While mustering a couple of days ago, I managed to have my second wild cow ride. Unfortunatly this time is was not planned.
We were pushing the cows into a small yard when one of the cow decided it didn't wan tot go. Nothing unusual so far. If you shout and wave your hand around they tend to decide that going forward is better than caming back. Unfortunatly this cow decided that it really did want to comeback, notmatter how much noise there was. It turned around, and from about half a meter afay ran towas me, without having time to move/think/realise what was happening, the cow had hit me in the stomach with its head and lifted me onto its neck, where I clung of for the length of the yard, (10m approx) before being trhown to the ground in the middle of some other cows. I stayed on for about the same time as at the rodeo, and thankfully wasn't hurt. All in a days work.
Yesterday was Australia Day and after a morning fixing a bore, I had lunch and went out checking waters on the motorbike. Then last night, I went in to Quamby to soak up some true Australian celebrations.
The night started off well enough, with one or two cold beers on the grass. The pub had set up a bungee rope & tied it to a fence. the idea was to run as far and fast as you could to and put a marker on the floor. By the time it was my turn, the benchmark was pretty high, and the bungee cord was on it's last legs. I did pretty well at getting a long way from the fence, but not quite the furthest. Dave had a go after me and the bungee cord snapped, not only making him go further than anyone else but also managing to slap him quite hard on his arse. Things took a downward turn around 10pm when we headed inside the bar. The music was playing, the beers were starting to become rums and the atmosphere was . . . jolly. I was telling the Aussies that i was half Indian at the moment (Australia are playing India in the cricket) when somebody said something that I took offence too. In order to show this person that i was offended, I had a fight . . my first pub brawl. Not one single punch was thrown, but two fire hoses were fired up and in the middle of the pub we had a water fight. About 15 seconds after it started, almost everyone in the pub was dripping wet !! Needless to say, I went to bed not long after ! Thismorning a have a sore head, and a dry throat.
The real station manager/owned is back tonight, and tomorrow we head 4 hrs south to another station to do some more mustering for a few days.
