Big day today! Emily and Oliver had been counting down the hours since yesterday. The four of us went horse riding with Christian (7:00AM start!).
On leaving the stables we crossed the Pentecost River and out into the wilds. OK, it wasn’t very far from El Questro but it seemed like the wilds. We rode across open grassland with the occasional Boab Tree, far off to our left were ochre coloured cliffs.
End of the Gibb River Road – El Questro
Ollie followed Christian and bombarded him with questions about horses, the landscape, the trees and numerous other topics. Christian patiently answered all questions and even managed to tell us about Cattle Mustering and Bush Tucker. At one point he leaned over and picked some small berries from one of the bushes, he persuaded us to try them. “Don’t crunch em, the seeds taste sour. Just eat the soft fleshy bit then spit the seeds out”. We did as he said. He then informed us that the Aboriginals eat them when they need “bunging up”.
Fascinating!
Christian grinned then told us that if we got “bunged up” we could eat the leaves from the same plant because “The Aboriginals eat em if they need “un-bunging”.
Lovely!
We stopped under a very large Boab Tree, which is over 2,500 years old, then rode on through Scotties Yard which was used during the cattle muster.
Christian demonstrated how the Stockmen would use their horses to push tethered Bulls sideways towards a large fence with huge posts driven into the ground. It was fascinating to see the ease with which Christian made his horse walk sideways and backwards, total control. He explained that once the Stockmen had secured the Bull against the fence it would be branded with a hot iron, de-horned, and castrated, all in less than three minutes.
The return journey took us through a deep river crossing (great fun!) then back to the stables.
After two hours in the saddle Charlotte and I ambled, John Wayne style, across to the Swinging Arm for refreshments. The children grabbed a couple of Christian’s Stock Whips and worked on their whip-cracking technique – they’re getting good at it!
The afternoon was spent preparing for tomorrow’s departure followed by a swim in the river where the children found another, yes you’ve guessed it, rope swing. Woohoo!
Quick showers then we drove along the 4WD track to Pigeon Hole Lookout to watch the Sunset. It didn’t disappoint, we had marvellous views over the Pentecost River and the surrounding ranges:
Pigeon Hole Lookout
Dinner was the very good BBQ Buffet at the Swinging Arm with entertainment from Chris Matthews.