Margaret River and Balingup

So I left sunny Perth and made my way down to Margaret River which is in the South-West corner of Australia, near the coast. I was lucky enough to get a lift from a friend so I didn't have to sit on a bus for the 4 hour journey. Down in Margaret River they have some gorgeous beaches where a lot of surfing happens. It so happens that my trip coincided with the major surf competition in this region, so there were a lot of surf 'dudes' hanging around!! Also the one and only Kelly Slater was there!!!!!!!! (For those of you who have not heard of him, and I am going to hazard a guess that that would be all of you - he is the number one surfer in the world!!) Don't worry I was not that excited about his appearance either, but the people I got a lift from were well excitied about it as they were surfers and this was a very rare apperance as apparently he has never been down here before - WOW, I hear you all say!! Unfortuntely I didn't see him, although I wouldn't have clue what he looked like, even if he was jumping up and down in front of me shouting 'I'm Kelly Slater'!!

Anyway, moving on from that - I had a lovely couple of days down in Margaret River. I met two German Girls, Judith and Saskia, and we went on this Bushtucker tour which was great. We had to canoe along the Margaret River, and we found out a lot about the area, the aboriginals who onces lived there and the food.... At lunch time, we stopped off in the bush for a spot of local quisine!! We had Kangaroo and Emu which is surprisingly very good. We also tried the berries and fruits that grow in the area and which the aboriginals would have once eaten. Quite a few of this stuff was not that great - some was ok and I would have only eaten if I was desperate. There was also a grub up on offer. I declined, but Judith decided she wanted a bit. Apparently it was quite nice, although the guy who had the head said his was crunchy - nice!!! We also spotted a large family of kangaroos who were just sitting around enjoying the sun (I don't think they were happy about the fact we were eating their cousins!!).

After a few days I made my way to Balingup, which, as it happens is a very small place, in the middle of nowhere, with no phone reception and very limited resources for contacting the outside world!! Here, I was staying with a family, John, Fran and their 5-year-old Isabella (Bella) who owned a farm/vineyard. I had only been there a couple hours before the temperature decided to drop 15 degrees and then it rained - a lot!! As it was feeding time (they have cows, goats and a pony), I helped them get the hay. The cows all got very excited at the sound of the quad bike (I soon discovered that every time they heard it they immediately thought of food and would literally chase after it!!). One of the fields had the 2 male cows in it and the sodding great big bull. As it turned out, he was very hungry and proceded to get very adjitated - I ended up jumping over a fence to get out of his way!!!! Eventually, the animals were fed and I was wet right through - my only jumper was soaking (I had left my jacket on the bus) and I had nothing to keep me warm - I'd appreciate your sympathy here!! I managed to scrounge around and find an old dressing gown, a blanket and an old sleeping bag. Every second I could during the next 3 days I would cover myself with these items just to warm up. Now, I do realise that it was about 17 degrees celcius which by English standards is very warm, but not here (anything below 20 degrees is freezing!!) Plus you also have to remember that the average temperature that I have been living in for the last 16 months has been around 30 degrees. I was sooooooooo cold.

Anyway, life on the farm was good. On my first full day there, one of their cows had their calf but unfortunately it was not alive, so Fran went to the local Dairy farm and picked up a 2 1/2 week old male calf (Dairies don't have much use for male cows!). He was very cute and tame, none of the other calves on the farm would let you near them so Patchy (thats what I named him) became my favourite. Patchy, was to replace the dead calf so that the mother wouldn't morn (apparently they can get quite sick and die after losing a calf and as they only had 20 cows they could not afford to lose one). Over the 11 days I was there we spent quite a bit of time trying to persuade the mother to take this calf as her own. As she had never had a calf before, it proved very difficult!! On my last day there, Fran decided to give up on her as she clearly wasn't having any of it and just wanted to go and join her friends in the field. Luckily, I think because I said they couldn't, they have decided to keep Patchy and feed him off one of the other cows which they milk regularly - yeah :-) I did a lot of other things on the farm - some boring like weeding and collecting rocks in the field, and other a lot more fun. On one of the days they had to pick their Shiraz grapes off the vines. They only have a small vineyard so they sell their grapes to one of the larger vineyards in Margaret River who produces it and sells it on. Anyway, they hired a machine to pick the grapes and I had to help with the Mogging. The grapes get shaken off the trees with the machine and fed into bins on the trailer travelling beside it. Mogging was where you had to be on the trailer and you had to spread the grapes out in the bin and take out anything biggish that wasn't supposed to be there, like stickes and mice (we had two fall in!!). Apparently at night snakes also fall in so I'm glad we did this during the day!! It took us 4 hours to pick about 28 tons worth of grapes during which I got very sticky and grubby with all the grapes and juice. Also at one point, near the end the grape picking machine stopped but the trailer continued moving, I therefore, ended up with the grapes all being poured over my head instead of the bin - apparently I looked a sight!!

There was never a day the same while I was there, and also you never knew what would happen next. One night, 2 days before I left, John found one of his cows in a field (it just happened to be at the furthest point away from the farm that you could possible get!!) who would not get up. So him and Fran checked it out and left it with hay and water over night. Unfortunately the next morning it had managed to roll slightly down the hill and get stuck in the fence. I was up early that morning as I was supposed to be helping with the milking of the cows. We did that quickly and then John, Fran and I raced to the aid of this cow with the tractor and the quad bike. It took us about half an hour to clear the cow from the fence - detangling its feet. We then had the delightful task of flipping the cow over uphill - yes flipping it over uphill!! I have to say that I soon discovered that cows are bloody heavy creatures - she must have weighed about 600kg plus. We ended up having to flip her twice before we got her in the right position so that the tractor could lift her up in the sling. Eventually we managed to put her in the trailer and then very carefully we took her back to the farm and lay her down on some flat land there. So that only took 3 hours!! We then brought her calf to her, hoping that would calm her down. Although over my remaining two days there she still was trying to get up but would then get herself in to awkward positions and we had to flip her a further 2 more times just so she was comfortable. A couple of the neighbouring farms also had cows that had refused to get up. Apparently it's to do with the time of year, because its so hot and there is no grass, the cows are a lot weaker and they are also using a lot of energy feeding their calves :-( Winter is on its way so hopefully that will save them.

I have to say, as someone who never particularly liked cows, I have now grown to appreciate them - some are very adorable (especially Patchy) and they all have different characters and get up to silly things!! As long as you just look at their faces and ignore the back end then they are great!! (While I was there I seemed to keep treading in the cow poo, which earnt me the nickname 'dirty feet'!!)

I hope I haven't bored you all silly with my cow stories - tough if I have!! I am now back in Perth where I am chilling out in luxury (I have clean feet too!!) for the Easter period. I hope you all have a great Easter :-)