Murchison House Station

Kalbarri National Park

Murchison House Station

We have settled for a couple weeks at Murchison House Station  just next to the town of Kalbarri.  It is 350,000 Acres…. It is 3500 sq. kilometres.  It is amazing!!! We have only seen a tiny bit of the station.  The owners, Belinda and Calum have been here for 13 years and Belinda says there are still places that she has not seen.  They are opening the station up to the public for 4-wheel drive tracks, so we have spent a couple days writing up the signs on old windmill (I cannot think of the word but the water pumping windmills).  On Saturday, Calum is going to take us along the coastal track of the station and put the signs up.  We are looking forward to it.  Each day we do different things, we work from 4-7 hours a day and we join Belinda and Calum for supper in the evenings.  There is a French guy, Austrian girl and a German girl also on the farm with us.  There are also campers that come and go that we get to meet and usually have chats with at the bonfire in the evening. A couple we met last night had a massive bus.  They had two young kids and they have been living out of their bus for a few years just travelling around Australia working as they need too.  Cool.

Every morning we are in charge of feeding all the animals.  We have a calf and two goats (who think they are all the same), lots of chickens, ducks and ducklings, two ponies and a pet kangaroo, Skippy.  Skippy is like a child, when we come to feed him in the morning he jumps up on us wanting food.  The station also has about 30 sheep, that we see every once in awhile, a couple hundred brahma cows, and a few thousand goats.  The first couple days at the farm we cleared a bunch of fence lines.  It was very tiring and hot.  It was all uphill but the top of the hill made the work all worth while with all of the beautiful views that we could see.  This area of the farm used to be a coral reef thousands of years ago.

Our second night at the farm they decided to give us a real Aussie experience, kangaroo hunting.  We went up to what felt like Scar’s stomping ground in The Lion King.  Calum’s 6 year old son, Aidan, was with us as well as his ex-butcher friend, Damien.  Aidan was super keen on the whole thing.  The first to run out the the kangaroo and right in there helping his dad.  It was a really fun experience but after awhile I started to feel bad for the poor kangaroos.  I couldn’t kill animals for a living that is for sure.  It was definitely a cool experience though.  We came back to the Homestead and hung up the kangaroo bottom halves to leave over night.  The next arvo we got to have a go on skinning the kangaroos and cutting them up.  The kangaroos we did were for the dogs, probably lucky as we all had our turn on butchering the meat.  The day after we watched the pros show us how it is done. 

 On the weekend we had a day off to go visit the rest of the National Park.  We went to The Loop and Z-Bend, it was beautiful! The Murchison River ran through these beautiful gorges.  There were some scary parts for me in the walk though.  We had to do some rock scrambling up high and go up and down ladders.  It took me awhile to work up the courage to do that.  Me talking about this does not do justice though.


Tuesday Morning we sadly had to say goodbye to Kendra, unfortunately her trip up North with us came up short as she was unable to find transportation from when she needed to leave us so the safest thing was to get the bus from Kalbarri back down to Perth where she will take the train to finish her travels. 

Calum and Belinda have a tour that they do three times a week at the farm that shows people the interesting history of the Station, we have been spending the last couple days driving up to where we were shooting kangaroos (which is about 30 minute return trip) collecting rocks bigger than my head and BIGGER.  After a few trips of hauling the rocks back to the homestead they now have beautiful walkways next to some of the sights on the farm.  I also feel like I am ripped in the arms, back and shoulder muscles. Haha.  Yesterday after we used our big muscles for carrying heavy rocks we decided to take a trip down the river in the kayaks.  It was beautiful and calm.  We didn’t make it to the ocean though, maybe next time.

We would love to stay here longer and help out but unfortunately we must get back on the road and seeing Australia again, so on Tuesday morning we are heading off from the station and heading up to Shark Bay to see what all of that area has to offer. 

Until next time,

Holly and David

The West Coast So Far

Ok Guys...First Blog of The Trip..

We left Darryl & Donna's on Sunday Morning and heaqded out to Moora to see Shane & Michelle before we left. We interrupted their Speedway Car Modifying and had a coffee with them before we left and had our first long drive in Bernarbara. She Did well...
We drove to Geraldton where we camped in a seafront Camper Park. It was very windy but a warm wind so we didn't mind. We went to have a look around the town before having our last spout of Luxury for a few days and sat in the cinema to watch Toy Story 3. We Love Spanish Buzz Lightyear!!! On our Way back from the cinema we got pulled over for a Random Breath Test, very nervous I blew into the machine gave him my Drivers License and the Policeman went back to his car to do his checks, he came back and Said 'Thanks Dave' Hahaha!!! We got out of there quickly...
It rained all night, the window leaks on Bernarbara so no we know. And in the morning we went and had our breakfast of Oranges, Yoghurt and Honey by the Point Moore Lighthouse, before we got blown away and rained on.

Geraldton is a very small and quite old town. We had a certain number of things to do before heading off. I left the girls to do their things in the shops and post office while I went and searched for a beard trimmer, Didn't get one and a place to get a stereo and fit it into the car. Mission Succesfull...My man rectified my mistakes asking who did this and that. Frenchy I said..I Didn't touch it...He even took the door facade off and fixed our faulty speaker in the door. It was a good day.

So we drove to Kalbarri Next, a big spot on the Tourist trail and the last stop for the Trans WA. The Western Australia Bus service for Perth. So we know that Kalbarri is the point of no return after Perth.

Coming into Kalbarri is stunning, you feel as though you can see home from the cliff edges and the Cliffs give the view a magestical touch. We wanted to see the sunset on our first night but it was too coudy. We did see it poke up a little but decided that it might be better to see it on a clearer night. The next morning we watched the pelican feeding in our pyjamas along with about 50 other people. Not in their Pyjamas. The whole pelican feeding thing started when in 1974 a guy who owned a restaurant used to take his scraps to the same area on the beach front, the Pelicans got so used to it that they kept coming back. And to this day they still do leaving behind the legacy.

We decided to hit some of the national park which included a spot we stopped and viewed on our way in. We did the rounds, walks and saw some epic coastline, we stopped for tea biscuits and Olives at nearly the last one and decided not to proceed. In other words we were tired. It's a hard life..

And now we are at our second ever WWOOF-ing place. Murchison House Station. A cattle station that covers around 3500 square klm's. Only a small place..hehe

The station is for another blog as I'm sure you'r tired of reading this now.
Thankyou & Goodnight :)

David & Holly & Kendra

Goodbye Gingin :(

We have been living at Len and Judy's for the week, helping out with odd jobs here and there around the farm.  The first big rains of the year have finally started.  After months of having barely any rain at all we have had a few days of on and off rain, winds, thunder and lightning.  It is supposed to last until next week. Ah, and! The weather here has been in the minus at night time for the past two weeks.  Everything has been hit with frost, the paddocks of feed are ruined, plants and trees are dying.  Len and Judy say they do not remember a year where the frost has gone on for this many consecutive days.  We have to scrap ice off the windows of the cars in the morning.  The poor sheep are shivering cold.  We have the air conditioning on all the time (recycled air for heat and/or cold).

On Tuesday, the shearer came here and he sheared all 70 of Len's sheep.  I helped out a bit with throwing the fleece and picking out the bad bits and then grading the level of the wool.  I really wanted to make myself a pair of UGG boots with the soft wool.  It was a really cool experience.  The lambs were cute going in, not so cute coming out.  Betsy's dad is from Len's rams so all of the lambs here looked like little Betsy.  David and I had a good laugh at all the different sounding Maaaa's coming from the lambs.

Yesterday, we picked up Kendra from the Regan's Ford bus stop.  She will be traveling with us for a couple weeks up north.  We spent the afternoon in the shed with Len working on a seat for the car.  He welded it all together and this morning David and him screwed it into the van.  Judy sewed together some curtains for us and we put them in.  We also had Darryl put in a bed in the back of the van yesterday.  Someone can sleep on the bottom and some can sleep on the top.  Today has been a bit of a getting ready to go day for us because of the rain there is not much for us to do on the farm.  Judy, Kendra and I sewed little cushions with our left over mattress foam.

We cannot believe that tomorrow we will be starting our journeys travelling again.  We will miss our life here.  I don't think it has hit us yet that we are leaving though.  We are ready to survive off of olives, oil, bread and honey.  One of the ladies I worked with at the school has  a bee farm and I went to visit her this week to say good bye and she gave me a little bucket of honey to take on our travels.  After today, we will try to blog about our travels on our computer but we will not have access to internet everyday, as we are planning to live out of the van for the next couple weeks until we find a WWOOFing place to stop at next.  So, next time you read a blog make sure you read all of them as we may put a couple up in a day OR you can just read a really long post.  We will also try to add in a couple pictures.  We have added more pictures up on facebook and still have lots to post.  We do not want to waste people's download space though. 

Anyways, time to spend some quality time with Len and Judy.

Cheers,

Holly, David and Kendra

I want a baby Joey

A big update for you as we are not sure when we will get internet again.  I am sick again with a cold. 
It looks as though our time at the farm is coming to an end.  It feels like we have been here for years.  We are sad to leave the friendships we have made but eager to get on with the traveling and see what else Australia has to offer.

The weather is freezing.  We constantly feel cold.  It gets down to the minus' over night (-1, -2) and only gets to a high of 15.  You may think "awww poor babies" but remember that you have central heating and here they  do not.  You are cold to the bone and its rare that you find a place to warm up.  Luckily, we have been around the house all day today so we were able to keep a fire going in the house.  So this is our first warm night in a long time.  Usually we are curled up on the couch with a blanket.

Darryl and Donna raise baby joeys that have been left without a mom because a car has hit them.  It is joey season, so usually if you see a kangaroo on the side of the road, they probably had a baby joey in them.  Darryl and Donna have not had any babies while we have been here but have decided to start again. Today, we were dropping off mega bins at a massive market garden and there was a kangaroo on the side of the road.  Darryl pulled over and came back with a little baby joey, unfortuneately it was also hit in the accident.  I held it for the whole trip, the body was still warm so the accident was fresh.  I kept hoping that it would come back to life in my arms.  It was so cute and little.  It's legs twice as long as the rest of its body. 

I have had quite alot of teaching at Lancelin lately, I will miss that school.  The last day I taught at the school I had the opportunity to play footy (AFL) with the teachers in a teachers vs students game at lunch time.  What a good time.  I am really starting to like footy. 

David Finally started to do something constructive on the van other than walking around it sighing and leaning on strategic areas. Saying things like...we need to do that, I need this. So that's on its way and we also had some confirmation from Daryll that he will be helping us with it later in the week. Excellent news.

We spent the week end in Perth Staying at the Vanzetti sisters houses. We were looked after pampered and to an extent faught over as to who's house we were staying at. It was a great week end and we got some much needed supplies for the van. We drove back to the farm on Sunday night wrapped in Duvets and blankets as we don't have any Heating in the van.

Well there is our update for now.

Holly and David

Regans Ridge Olives

Dear Blog Readers,

So we're nearing our time at the farm, down to our last week. And Having done an entire season of Harvesting, from day one we were there for every single Olive that fell and were there for every bead of sweat and Painful early morning that went into creating a season of Table Olives and Olive Oil.

I think therefore that we may be eligible to make a sales pitch and convince the non Olive believers and the believers that you will never taste a finer Olive product than that of which are a part of.

You don't need to look hard to find what good Olives can do for you. They are a very grounding food and have proven benefits to your health. Both products are excellent sources of Antioxidants, Polyphenols Good Fats and an array of goodness that you shouldn't pass up. Most Olive Oil in retail comes from Europe and anything that you buy in a superstore will be mised with other oils, the same with Olives. In stores the Olives they sell have been treated with the type of chemicals you use to clean your bathroom. Costic Soda this speeds up the curing process.

Olive Oil is just so Good For you. Even better is an Organic, Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive oil. Many people will go for extra virgin oil and don't regard what the process is. Organic speaks for itself...No harmful chemicals, no residual nasties in your body after you've consumed it. Cold pressed is the process of seperating the oil from the fruit. Many processes involve usinmg heat to extract maximum amount of oil from the Olive, but as you heat Olive oil it loses much of it's goodness, so cold pressing while produces a smaller yield, produces a finer Oil. Extra Virgin Simply means that it is the Olive Oil in its purest form, crushed Olive and Seed...not crushed pulp or rendered mulch. Just pure squashed fruit.

The Farm is also a good cause to support. Catherine is an excellent mother to three girls the youngest being 12. Things here are done passionatly to a fine degree, The table Olives are done to an age old Sicillian method, picked by hand to ensure quality. The Oil Olives carefully shaken and taken as soon as possible to the press. It's a no-brainer. We will be supporting Catherin for years. And We'd like to encourage you to do so. The Olives & Oil you will receive will have our Blood sweat and Tears attached to it.

We sell jars of Olives for $9 (Mild Chilly & Garlic, Plain & Tomato & Basil), And bottles of Oil Ranging from $10 - $22 (Mild & Fruity and Moore River Blend) We've calculated the postage into the product price, on small orders the will be a charge of $10 per Kilo (Or If you need a large order Prices of Oil and Olives Will drop and Postage will be $10 Per Kilo)

Thanks For your Support :)

David & Holly

Inner Most Thoughts of a Troubled Lamb

Hello Dear Blog readers. This is David, I haven’t blogged for a while so bear with me if I’m a bit Rusty.


So recently we’ve been taken up with lots of work new arrivals and in Holly’s case some trips to the city. This is where she is now, so I am sat out on the swinging chair overlooking the Grove basking in the warm breeze and listening to Sufjan Stevens. It is winter here now and the morning are sometimes bitterly cold. Because the House is not well insulated we have to keep a fire going all night so that the house is bearable in the morning. Even then it is cold, and our short drive to wherever we need to be during the day is spent in layers of jackets and shivering kneecaps. Not in anyway the romantic idea anyone has of Western Australia.
Though during the day from around 10am, or when your blood starts pumping it warms up into a beautiful summers day back home. We still cannot complain about the weather.

Our Pet lamb Betsy is bleeting in the background as she has been since 6 this morning. She’s been fed burped and I keep asking her whats up but she gives me a puzzled look. She seems to have conversations with passing sheep. I amuse myself with thoughts of what she might say…

“I‘ve got these idiots fooled fred, all I have to do is limp around a little and they feed and baby me” or in a lassie fashion “What‘s the weather going to be like?” Lamb says to elder “Well there is an occluded front coming from the east so rain for a short while before turning fine into the evening”

I often like to think she’s a very smart lamb and knows how to manipulate us with her eyes and melt our hearts with her playful nature, but then I remind myself that she tried to eat the trampoline the other day and managed to pierce her lip while trying to eat a metal coiled spring. Silly little lamb. She does try and eat the chair cushions too, and come to think of it anything green. Little Betsy….

So….We got our Van, the Gender confused Bernabara. Bernard in attitude and Barbara in Shape. I was like a little school kid yesterday when the drivers side rear view mirror arrived enabling us to drive it on the road now. We also attempted to change a headlight that was cracked, but discovered that almost the whole front of the vehicle will have to be manipulated to gain access..a job for another time maybe.

Holly has had some more work this week teaching the littlies at Lancelin. She leaves around 7:45 every morning and makes the trip to town. It’s not a bad location to work, the place looks brand new and is less than a minute walk from the beach. Maybe she doesn’t work and simply lays on the beach all day. She comes back around 4 and helps around the farm untill we finish. I think she enjoys it, I can imagine it’s a very draining job but rewarding. I thnk she enjoys the cultural difference in these kids to the ones back home, lets just hope she can convince them to get her in more often so we can save as much as possible.

My job is going well too, not nearly as rewarding, skilled or interesting as Holly’s but I get to meet a lot of people and a free Iced Coffee every day. This is worth it…Iced coffee is a small vice of mine.

So on the calendar there is not much else coming up…It is someones birthday very soon….I wonder…

We leave the farm and our friends around the 7th of July, and go on our merry way north to pastures new. It’s very exciting and very daunting. This is of course our Last big Jolly untill we finish in Australia. The Last one, should be finished up around September October time, and then we will be saving up for our tickets home. Sad times…Though I think by then we’ll both be ready to try something new. Though Western Australia, in Particular Regans Ford has become a second home. And somewhere I think we could both live.

Thankyou for reading, We shall be posting again soon, and with more frequency in the coming weeks and months with having more to talk about.

David & Holly

Welcome home, Bernard.

Happy June! Boy does time fly.  My birthday is only in a couple weeks! I cannot believe it.  I have just come in from taking care of a little 6 week old lamb on the verandah.  When Darryl and the other wwoofers (I was teaching in Gingin today) were mustering sheep today he found this little one with two sore legs on the same side.  The mom has also abandoned it.  Darryl took it home tonight where him and Donna will bottle feed it and give it some antibiotics.  She may become a pet.

Last weekend I went into the city with Donna to get the VAN and to watch her son, Shannon, play a footy (Australian Football League) game. Friday was also Donna and her twin sister, Jacquie's birthday.  So after spending the evening at a school that Shannon is looking into for next year, we went out for dinner with Jacquie's family and Tanya's family.  It was soo good to see our "Australian" family again.  It makes it that much harder to want to leave here.

The next day Donna and I went to pick up the van.  We arrived at the car lot and there was only one van in the lot.  It was ugly.  An 90s van with the ugly stripe across the side.  But I wasn't going to complain, it was a van, Darryl loved it so it had to be good.  I went and signed all the paperwork and the guy walked us out to a different van, much nicer looking van! EEEK! I also found out that its actually a 1998 and that its a Toyota Townace. My first vehicle that I own on paper and its in Australia! haha.  I will say though, it is mine AND DAVID'S vehicle.  We are very excited to fix it up and start travelling with it.  We also may have picked up a friend with us, Kendra has fallen in love with our vehicle and may be joining us.

Shannon's footy game was awesome.  His team won and they were also missing all their good players (they were playing in a league above for the week).  Shannon scored lots of points for his team.  He is probably one of the better players on his team and he is also the youngest.  This game was more exciting to watch then the actual AFL.

On Sunday Darryl and Donna had us over for lunch with Donna's boys.  We then headed over to the block to play with the baby calves and sheep.  We had a bonfire and went fishing for marron.  Darryl also brought both of his motor bikes so Kendra and I took one and went off alone all over the property! How fun.  What a farm girl I have become.

That about sums up the excitement for the past couple weeks.  Still haven't got photos up yet.  Will get some eventually.

Holly and David x