Tag Archives: Ambalindum

An Overview of Oz

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This Oz is not the one Dorothy and Toto visited. No, this Oz is- you guessed it!- Australia. We visited about eight distinct places (Sydney, Darwin, Ambalindum Station, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Gnaraloo, Amble Inn, and Perth), and it is fair to say we liked them all. My personal favorite would have to be Darwin of the beaches and warmth, followed closely by Ambalindum Station with Mel, Dave, and Fatso, and Amble Inn, home to Sandy, Millie, Peter, and Mr. Fluff.

Sydney: When we first arrived at the airport in Sydney, we were in for quite a climate shock. It was a frigid 55 degrees (or so) that night as Andre Wu picked us up in his van. After a week in Jaisalmer, India, we were about to freeze. Andre and Sabrina Wu, along with their son Anthony, were our hosts for the week. Sarah, from Germany, was a fellow guest. We lived far away from the city center but the transportation system made it relatively easy to get around. The city didn’t officially end even on our way up to the Blue Mountains.

Darwin: Our limbs warmed up as we landed in Darwin. We had a pretty good apartment that had a pool, and we often watched the sunset from the beach. The entertainment was good, especially watching Brave at Deckchair Cinemas.

Ambalindum Station: I am the Reeder star in Ambalindum Station’s TV commercial. I am in the background as Mel lifts the damper out of the camp stove. We befriended Dave, the gem-collector and cow horn polisher, Fatso, Skinny 1, and Skinny 2, the magpies, and Rex, the director and film crew of the station’s TV ad. We tagged along behind a cattle muster, too, which took forever but provided some interesting experiences.

Alice Springs: Ethan and I braved the chilly depths of the pool at Kathy’s B&B. Once. That was more than enough. Ethan also took a didgeridoo lesson there and was disappointed at the price of an instrument.

Ayers Rock: Now called officially called Uluru, Ayers Rock is a popular tourist destination, even though Ethan doesn’t get why. It was cold there, too, but the bush fire along the highway warmed the car up to 31 degrees Celsius.

Carnarvon: We were only here two nights, but while we were, we murdered pancakes, walked along the beach, and sorted pictures.

Gnaraloo: Snake tracks were everywhere, and, in what Ethan and I dubbed Valley of the Shadow, there were plenty of sheep skeletons. Valley of the Shadow was between the big dunes and the ocean. At Gnaraloo Bay and 3 Mile Camp, Ethan and I made awesome sand creations that got destroyed by the rising tide.

Amble Inn: Ethan and I fell in love with Sandy, Peter, and Mr. Fluff. Millie was harder to like. I never really did. Peter and Mr. Fluff, the adorabubble bunnies, were vicious. At least, Peter was, scratching my arms when I was holding him securely and therefore ruining my tan. I still love him, though. We visited the Pinnacles, Mt. Leseur, and nearby Jurien Bay, where we met two siblings who were named Erin and Ethan.

Perth: In Perth we did nothing that stands out to me except playground-hunt and eat pizza at Hero’s, where there were free slushies and Pac-Man games.

Ciao!

The New Cowboy

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The New Cowboy is on an ATV. He drives across Australia at the back of 990 head of cattle. He stands up in his seat and his jeans are covered in fine red dust. He and seven partners, one in helicopter, three in trucks, two on motorbike, and one on ATV, have the task of moving mothers and their babies to the yards.

He stops for a lunch of a ketchup-and-cheese sandwich and Lamington squares before heading up the hill to herd the cattle. He turns around and cuts off a calf’s escape. Sometimes the calves get so far behind that the two ladies in the rear truck have to rope it in. The helicopter lands to help them, but they can’t do it without the New Cowboy.

He tosses the calf in the bed of the truck with ease. He does this for three more strays later on. By the time he gets to the yards with his seven partners, he is exhausted. But the cattle are finally where they belong; he can finally go home.

(I am not writing about a specific cowboy from today because this is a combination of things different people did. Mel was on an ATV, and so was some other guy whose name we don’t know. Glenn and Michael were on motorbike. Ambalindum Station’s owner’s niece and the helicopter driver’s wife were in the truck at the rear. The owner, Tim, was in the truck at the front. His wife, Emily, and their three kids, Jackson, Harrison, and Georgia, were in the car at the very front.)

Ciao!

Action!

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Ethan should be so happy; we got to sleep in! (Well, 8:30.) We had showers and a quick breakfast of cereal, toast, veggie sausages (with sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives), and oranges before moping around the homestead for hours. Well, not really.

First, Mel gave us a tour. She showed us the garden, the Bunkhouse, the Cottage, the Bush Camp, Dave’s cool rocks, the Shower Under the Stars, and the sheep shearing shed. In the garden are her and Dave’s cool rocks, including granite, quartz, quartz with iron oxide, and sticks of rock that a Japanese mining company dug up. Some of these have garnets in them.

Mel reminds me of a friend back home, from the blond hair to her love of Australia to the worn cowboy boots. She is, I think, 26 because she was wearing a Class 12 2004 shirt. She told us that the whole station is 3,316 square kilometers, which is the same as 5,121 homesteads, 819,401 acres, 3,277,606 roods, and 1,280 square miles. Mel also showed us the old butcher’s shop, and in it is a meat cutter, a poster showing different cuts of meat, and a freezer with beef on hooks in it. She told us that she likes the beef at her home, where they get it from English cattle. Here they mainly have Drought Masters (or something like that), with some others mixed in.

She also asked if we’d seen Lollipop the pony or Rapunzel the calf in Claraville on our way up. (We hadn’t.) She said that they belong to Tim, the owner of this place, and that his two-and-a-half-year-old son named Rapunzel. Mel gets to name the next calf here. She’s planning on it being a little girl who’ll be christened Amba, short for Ambalindum.

After schoolwork was done and Dad had gone on a walk and seen a live kangaroo, we got in the Kluger and went up to the lookout. After coming back down, we found that the film crew for the Old Ambalindum Homestead TV commercial was here! (Film crew of two.) So were Dave, Tim, and the other owner of Ambalindum. Dave, by the way, is an older guy who likes rocks.

The first shot that I saw taken was of Tim driving in twenty-four horses (there are twenty-seven owned by Ambalindum). Ethan was supposed to be captured leaning against the fence of the pen. He and I don’t think he was.

Once Rex (the Kiwi cameraman) came back from his wild ride across the bush, Mel and Dave built a fire and, once it got dark, we got filmed. Mel was supposed to take the pot off and on, depending on Rex’s command, the fire, Ethan and I were supposed to roast our marshmallows, and the adults (Mom, Dad, Dave, and Rex’s wife) were supposed to chatter. Dad said, “Whoa, did you see that huge spider?!” I dropped my first marshmallow; the second burst in to flame. Mel had to present the damper (a huge sultana scone. She called it raisin, and Dave said, “Getting fancy now, are we?” Rex’s wife said, “He doesn’t know the difference.”) to the camera. We were dying of laughter before Rex said “Cut!”

Ciao!

Driving Day Dos

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We had another driving day today. We drove from Tennant Creek to Devil’s Marbles to Some Little Town in the Middle of Nowhere to Alice Springs to Emily Pass to Jesse Pass to Corroboree Rock to Old Ambalindum Homestead.

  • Tennant Creek: We stayed there last night and had breakfast at Top of Town Café where Mom and Ethan had French toast with faux maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. Dad and I each had eggs and toast- he had fried eggs with plain toast while I had scrambled eggs with raisin toast. He also got a chocolate malt cupcake, as Top of Town Café is home of the Pink Molly cupcake. The owner has a daughter named Molly who likes pink. The owner also gave Mom and me a raspberry brownie cupcake.
  • Devil’s Marbles: This is an area with round red boulders stacked on top of each other and just begging to be climbed by eager little children (such as Ethan). Mom just read the signs as she was scared by the snake we saw when we first got there. For the record, I saw it first. Then Mom, then Ethan, then Dad. Thankfully, it didn’t attack but just slithered off. It was brown.

It is well known that the Country is home to the World’s most Venomous snakes. There are two different Varieties of these snakes: snakes that are brown in color and the dreaded Taipan. The Taipan will kill you; you have no Chance. If a brown snake bites, you have an Opportunity to live if you hurry to Help. Providence is with us thus far; we have encountered only three snakes. Two of these were Pythons and one was a Taipan crushed by one of our wagon wheels.
–A Record of My Experience in the Great Land; Australia by Geoffrey Allen Reid

  • Some Little Town in the Middle of Nowhere: We tanked up on fuel here. The official town name actually began with a T.
  • Alice Springs: We had to stop and buy groceries like eggs, cheese, milk, and bread. We also got four Magnums: they were Infinity Chocolate Caramel. They were delicious!!! At the store in Some Little Town in the Middle of Nowhere, and elsewhere, it was AU$7.00 per Infinity Magnum. At the Wentworth’s it was AU$7.99 for four.
  • Emily Pass & Jesse Pass: Two gaps in big red rocks. There were Aboriginal paintings of caterpillars and emu fat. In reality they were just white lines made from white lime, animal fat, and dirt of some sort.
  • Corroboree Rock: Another big black-and-red rock. Some inappropriate jokes were made here, and I discussed my future. Unfortunately, I discussed it with Ethan.
  • Old Ambalindum Homestead: This is a farm in the middle of nowhere, a hundred-some kilometers from Alice down a dirt track and some sealed road. On this road we saw two dingoes, four dead kangaroos, and plenty of cows and their calves. We have a whole house to ourselves. I was in my element, organizing all our food perfectly in the kitchen. For dessert we had a chocolate-mint Cadbury bubble bar.

Ciao!