So here we are again, on the eve of embarking on our next adventure, looking back onto our experiences over the last 2 months. Last time you heard from us we had just arrived with the Humble family on Salisbury Plains, 30km outside of the beautiful town of Bowen, North Queensland and we were optimistic our time here would be good. We were certainly not disappointed! Staying with the family of 6 has opened our eyes to what a big family is like and all the joys of the Australian farm life. Kellie and Glen Humble are a young couple who welcomed us into their family with open arms, gave us each a room with a double bed and we immediately felt right at home. Their 4 girls: Ainslie 10, Yasmin 7, Krystal 4 and Jenna 2 are lovely and like any other children, can be extremely sweet but also incredibly noisy and quite messy! During our time here we have cleaned the majority of foods, sweets, drinks, nappies, toys and insects up off the floor - you name it, we've had to detach it from the floor boards. A job we would normally walk away from, but have surprised ourselves and woken up every morning happy to see the girls. Despite the occasional mayhem, neither of us has been put off having children (just not for a loooooooong time yet).

While we were here Yasmin celebrated her 7th Birthday and we got to take part in her Birthday party on the beach which was good fun. The fun lasted until the next day when we had a blast unsticking all the remaining lollies and sherbert off the floor.

Most days we would get up around 7am to make the girls' lunch for school (veggiemite sandwich and yoghurt) and put the first load of washing on. Once Kellie had left for work with the girls, we would have breakfast and tidy the house. This would not take us too long and the rest of the day would be ours. As we are far from town, there is not a lot to do here so we have spent many a day lazing around by the pool, reading in the sun, bouncing on the big trampoline or going for a jog around the paddock with Doc (watching out for any loose cattle of course). It has been extremely relaxing!

As promised, Kellie and Glen were able to get us some paid work from Susan (the owner of the farm and just accross the field) so we did a few days for her cleaning, washing, mowing, gardening and washing various cars and cattle transport vehicles. This was hard work, but brilliant as it wasn't strawberry picking and all the cash we made went straight into our pockets!

Kellie works in Bowen at the surf club and Glen gets very up early every day to work on the farm. Sophie has been able to go mustering with him (and the other cowboys) which has been a real experience. To make the most of the last few days here, mustering two days in a row, involving many hours on horseback, has lead to a rather sore bottom or indeed 'Raw Hide', but never the less has been worth it. It is a real thrill riding through the paddocks in the outback seeing Roos and Wallabies jumping past and galloping after the cattle if they try to run off. Maybe we should just give up on a business or law career and settle down on a farm here.

Marie has become something of a pigging expert during the last few week (I am sure an explanation is necessary here). To sum it up, pigging involves driving out through the paddocks with dogs on the back of the ute. When the dogs smell a pig, they will jump off at which point you stop driving and wait. When you hear the dogs and the squeals from the pig you run in and kill it. Unfortuantely we have not been lucky enough to witness an actual pig execution, but have been on quite a few expeditions between us now. One of Glen's old friends Scotty is working on the farm as a contractor and spends almost every afternoon pigging and has all kinds of tracing equipment to aid the pig catching. We are not entirely sure we see the attraction. Pigging is encouraged here as they are a pest due to them spreading the native prickle weed that is very costly to remove. In the past Glen and Scotty have caught wild piglets and have kept them in captivity. Two of the most recent ones were killed last weekend and we ate some for dinner last night. Very tasty! Another of the pigs had piglets while we were here and we have taken about a million pictures of the little beasts, who have already grown to be very fat.

Piglets aren't the only baby animal we have had the joy of looking after. Little chicks started hatching a few weeks ago and the babies have had quite an adventure already in their short life going to work with Kellie when the pest control man came round and coming to Townsville for the weekend.

We have spent two weekends here totally alone and were left in charge of feeding all the animals, which was good fun. Each morning we would have to feed the dogs, cats, turkeys, ducks, pigs and piglets and chicks. Other animals we have encountered here are kangaroos, various birds of prey and the not so welcome cane toads and snakes!

Some days we went into Bowen town with Kellie and spent the day walking along the stunning beaches, exploring the Great Barrier Reef or driving around town in the Prado 4W (Sophie had great fun with this). Other adventures include fishing with Glen (we had great success with Sophie catching a Magrove Jack, dinner, and Marie showing us all up by catching a shark!) a night filled with goon drinking, card playing, midnight swimming and a two day hangover to boot and tonight we will be going on a Cane Toad hunt after a lesson in shooting.

The weekend just gone we spent in Townsville with Kellie and the 4 girls as Ainslie and Yasmin had a Netball tournament. Unfortunately the two little girls caught a stomach bug Friday night so Marie and I didnt get much sleep, as we woke every time one of them gagged and vomitted in their bed. Nasty! Luckily we managed not to contract the bug.
The weekend in Townsville was an experience and not all together a pleasant one, but we did get to go to Billabong Sanctuary for a few hours where we got to meet kangaroos, turtles, various birds and koalas. We also saw lots of saltwater crocodiles being fed and a very interesting talk by a young guy standing in a sandpit full of snakes!! Sophie's idea of hell really, but he seemed to really enjoy swinging them about and scaring us all by telling us how deadly they are. We are quite glad we are heading out of snake country soon. At the end of the day we paid to have a photo taken holding a koala and to save money we had just one taken with both of us in it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but standing there posing for the photo we realised it was actually very gay and immediately regretted our choice. But anyway, we now have a picture of us looking like a very happy couple with our newly adopted child Tammy. Gay! Anyway.....

Our time here has been such a brilliant experience and although we are excited about our next destination, we are sad to be leaving. We have both learned a lot, patience especially, and Marie has almost got rid of her fear of buzzing flies and Sophie.... is still terrified of snakes and hair. But anyway.

So now it's off to Brisbane for a couple of days before our epic South East Asia adventure begins, watch this space.......