will work in regular  order next week again!

WallabyBaby

Yesterday I told you about our WallabyBaby...

She's really active now and started eating more then just a little bit. You already have to be careful that she doesn't leave her bag. Sooner or later she will leave it, but for the moment she's a little tooyoung and so it is way safer to keep her inside for a little longer.

She's too fast for us anyways, if she leaves the bag we will have a lot of problems to catch her again :)

Some pictures are now available on Facebook, but soon I will upload them here as well.

Just have a look on our Cutie :)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=200306260041838&set=a.200306123375185.50029.194871110585353&type=1&theater

Cunnamulla Race

It has been a stormy day but all people, especially the women bit their theeth together to enjoy the glamourus and exciting feeling of the last race in this year her in Cunnamulla. Have a look at those beautiful well-dressed woman and of course at the racing horses!!!