Man From Snowy River Day 2

Today is Sunday April 5th. Last night we actually went through daylight savings again! This time we fell back as it is the australian fall. So that just messed us up for the rest of the day. We got down to the festival about 10 just in time for the team penning. This was flat out the coolest thing we had seen yet. 3 riders had 2mins to pen 3 steers. It was fantastic with all the sorting and nice horses dad was in heaven. Then after that we waited around for awhile and then the brumbie catch started. The riders had to put a halter on a brumbie and break it to lead from horseback in 4 minutes. Needless to say only a couple of all the contestants actually managed to get a halter on the brumbies. Then we hung around and watched some of the other acts and then it was time for the closing ceremony. We headed out before that so as not to get caught in "traffic" as dad put it. We ate at a local Pub and shot about 6 games of pool/snooker. It was a snooker table but we still played 8ball on it and blasted the jukebox all in all it was a great day. Tomorrow we are headed to sydney.

The Man From Snowy River

So we actually made it to the Festival the anchor of our whole trip. It was very exciting even though we werent sure what we were going to find. When we got down to Corryong the first thing we saw was the dog jump which was cool but not what we were expecting finally we went into the festival office and got the information that we needed. Also I talked pops into getting a nice shirt and hat that have the official logo on them. Then we headed down to the reserve which is basically just the fairgrounds. When we first got there we walked over and checked out the whipcrack contest. They had to crack the whip on specific paper targets and cut them clean through. There were some on the ground and some on poles about head height from horseback. It was pretty cool to watch dad was enjoying the horseflesh. Then we wandered over to the bareback obstacle course this was another part of the whole man from snowy river challenge. The contestants had to complete a series of tasks on their horses bareback.They had to open a wooden gate drag some brush and do some pretty fancy maneuvers. They did a backwards slolem and backed up a hill as well as a jump. This impressed dad let me tell you. It was an excellent display of horsemenship. We walked around the booths for a bit in between the different things they had going. Since it was my birthday dad bought me a stockwhip which is really cool. They had a school down there so one of the guys showed me a thing or two about it. It is 4 feet 6 inches long and it can break the sound barrier, very fun to play with. Anyway we went to the rodeo that night but were disapointed as it took a long time to get going and wasnt very impressive compared to the Ellensburg Rodeo. After that we headed back to the cottage for the night. It was a great day. Ill cover sunday in the next post as it is a whole new set of things to talk about.

The Queens Cottage

Thanks for being patient everyone. We made it to Sydney and now we have internet so now we can let you guys know all about it. First of all it was awesome! It was one of the coolest things we have every seen. We stayed at this little place called the Queens Cottage in a town about 15 mins away from Corryong. It was such a gorgeous place. This picture is on the way up to Khancoban which is pronounced(Can-co-bin) we drove through a huge thunderstorm 3 times on the way up to Corryong. This was our view from the back deck of our room. This place was so awesome the couple who owned it were so nice and welcoming they really set us up nicely. Andrew and Annie were the best tehy were so good that we had to get a picture with them. Our time staying at the cottage was truly a memorable one and it was definately the best place we have stayed yet.

Coffee and Internet FTW!

Today we woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go. That was until we couldnt find any coffee and the Internet at the place couldn't be used for our needs. So we set off into ballarat searching for both but mainly for coffee as poor dad was having some withdrawls. Our trusty GPS led us through many roundabouts and left turns until we came to downtown Ballarat. We parked and went insearch of the coffee house we had found. The coffee in question turned out to be watered down instant which as you can imagine did not sit well with pops. Naturally I resumed our quest with much spirt and vinegar. Along the way we stopped to exchange some money and buy dad some new shoes and a new shirt as well. He picked them both out himself you will be happy to know even though I had to prod a little on the shoes. Then we headed towards the only place left that had coffee we could trust...McDonald's as it so happened this was a Mcafe complete with WiFi so we headed on inside. The coffee was great as far as dad was concerned and fulfilled a much built up caffeine craving, meanwhile i was trying to connect a hotspot that barely existed and would connect and then disconnect after a few moments. Finally I was on the verge of giving up when a lady from the red cross who was sitting near us suggested that we go to the library. This turned out to be the best suggestion of the trip so far from any aussie we have talked to. We walked right in and got connected for free at quite nice speeds. So hear we are typing away in the Ballarat Public Library. Tommorow we will begin heading up towards Coryong and hopefully we will find a place that had internet up there but I doubt it. So until next time see you later or G'day!!!!

Wyndam Resorts, Ballarat

The place we are staying in ballarat is very nice. Some friends from the church were kind enough to let us use their timeshare and for that we are very grateful. This place is huge they have about 15 acres of land behind the housing part that has a lake and lots of trees that are just starting to change colors. We were still tired from the previous days travel on top of just general jetlag so we hung around the resort for the day. I swam in the pool for a while while dad laid on the lounge chair and directed thoughts my way as well as taking pictures. We walked down to the lake and I enticed about 20 ducks and 3 black geese over to shore by pretending to throw bread crumbs in the water. We went to a local store to get some food and bought Australia the movie which we were quite content to watch in our room after another exciting day in Aussie Land.

Driving through the countryside

Yesterday we made the journey from Port Campbell to Ballarat. The way we took was very backcountry with a good portion of the trip on a single road with gravel shoulders. This proved nothing of a task for our fancy four wheeled drive susuki. We motored right along even when we had one tire off the road as was the case when other cars occupied the road with us. We drove through beautiful rural country with rolling hills and dairy farms everywhere. This reminded us a little of the East coast in the states. There were also many fields of sheep and beef cattle just not as many as the dairy. Dad has become convinced that there are no kangaroos in australia and they are made up. That was until we passed a dead one on the side of the road, we went back to inspect it and it was a dead kangaroo just as we had thought. Dad was mollified for the moment but soon came back with the idea that it was planted there just to keep tourist's hopes alive. So we moved on and found a quaint little town called Cobden there we stopped at a local bakery and got some cinnamon rolls which had some weird fruit in them. Nevertheless we scarfed them down and got back on the road bound for Ballarat. we stopped a couple of times to admire the great openness of the land once we got away from the rolling hills. It really just flattened out and you could see for miles...err...kilometers
at one point we came to a narrow strip of land in between two huge lakes. Atleast that was how it looked on the map. If you google foxhow, vic on the google maps you will see a road that just barely squeezes between the two lakes. It is all dried up and for kilometers there is nothing but dry lakebed. Soon after that we reach our destination of Ballarat.(Trip Time Aprox 4 hours)

Ballarat

Hello again I must apologize in advance because this will be a very short post. Apparently there is very little internet in the resort we are staying at. however on the other side of that this resort is amazing. I will take lots of pictures and post them sometime when I have a nice connection. Maybe we will mosey into town and find a place there anyway I just wanted to let you guys know in case I dont get anything posted tonight. I promise I will post stuff asap...