Day 1 Barmah Wednesday 26/04/06
We got all packed up and ready to leave for Barmah in the morning, me and Wayne filled up the station wagon, the Ute and the van up down in Murch, also filled up on gas and 2 20 litre jerry cans for the generator. We headed off for Barmah and before we’d been on the road 30 mins we lost Kath and Brody in the station wagon so Wayne and me pulled over and I cracked a VB open
before heading off to see if I could see them somewhere en route but no luck, I headed back to where Wayne had pulled off the road and we headed to Barmah in the hope Kath was on her way. When we arrived at the Barmah local shops sure enough Kath and Brody popped out had been there for quite awhile, we got some munchies from the shops and drove into the Barmah Forest. We set up camp at the same spot they camped in last year, firstly we set up and electric fence perimeter to keep the horses in, we made it around ½ an acre big as there would be more horses arriving in the coming days, for now though it was just for Harley and Attitude, Harley is a Appaloosa Gelding and Attitude is an Arab Mare, once they were in the paddock we continued to set up camp, I parked my van close to the float so that one of the roller tarps on the side of the float could be attached to the van so that I had cover in case it rained. We got the tent set up for Wayne, Kath and Brody, then we set about collecting wood to get a fire going, all the wood was dry as a bone, so the fire started really easily, Wayne set up the hot water service he’d mad next to the fire (this is a beer keg with a brass spout added to the top side of the barrel, then as your pour cold water into the top it pushes hot water out of the spout, and with it being in the fire all day everyday, hot water is constantly on tap) just as we were finishing setting up camp, a lady called from the stock yards for some help, so me, Wayne and another guy from a nearby camp ran over to see what was the problem, there was a Clydesdale mare that couldn’t get up, she had strained some muscles in her back walking through the swamps (as the horse had shoes on they kind of acted like suction caps on the horses feet and she had pulled something trying to pull her feet out of the swampy land) the lady wanted our help to pull the horse away from the fence so we tied some ropes around its feet and dragged it away from the edge of the yard, the 4 of us really struggled to move this huge horse, it was ridiculously heavy, but we shifted it and Wayne checked the horses back. We headed back to camp for dinner and beers, by about 8:30 we decided to ride the horses down to the river for a drink, so we saddled up and headed off, Harley was well behaved, I think any problems I thought I had with him were more my own, through lack of riding experience, I walked him into the water, whilst Wayne struggled to get Attitude anywhere near the water, rode the horses back and put them away, and sat around the fire and got stuck into a few more beers!!!!
Day 2 Barmah Thursday 27/04/06I got woken up to the sound of Brody bashing on my windows telling me that he was going to play over near the stockyards, this was at about 6am, then again at 7am he told me he was going to play somewhere else, I went back to sleep and got up around 830am’ish, had some weet-bix and toast for breaky, and just chilled around the fire for an hour or so before Me and Wayne
decided to go for a ride, We saddled up, the sun was blazing and we set off into the scrub, through swamps, water logged plains, through bushes, over fallen trees, cutting around and through dense trees ducking for low hanging branches. We didn’t see any wild brumbies but on the way back we saw a huge black snake, that didn’t seem to bother Harley but the Arab shit herself and so we came another way back to camp, Wayne kept a good hold of her, he doesn’t let them get away with anything. We got back and I was soaked half way up both legs because the swamps and water we had been through, it was ace. We’d been out for around 4/5 hours, we covered around 10 to 15k that days, I was a bit sore but ok, water the horses and got stuck into more beer and food J
A bit later that evening about 830pm’ish I said lets go for a night ride, both of us being abit pissed were well up for it, so off we went down the main track into the forest, but keeping to the edges, well I saw Wayne up into just duck for a branch, now I couldn’t quite see it as there was no moon a\out and it was pitch black, I mean, cant see your hand in front of your face black, and before I knew it I clonked me noggin on this branch, it let out and awful cracking noise and fell between me and Harley, well the beer I was drinking went 1 way and the horse the other, I dropped 1 of the rains to try and get the branch of us and pulled him round with the left rain, Christ my heart was going 10 to the dozen, he wasn’t gonna stop, but we both calmed down, Wayne absolutely pissed himself laughing, he thought it was hilarious, but anyway, we carried on down the track and then both horse stopped and listened intently and Wayne thought it best we head back, incase there was a mob of Brumbies up ahead, he said they probably kick the shit out of Harley cause he was a Gelding that acted like a stallion, so we head back for more goon and beers!!!!
Day 3 Barmah Friday 28/04/06Again nicely woken up by Brody telling me were he was off to play at 6am, like to say I was getting used to it, but I’d be lying, sat around for a lot of the morning around the fire, Connie and her children and there friends arrived throughout the morning, there was Connie, Mati, Danny, Nicole & Ty, Luke, Ash, Mick & Lauren her friend ohh and not forgetting the Kiwi Lamby, there were a few other but I’m struggling to remember there names right now, sorry guys.
Gerard one of Wayne’s friends who has been coming to the Barmah Muster for the last 17 years came up to our camp to see if we wanted to go for a ride after lunch, I was well up for it, so was Wayne, after lunch we headed down and off into the swamps we went. We went a lot deeper into the forest than we had on the previous day, and after a few hours of riding we fund a mob of Brumbies, there were 6 in total and a little fille, Gerard didn’t mess about in chasing after them galloping off, but I was to sure I was up for tearing after wild horses through the scrub, maybe if I had abit more riding experience but I wasn’t that confident, didn’t wana be the next
Christopher Reeve, so us 2 carried on and then we spotted another mob, I could feel Harley heart pounding like it was trying to get out of his body when he saw them, Wayne wanted a closer look so we swapped horses and he took Harley for a hack through the trees and chased after them. I stayed with Attitude and we waited for Wayne to come back, wasn’t 20 seconds and Wayne was out of sight due to the denseness of the scrub, and it hits you then when your all by yourself, that you actually are all by yourself, and its kinda cool I mean being out on horseback in dense forestry away from, cars, people, phones, the internet everything that you get hampered with in normal daily life, and you couldn’t get any further away from it out here, you feel kind of free, really ace feeling. Anyway Wayne came back telling me all about the chase and how he got close to them, but he was struggling to keep up with them because they were just flying through scrubland and over logs, under trees and around things, taking really big strides, not having to think about were they were treading…. they knew cause this is there territory!!!
We swapped back and went off looking for this Brumbies catcher’s stockyard, we rode for a while but to no avail, we couldn’t find it so we started heading back, the weather had been pretty rubbish all day…overcast and threatening looking, well now it started to rain, and it never stopped, got soaked fairly quickly and then just colder and colder, and we were still 4 hours from camp, we followed the saw mill stockyards through the forest, until we cut out of the forest to try and find a track which we eventually did, and Wayne looked at which way the majority of the animals tracks were heading and we went in the same direction, as this would probably lead us to camp, we finally came to a bridge that Wayne recognised and he said were about 2 hours solid riding from camp, I’d been in the saddle 5 and a half hours already, I was about shot, we carried on and cut back into the scrub, we came back to the far edge of the swamps nearer to camp, this to me was a major relief although now darkness had started setting in, pretty quickly, this didn’t bother me too much as we were on familiar ground….or so I thought!!! We came to the last open plain to cross before heading back into the forest to get back to camp, and by the time we had crossed and were back in the woods, it was pitch blackola nothing looked familiar anymore, infact the only thing that looked familiar was everything, everything looked the same, some things were slightly darker then others, but with it still raining, no moon we were having trouble going in 1 solid direction because of the trees being so dense and that many low branches we had to get out of the forest quickly before 1 of us got injured including the horses. We got back out on to the plain and headed for the swamp, we followed that back towards camp until we saw some lights in the far distance through the trees, such a relief to see those lights, finally got back around 830, 9pm we’d been out all day, probably covered somewhere near 25/30k, and im still feeling the pain from that ride 4 days later!!!! So glad to get back and have some food, cus I missed lunch, so I was starving Marvin, again had more beers slept like a log!!!
Day 4 Barmah Saturday 29/04/06
Thankfully God had been listening to my prayers and Brody didn’t wake me up today J he had some new mates to play with, I slept in till about 930am and when I got up I felt like I been clubbed around the head with a 15lb sledgy and had been in a bad scrap…to put it mildly I was aching all over!!!! I chucked myself in front of the big fire and stayed there all day, I occasionally moved to another chair around the fire but that was about it. Had a Jim Beam and cola around 11 and then my next beer was about mid afternoon, the day dragged so much, everyone felt the day was going really slow, I started to feel abit better after a few cans. Jesse and Cheryl came along today, so Jesse would be riding Harley now as he is his horse, which kind of excluded me from riding, which was ok as I was really sore from the long the day before.
Today was the day of the Open Air Bush Dance, A big Semi Trailer arrived and opened up into a big stage were the various bands would play, in front of it was the dance area, about 6 inches of saw dust from the local saw mill made the dance floor, so comfy under foot and ok if you fall over on it J the main group on was Steve Ford & The Flange, they were really good, everyone got involved, aint gonna lie I was smashed by the end of the night, so I pulled the rip cord and head back to camp for a couple more round the fire, ended up getting up to stupid antics with Jesse like biting the electric fence and stuff, was fun J but then when I started to fall asleep infront of the big fire, Lamby shouted “Oi Pome get to bed!!! You keep fallin asleep!!!” I just got up and stumbled towards me van, I don’t even remember fallin to sleep? Hahaha
Day 5 Barmah Sunday 30/04/06Pretty much recovery day today, everyone had decided that we were gonna go home today, so we all got on with dismantling camp. Jesse was out on the Goose Swamp Muster, they were
rounding up the last of the cattle, I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to go on this muster but the only horse I had to ride was Attitude and she was still abit temperamental and I didn’t fancy getting bucked off, but never mind, there’s next year J I went down to the gate were they were herding the cattle to watch them all run through, was pretty good, watchin all the riders and cattle dogs keeping the cows under control, and the guy frantically trying to count them as they all ran through the gate. Saw Jesse and asked him how he got on, he said he survived a couple of bucks but all round went pretty well.
Walked back to camp and helped pack everything else away that we had used over the last 5 days. You might have noticed I hadn’t mentioned showering, the last shower I had was on Tuesday, so I was glad to be heading home so I could get a good wash, I was starting to feel abit grubby, but you have to get into the camping spirit.
I hooked up Kath’s trailer ready to rock and roll and help Wayne get Harley and Attitude into the float, although we had some problems getting the Arab on board she eventually got on with abit of persuasion!!! We just beat the rain, well just, we got abit of a showering when we were loading the horses, but we were ok. About 15k’s down the road Kath pulled over, I hoped out and ran over…. the trailer had come off!!!! I had locked the trailer on properly, so I sorted it out and we got back on our way. We got back around 345pm unpacked, had a couple of cuppa’s and went for a nice long hot shower, soooo gud J
Ps for all you people that emailed me askin if I needed a razor, im gud thanks ive shortened the beared down now, as it was getting abit out of control, and I was sick of combing it hahahaha
Last few days ive been working out in the paddocks helping clean them up from this years tomatoes, 1st day I was help to pick up irrigation pipes and stuff, ever since then ive bin driving the fork lift tractor aound picking up all these rolled up sheet off plastic off the rows that the tomatoes grown from under and tipping them into a tipper truck, even then, the guy who was driving the tipper did as much picking up as with the forks.
