From Mission beach we rode up the gradual incline through sugarcane fields and banana plantations to the mountainous, hilly Tablelands. Our destination, a farm in Ravenshoe that we had organised to house sit for a month.
We ride down the long driveway observing a shipping container and 2 sheds on the right and a processing area for the cows on the left as well as a chooks coup. Further on the left were bright green paddocks with 40-50 cattle and huge white wind turbines on the top of the hill.
Over the phone they informed us that the house is an old dairy they have transformed into a home yet they had no photos on the website.We pull up on the side of there caravan and are greeted by an old dog called Josh who waddled over to see what the noise was. Next we were greeted by Barb. Barb was a stong, straight to the point woman with no time for nonsense but always free for chat.
Rob then came out, a sweet man, always ready for a laugh. We chatted for a while and head inside the home we would call ours for one month. When we walked in there were things everywhere as they had just finished relocating. The 3 cats and dogs were allowed inside so there was lots of hair and dirt on the floor. As the owner Rob stated, we arnt house proud people but you can change anything you want to make yourselves feel more comfortable. We would definitely be giving it a good scrub once they left thats for sure.
Over the next 2 days we were introduced to the 40-50 cows, 30 sheep, 5 chooks, 1 rooster, 3 cats, 5 local birdly visitors and Josh and Molly, the dogs. We were shown feed and medication measurements, told timings, taught how to cut sheep’s nails, assisted in injecting a cow with an anti inflammatory, and told animal sleeping arrangements. One thing i loved was the fact that all the sheep and cows wear a name tag on there ear so the interaction feels personal. We were taught about the water tanks and what to do when they are overflowing, shown how to fix fences, drive tractors, using the 4 wheeler. I wrote everything down and was ready to be Queen of the Farm!
Barb said she used to ride some of the cattle like horses with her son and the cows allowed it as they had such a good relationship with them.
The morning they were leaving we were up and about early, well early for us. All their friends and family who they were searching for sapphires and quartz with had arrived to start there drive together.
Unfortunity Rob and Barb still had a few things to pack into there caravan and hadnt tested there indicators. One of the back ones wasnt working so Roberto got in there with his magical fingers and fixed the light so they were good to go. As soon as they left we vacumed, vacumed and vacumed, so much we blew up the vaccume cleaner. Oopps. Haha not to worry we bought a new one specifically for pets with the money they left us for any extra food for the animals. They said if anything breaks it was going to anyways. It took us a whole day but the house was spotless by the time we were done.
We fed the animals and attempted to give the fluffy white cat Sam medicine out of the syringe into his little mouth. I had no idea cats mouths and teeth were so small! We got it in but it was an effort and we vowed from that point on we would just put it straight into his food and make sure he ate it.We fed the other animals and we were ready for bed. A full day on the farm and we were knackered.
The next day we ventured into the small town of Ravenshoe consisting of about 15 shops and 2 big pubs.
We did some grocery shopping and stopped at the wind turbines on the way. There was about 20 of them accross the tops of the hills. They were the first wind turbines in Queensland and beautifully majestic, moving in the wind.We arrived back at the farm and i cooked my little heart out that night and for the remainder of the month. How nice it was to be able to use a kitchen, oven, stove tops and pans again.I baked scones. Unsuccessfully.I tried.
Rob and Barb have left us with a hard drive full of movies so for the first week we worked and relaxed about the farm and watched movies. Riding most days for the last 5 months and constantly setting up and packing up a campsight had taken its toll and we needed to regain some energy. We did break the movie cycle to catch up with our Israeli friend Zohar once more. We met up at the local car racing event which Rob manged to discover. It was a bunch of beaten up cars driving around a dirty racetrack. Rob loved it. We met a couple at the raceway which seemed nice. They invited us all back to there place in the middle of nowhere, to show Rob their racetrack(dirt road) and a drink. Being at there house i felt uneasy, there large dog was so timid and scared of us she wet herself and was shaking when we went to pat her. The other dog was so aggressive we couldnt pat it and the baby cows were very skinny. What i saw didnt dictate the uneasiness i felt that was just icing on the cake. I mentioned my uneasiness to Rob and Zohar separately and they both agreed that there place didnt have a good energy at all. We could have come accross the Tablelands Ted Bundy and not even realised.
After that we went to visit Jodie and Paul who are two of Zohars friends. They have built there own house (not builders) and have a huge sectioned 12 piece rotational garden for the seasons. They were very inspirational, they were living off there land. Completly off the grid. I want a veggie garden!
The next day we all went to the Innot hot springs which was pools heated from a naturally occuring hot spring. We jumped from the hot pool where it feels like you skin is on the edge of burning and your sweating to the fresh cold pool so many times.
We then rode Zohar to her final Queensland destination. Luckily, her bike just made it there as her rear spokets teeth broke one at a time driving home. Thank goodness Rob tensioned the chain twice as it wouldnt have made it there otherwise. We say our goodbyes to our Israeli Princess, and have our final break up.
2souls2wheels 