1170 (yes that's the name of the 'town') was a compulsory stop on the East Coast road trip so off we were on the road again. I'm glad I only booked the one night there as it was yet another nothing town really, yes the hostel and beach were nice but after Brisbane, Noosa and Rainbow I was really craving a more lively spot. As you do. I checked in and then raced off to the beach, once there I went to do the usual thing of getting a few photos, so I reached into my bag to find an empty camera case and had instant flashbacks too showing Natalia a few photo's then dropping my camera on my bag.....but not in it. Fuck. I quickly ran back to the hostel in mild panic, emailed Fraser's, rang them about five times to no avail before finally finding a working pay phone and getting through. Thankfully i knew exactly where it would be so they quickly found it and couldn't have been more helpful in arranging for it to be sent on to Airlie Beach for me to grab there; apparently the bus drivers didn't want anything to do with it due to the "responsibility".
I only had a few hours in 1770 so just hung out in the hostel with a couple of people from Norwich and then met some stereotypical North Londoners who came in full of the big lad, I found out soon enough they were all alrigh individually but together it was all "girls, girls, girls, football, booze, booze", it's worth mentioning they were all in bed for 10:30. Hardcore.
11. Krombit Cattle Station
The next drive was onto a cattle ranch and 13 hours was a bit of a killer, but all the girls from Fraser were on board, Tom joined again and a few other familiar faces were about so it was cool to have the group atmosphere going again. Krombit itself is basically a ranch set up for tourists here, it's all a bit Hicksville USA, horse riding, fake cowboys and quite a bit of dust. Unfortunately all the interesting activities cost more dollar and we didn't fancy paying on top of what we already had so the horse riding and quad biking were given a miss, so we just went off on a bit of a trek in the meantime. Unfortunately we had the displeasure of Stacy from Leicester's company, a rival to "the bitch" from Thailand if there ever was one. I'd heard her before i saw her as on the bus she spent most of the time being load, overbearing and constantly complaining about every single mortal thing. Total vibe killer. She spent the walk going on about how she wanted to go back to England as her idea of a holiday is "five star hotels and luxury". What the fuck you doing here backpacking then? Fuck off and let other's enjoy the experience; she was clearly a very open minded girl too with her tramp stamp tattoos and her feelings that all "Japs, Thais, Malaysians and the rest are all the same". Apparently Asia was too scary for her and brought up her friends experiences in Malaysia, I merely commented that "It's a bit different over there compared to the rest of south east Asia so I wouldn't judge the rest by that". A scowl and "erm, yeah1 I hadn't finished yet thanks" was her response. Nice girl. Tom got the verbal treatment too in being branded a "sicko for making a joke, what a hard faced cow she was. It baffles me how people like that make it here or even have any friends at all. As Georgie Boy would say in Burn After Reading "You are an incredibly negative person". Thankfully everyone else was up for a good time.
All the activities had something vaguely to do with ranching, we learned how to use a rope for lassoing cattle by throwing it over a stick in the ground with a skull on it, true story (Charlotte being a complete natural at it) and I surprisingly picked it up quite well once i figured out how to hold it right. I didn't fancy the clay shooting as it was a bit expensive per round but it didn't look like i missed out, the clay dissipated so much in the machine that the person was left shooting at particles until one of the workers decided to just chuck it.
The whole purpose of learning to lasso was so we could all take part in the "Rodeo" and try to catch a goat in teams of three with two using the rope and then once caught the third grabbed it, flipped it over, placed a knee on it's neck and then used a fake iron to "brand" it. It was all a bit wrong really with the goats clearly being in distress (especially a heavily pregnant one) and heavily crowded too, I really didn't fancy it so sat it out. The "hillbilly goats" won or something stupid and then we all got put in a circle for what initially looked like a game of spin the bottle. As soon as the tazer came out though i knew what was going on, it was just like when you get a cooker part as a kid, stand in a circle and you all get a bit of a shock. All pretty tame really but some were really shitting it in anticipation, Tom's face was especially classic. "I'd rather be kicked in the shin then that but i had to man up in front of the girls".
It was a pleasure to actually get some proper food on the evening with lamb soup and a classic roast being on the menu. With traveling you just find yourself eating crap all the time so it was a nice chance to get some "proper" food and some rare vegetables. On arrival at the camp we were told if we rented a hat and bandana for eight bucks then we'd get money off drink on the evening, this seemed a good idea as you got five bucks back but this soon changed once we found out the reductions. 20 cents off a can? Thanks for the generosity. Next up we learned how to crack a whip properly, the noise it makes actually comes from breaking the sound barrier not the ground so there's a very specific way to do it. I managed to do it pretty much every time and better than the guy showing me too (I have been cracking metaphorically for years though Harr Harr), he was from dirty the old rival school of Whickham though and i'm sure they still call people gay for wearing a bag on two shoulders there, that's there mentality.
After that one we all just had a few drinks and the group really came together to have a laugh on the mechanical bull. I gave it a miss due to my dodgy back and unnatural fear i'll snap on them but it was good to see everyones techniques, Katie's ballerina refinement compared to the girl whose tits kept falling out was a great comparison. We had an early night with the bar closing early and the early morning drive but not before i managed to get terribly vexed as usual. A random girl temping there popped up as i was talking to Youssef and his girlfriend asking them to just "smile" so she can say she was there to see it. Fucking idiot. We were in the middle of a conversation, people like that really need to be shot, there always the one's who have breakdowns too. Same goes for anyone who likes that "Don't worry be happy" song, they're all like the Maharashi after Brian Epstein died and the Beatles asked for his thoughts: "Ah smile, be happy". Moron.
The 6 am start wasn't the worst with a nice breakfast and on leaving we managed to see the awful sight of the massive splattered snake in the road too. After that it was a mere 13 hour drive to Airlie Beach and three days sailing on the Whitsundays!
Song of The Day.
Classic!
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