Days 18 and 19: Traveling, Part 2 and Arriving

8 July 2017

Yesterday we left the hotel at 6:30 in the morning and drove and drove.  We stopped a few times for the bathroom and ate snacks of fruit and granola bars in the car.  We stopped in the town of Mitchell (the nearest town to our farmstay) around 5:30 to find the grocery store pleasantly open.  We bought food and drove to the farmstay—about an hour away.  We are currently at Bonus Downs, just inside the edge of the outback.  It has a long history of being a sheep and cattle ranch, now it is a cattle ranch and farmstay.  They also put on events here with catering and such. 

The Jackaroos Quarters, where we are staying

It was first begun in the early 1900s and there are pictures, books, and displays of it’s history.  The couple that live here have a beautiful home where they raised two children.  We are staying in the Jackaroos cottage.  It was originally where the farmhands stayed.  There are six bedrooms and a large living space with kitchen.  There is a smokehouse next to it that can roast whole animals (sorry any vegans or vegetarians) where they put on large barbecues.  Many visitors stay here in caravans (campers) and they usually use the smokehouse as their kitchen/living space.  There is also an old sheep shearing shed (the farm is only cattle now) where understand you can camp (laying down a sleeping bag).  The visitors all share the toilet/shower building.  This building has windows that are always open (very cold now) and is divided into two bathroom areas; each with a toilet, sink, and shower.  It is cold showering in the morning; it encourages you to dry off and dress quickly.  Going to the bathroom during the night, one needs to navigate out and across the yard.  The hosts encouraged us to turn on the porch lights before we went to bed to help us find our way.  (Three older women need to use the bathroom during the night!). 

Our room

Toilets/showers

Our building from the back

The Smokehouse

A table/pavilion

The owners, Madonna and Lyle, are great!  They are great resources of the history of the area and are very warm people.  They work hard to make everyone feel at home and cared for, which is a nice feeling.  The kitchen here is very well stocked and the entire place is very clean and taken care of.  There are little extras (see next paragraph) that show great attention to detail and pride in a place.  They have come to light the fire in the main cabin several times and talk to us.

Their grandson with the calf they were feeding

Madonna and her grandson

Af calf they were feeding

A bottle tree

We have comfortable beds with heated mattress pads and heater/air conditioning units in each room.  Some rooms have a queen size bed, some have two twin beds.  I lay in bed this morning wondering how the jackaroos slept here—if they only had six men or if they slept in two or three sets of bunk beds in each room.  The sheets are very soft.  The beds have heated mattress pads and there are electric heaters/air conditioners in every room.  The towels on the beds when we arrived were arranged into swans and hearts.  J  There are branches of eucalyptus in vases in each room and a bowl of roses and other flowers on the table in the main room.  The main room has a fire place with chairs, a looong table with benches, and many books and photo albums of the history of the place.  We arrived to 5 places set with glasses, napkins, and cutlery.  We made pasta with meat sauce for dinner.  The one drawback is that there is no cell service and we need to go on the hosts’ back porch to use the wi-fi.   

The owners house

Owners from the side

Their pool

Owners house from the side with their back porch on the right.

This morning, Kathi, Randy, and I walked around the reservoir, a short approximately one-two mile walk.  We encountered cows and tons of kangaroos.  Joshua was still sleeping when we walked, so later in the afternoon, Randy went on an 8-mile hike, and Joshua and I walked around the reservoir (a little longer path this time), hoping to see kangaroos, but didn’t see any. 

The path

Kangaroos

cows

The horses that Joshua and I saw came right over to us, looking for snacks.

Joshua and the horses

At night, we made chicken for dinner, fried in oil and seasoned with whatever seasonings we could find in the kitchen cupboard.  Then we played cards and chess.  We started the fire just before starting dinner.   As the afternoon wanes, the temperatures drop and it get quite cold overnight.