Today is another travelling day. We got up to have breakfast which was hard this morning. Having been out late the night before and drinking lots of wine, a 5am start was the last thing I needed, especially when I still had to pack my bag up. Why do I do that?! I had planned to do it the night before but getting pissed and having fun was clearly higher on my agenda. I still managed to shower, pack and get down for breakfast with plenty of time to spare. Getting good at this now. We had to catch the ferry back out to the mainland, which was kinda sad. It's so pretty round there, I didn't wanna leave. The fresh air on the ferry sorted my woolly head out quite nicely and we were soon back on the coach and on our way. We stopped at Mackay for our mid morning stop and managed to catch the breakfasts at McDonalds. Winner. We stopped again at lunch time at a BP garage thing - barely anywhere was open as it was good Friday so we couldn't do the usual stop. After lunch John put on Forgetting Sarah Marshall but I opted for the nodding dog option. You know the one where you keep falling asleep sitting up and your head rolls around? I also made myself jump, much to the amusement of those around me.
We arrived at the cattle station at about 4.30pm and were allocated our rooms. We managed to get a 6 berth room with our friends which was cool. The place was really cool - essentially a tin barn converted with wooden tables, a bar and cooking area. The whole station is 26,000 acres but we were only on a small part of it. There were small shower and toilet blocks in another barn out on the field. We really were in the middle of nowhere. Which would have been bliss if it weren't for some of the company.
They cooked us up a home made roast dinner with fresh beef from the cows in the ranch. We were so excited for home cooked food and fresh veg etc. And it was good good food too. Which reminds me, mum if you're reading this, can you sort one out for the weekend I'm back?! Please. In fact, if you could have a weeks worth of home made meals ready for me when I'm back that would be sweet?! Only joking, but I am missing home cooked food. That's all I miss though, just to clear that up :-)
So we had dinner (two servings of roast dinner and apple crumble with custard) and the ranch guy got the whips out so we could try cracking the whips. Jade was in her element being from a farm herself and put everyone to shame. Was very funny, especially watching those who'd been drinking. That then turned into dancing, drinking and karaoke. It had to happen at some point I guess. But why when I'm stuck in the middle of a massive field with nowhere else to go?!! And the American and Canadians volume was getting louder and louder as the night progressed, not helped by the corrugated iron roof and walls on the barn. I know travelling is meant to open your mind yadda yadda, but I'm sorry, it's not happening. I don't really have time for girls who won't give you the time of day as they think they're better than you, or the guys that go round shouting yeah and whoo really bloody loud, no matter where in the world I am. Being stuck in a barn in the middle of nowhere with them, filled with alcohol and cheesy wedding reception music soon became a living hell. With all the PDAs on the dance floor etc I felt a bit like I was back home and out in Woking. I was tired from the night before which didn't help but we started taking loads of pictures of the original group which turned into a laugh. It was also my first night in a bottom bunk of the bunk beds which was quite exciting. As the night went on, more and more of the loud lot had coupled up and pissed off somewhere to have some 'quality time' which suited us fine. We chatted for a while before heading to bed. I'd had a good night really, I'll just put it down to character building.....