Two Swedish boy's on Tour

Sunday morning 8 o’clock in the headquarter office of Out the Back Australia. The two Swedish Backpackers enjoyed a big cooked breakfast with rissoles, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon and toasted bread. After the finished their morning ritual (which took about an hour, we could never imagine that boys need that long in the bathroom). 

When they finally reached the car it was time to head to Rocky station. After an hour drive we arrived at Rocky where Chris and Mike Webster welcomed us on the entrance to the wallaby walk. Leading us through the Walk and telling us all interesting stories about their property and the attractions along the walk. The hollowed tree was one of them. Mike used to play there when he was a kid and amazingly the tree is still alive. Another attraction was an old wool washer. Niklas could not imagine how somebody can build something like that.

After we went back to the start of the walk, Mike showed us how to cross the 70m ling free-swinging footbridge with a motorbike. It was absolutely spectacular. When we crossed the bridge we were even more amazed how he can cross the bridge with his motorbike. Klas said he would never do something like that.

At their nice house we enjoyed a wonderful morning tea in the winter garden. Scones, cake, fruits, sandwiches, tea, coffee and everything else you could imagine. Talking about living on a property like that which can be flooded for 18 month so that you have to go a long way to get your groceries and gear over to your house which is build on the other side of the river, we enjoyed the time at Rocky.

Interested in the second part of the day??? Continue reading tomorrow!!

On Tour again.

On Friday evening we started a Backpacker Tour once again. This time our nice tourists were Niklas and Klaas from Sweden.

After a welcome-dinner, they spend their first night at the Caravan Park in a huge tent. The next morning they started with breakfast before they went kayaking on the Warrego River, which both of them really enjoyed.

It was quite a good workout, paddling for 4 hours and just stopping for lunch on a riverbank and a refreshing swim in the river.

In the afternoon, we headed to Charlotte Plains, which is always a bit of a highlight on such tours. Niklas and Klaas have never been out on such a huge property before and neither out in the bush. So they enjoyed it.

We went to the shearing sheds, were Peieta told us a lot about sheep shearing and the history of the shed. The next sight was Jack's Hut and the camel waggons.

Then we finally went to the artesian bores. On our way we've seen a lot of wildlife - kangaroos, emus and even camels. That was great for our two german interns as well. They had been to Charlotte Plains the third time now, but never seen one of the camels before, so Saturday was their lucky day :)

Eating cheese, chips and biscuits with dips, everybody enjoyed the landscape. A swim in the bore made the evening even better. We enjoyed the sunset and a wonderful dinner cooked by Larissa which were veggies and a potato bake and nobody missed the meat, because it tasted delicious and nothing could make it better.

It was afunny day with a lot of things to see and do and in the evening everybody was tired, but Niklas and Klaas decided to go out anyways. So they went to the Billabong Pub where they had more than a few nice chats with the locals.

If you want to know what happens on Sunday - then you have to read our blog tomorrow!

Bus Trip

Today is another exciting day again.

This night there will be two backpackers from Sweden, arriving on the bus from Toowoomba. Their journey started already at 6:30am this morning, when they had to leave Brisbane via Greyhound. The earliest bird catches the worm. That’s it! They are catching a fabulous adventure here in Cunnamulla. At Toowoomba they have to change the bus and hop on Coach Queensland. They should be enjoying their bus trip to Cunnamulla right now. Lunch break will be in about two hours. Magnificent wildlife and heaps of Outback landscape  can be spotted during the bus trip. With the biggest population of kangaroos this area is really famous here in Queensland. If you get bored during the bus trip there will be some entertainment on the two screens in the bus. Various movies from comedy, to horror, fantasy and more will be shown.

Relax and sit back and enjoy this long bus trip. We are looking forward to see the two Fellas arriving today at 7:45pm here in Cunnamulla.

Do you remember your last bus trip? Where have you been traveling to?

Exercise in Cunnamulla

Another Yoga lesson passed yesterday evening at 7pm at the youth club of Cunnamulla.

It was a really rainy and awful day with thunderstorm and lightning but in the end it cleared up in the evening and the sun finally showed up again.

So at 6:50pm the door of the gym, the old shed was opened by Maryanne Johnstone and the small group waiting outside went in. When everybody had settled down with his mat in a circle and Yvonne finally arrived the yoga lesson started.

This evening even a male attended had found his way to the yoga class. Everybody tried his best and did all the exercises in his or her own rhythm. 72 years old was the oldest attendant and she did really well. So hopefully they are continuing their yoga classes every several month, when they can get a yoga instructor. Otherwise Maryanne is doing a great job including different types of exercises in her aerobic classes.

Join the classes on Monday and Wednesday at 7 pm at the youth club. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet people and to have some physical exercise together in a group. FUN, SPORT and SOCIAL CONTACT.

So when was you last visit of an exercising group???

Sue's Christmas Dinner (last part)

Today it's a little bit later than usually, but better late than never :)

We wanted to tell you about the main course and the dessert of our lovely dinner. And it really was lovely, the main course was Crispy Stuffed Pork with Roasted Vegetable Salad and Hassel Backed Potatoe with Jus.

Everybody was happy and it was delicious. It even got quiet for a few minutes while the ladies enjoyed their main course. This silence equals a big praise, because it wasn't quiet all evening. There was talking, laughing and joking all evening long. The ladies had a wonderful time.

The last course was the dessert and it was, once again, amazing what Larissa has created. Five little treats, sweet and tasty. On the manu they were called "Festive Five Candies" and they really were festive: Passionfruit Icecream, Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies, Lemon Slice, White Chocolate Cups with Strawberry Fruche and a icecream tarte. Nobody expected so many delicious little sweets.

A lot of "thank you's" were spoken after all the food and the ladies enjoyed another glass of wine and a chat. They didn't want to go home to early and the party went on for a little longer.

The evening was a success and fun for all of us and we're already looking forward to Sue's next dinner.

Sue's Christmas Dinner Part2

Today we are going to tell you about the second part of our fabulous dinner on Saturday the 26^thNovember.

After getting their aperitifs the ladies were in a really good mood and started unpacking their Christmas presents which was part of the decoration. Big bangs everywhere and laughter about the inside of the presents.

“Ho, Ho, ho”, you could hear then. A real Santa stepped in. Completely dressed up, in red and white, with a long, long beard. It was time for the seventeen ladies to get their Christmas presents. With a lot of laughter and some interesting face expressions they unpacked their presents. If they are going to use them that’s a question which we will never be able to answer. After this exciting visit from Santa the Starters were served.

Five tasty things on every plate. In the menu it was called “Glorious Five Canapés”. There was char grilled zucchini with cream cheese filling. A rice cup with a mango and prawn salsa filling, a herb cheese fritter with baby rocket, a Thai meatball with sweet chili sauce and at least chunky pesto bite.

Overwhelmed but happy with so many choices the real dinner started and it went silent for a few seconds when everybody tasted the first bit.

Main course and dessert interest you as well. No worries we are going to write about the last parts tomorrow!!

Sue's Christmas Dinner

Like we told you on Friday we had a really busy weekend. Preparing the whole week long for the big event on Saturday night.

Sue's Christmas Dinner.

So finally it was Saturday Peieta, Tanja and Larissa were cooking and decorating the whole day long. At six o’clock the whole event should start. So Peieta got on the bus and left to pick up most of the ladies here in Cunnamulla. Chris Webster , Sally Moody, Chris Mills and Maureen got their personal chauffeurs or have been driving themselves to town. All in all at around 7pm the party started. The ice boxes weren’t big enough to chill all the wine and champagne bottles the ladies brought with them. After every lady found here place around the fantastically decorated table, which has been the fabulous work of Tanja, the evening started with an aperitif. Strawberry and orange ice cubes with chilled champagne.

This was the first time you could hear a lot of “Ahhhhh” and “Ohhhs”. Do you want to know what we were serving as Starters?

Then you have to read our Blog tomorrow.

Christmas Dinner

Today, just a short update about our day and our work.

We're pretty busy at the moment, because tomorrow night a big event takes places in our Out The Back Australia Gallery and Cafe.

Last time, it was in September, we had "Sue's Fancy Dinner", this time we're looking forward to "Sue's Christmas Dinner". 17 ladies will enjoy this event tomorrow evening.

And believe me, it will be an event. That's all I can tell you by now, but I promise, on Monday we'll tell you all about it including menu and pictures.

And maybe - Santa is coming to share some presents - who knows?!

Let's be surprised and excited, ......and I, yes, I should go back to work and help preparing.

See you tomorrow evening! :)

Viviane on Tour last part

On Sunday Viviane and the Outback team started early. At 9 o’clock it was time to get in the car and head for Eulo. Before, Viviane enjoyed a wonderful local breakfast with the Mills family. It was a drive with a lot of information about the surrounding area of Cunnamulla and the businesses and industries here. At Eulo there was time to take some pictures during a quick stop. Afterwards the mud springs were the next destination. Unfortunately they are dried out but the landscape was enough to get amazing pictures. Viviane was very pleased and had even to delete pictures from another trip so she could get more and more of the beauties of Australia. After a long long drive the final arrive was in Hungerford. Amazing, to step trough the border of New South Wales and Queensland. For lunch the old pub was the best opportunity, we even found Swiss money on the ceiling of the pub. The cellar was really scary but Viviane was brave enough to climb down and to explore the cellar. On the way back our trip took us to three amazing lakes. The saltwater lake had even the color of an ocean and with the sandy bank it was like at the beach!! Finally back in Cunnamulla the day was nearly over. And Viviane got ready to leave the next morning.

 

Viviane on Tour

Sooo this is our next report from our grandios Tour with Viviane.  When we came back from the magnificent kayaking trip we headed off to Rocky Station.  After about an hour drive we arrived at Rocky. During the drive we were entertained by Les Capewell the local drover and whip cracker of Cunnamulla.  He was talking about all the kind of different trees, grasses and animals we saw on our way.

At Rocky’s we went for the Wallaby walk which guides you along the river and let you have an amazing experience spotting Wallabies and kangaroos. Luckily we were able to spot several and one was really close and had a Joey in his pouch. It was a nice walk in the shade of the trees. Afterwards we went over the 70 m long free-swinging Indiana Jones styled footbridge. Les scared the death out of us when he started jumping on the bridge.

Safely we went back to the car and started to head for Charlotte Plains. Kangaroos and more kangaroos all kind of sizes and sorts passed our way and the sunset was absolutely amazing.

When we arrived at the hot artesian bores we were nearly starving thank goodness an amazing cheese platter saved our life’s. Enjoying cold drinks and nice crackers, olives and cheese we watched Viviane trying to crack the whip. She did a really great job and was very pleased with herself.

After a long drive back the evening ended with fish and salad as dinner in the restaurant of Out the Back Australia.

 

On Tour with Vivian

Amazing days with Viviane!!! On our 4-Day Backpacker Tour!!!

The Tour started on Friday when Vivian arrived at 19:45 at the head office here at Out the Back Australia. After a nice dinner in our restaurant Vivian enjoyed a quiet and peaceful night at the Cunnamulla Hotel.

The next morning started at 9 o’clock with a cooked breakfast in the café. Scrum pled eggs, cooked tomatoes and toast as well as fruits… yummy!!

Afterwards action!!! It was time for kayaking along the Warrego River. Start was at the Weir which is 5 km away from Cunnamulla. John Mills dropped Peieta, Vivian and Larissa there to start the kayak adventure. After paddling against the wind everybody was really hot and needed a break. So lunch break at the river bank where they went for a nice swim in the river and enjoyed a steak sandwich. Which was cooked on a spat over the fire. Unfortunately we had no knife so it was a bit difficult to part the steak. After a short paddle to the other side they have been picked up by Eddie Mills, Peieta’s Dad.

Then it was time to head for the next part of the Tour.

Interested what we have done else?? Read our Blog tomorrow!!!

 

Graduation Day

Today is a big day for the highest class of Cunnamulla’s state school.

It is GRADUATION DAY!!

Thank goodness most of the pupils think. Oh know some might recognize because they have to do something else. Job? Relaxing? First there are the holidays so you do not have to worry about that but you have to get organized.

Anyways it is a big day in life a big change you are released in the real world of the adults. On the one hand side that’s wonderful on the other you might be afraid. That’s okay even here in an Outback town like Cunnamulla pupils are pupils. Everyone should enjoy the last day in school because the things which are following are not like anything you have experienced before. In fact it is really nice to know you never have to go back but there will be one day you are really missing school or the regularity of a school day. If not that’s even better. We all should enjoy ourselves but do not forget about getting a job and earning your first money. That feeling is a great feeling, I can tell you….!!!

But anyways, celebrate this big day!!

Congratulation to everybody who is graduating today, we hope you are all having a wonderful day, enjoying the sun, celebrating and having fun!!!

What have you been doing on your graduation day?? Do you remember how you felt?

Sporty activities in the heat of Cunnamulla

Yesterday (Wednesday) has been a big day for the aerobic class which is normally hold by Maryanne who also runs the pool in town.

It was a big surprise when she told the woman who were waiting for the course to start that there would be no aerobics tonight. It was switched to yoga. Some of the woman were really suspicious about that and could not decide if they really want to stay. When the class finally started everybody was trying really hard. Even with some complaining words most of the woman enjoyed the new movements and experiences.  In fact they did not just do relaxing and meditation, the worked on their tummies and tried to strange their arms. Mussels were working all the time. In the shed it was not as hot as always so you could really see a progress when the group started to sweat after a few practices.  The nice breeze coming in through the open door and windows made the sweating tolerable.

In the end of the lesson everybody was happy going home and enjoying a nice dinner after doing such hard body work! We will see how much mussel ache we get now…

Have you ever done Yoga in Australia or even here in Cunnamulla?

Did you like the yoga lesson?

 

Fascinating Sky

Did you see all the lightnings yesterday evening? I was totally fascinated. It just looked amazing. Of course, hopefully there was no dangerous lightning strike somewhere around, but watching it was really exciting.

I even tried to take pictures, but it wasn't possible for me and my camera. I just made a short movie, which was easier. And as well at the Cunnamulla Fella Festival you could think the sky was as black as possible, but luckily it didn't rain.

In general the sky shows a lot of amazing sides out here. It changes the colour all the time, it can be dark blue, light blue or pale blue,but as well grey or even black. Sometimes there are many many clouds - black clouds, white clouds, small or big.

Out here in the outback the sky seems to be way bigger than anywhere else and the horizon seems to be closer and farer away at the same time. If you haven't seen that on your own it's difficult to imagine.

Here are some impressions, how beautiful and sometimes scary the sky can look :)

Busy Day, but almost Weekend :)

Today, we're really having a busy day. Everywhere in town there are many people, because of the Cunnamulla Fella Festival. There is Smoko in Bob Poncho Park and we are always on the run for video footage. That means, we're there to take photos and videos and maybe interviews.

Of course, one of us always has to be in the shop to serve customers, answer the phone and doing the normal daily jobs. So we're switching, that everyone of us get the chance to have a little bit of festival atmosphere during the day.

One interview we're absolutely looking forward to, is the interview with "The Crackup Sisters". They are one of the live bands for the festival. You can hear them tonight at the rodeo and tomorrow morning at the Ergon Energy "Breakfast in the Park". They are really nice and funny and we will post our interview and the videos next week, that you can get an impression of the festival 2011.

If you want to have a look right now, just watch our current youtube video http://www.youtube.com/user/outthebackau?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/ARONuybu6w8

Hopefully you all can enjoy a relaxed friday and a great weekend. Soon the weekend starts, I'll promise :)

See you next week or maybe here in Cunnamulla at the Cunnamulla Fella Festival!

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!

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!

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.

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?