We have now been in Australia for 1 month now, and Abi has only been called a pommie once! Also Sunday 18th March pinpointed the midway point of our trip. We can’t believe that we are already halfway through our travels!
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| Warnbro Beach, North of Perth | | |
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| The Black Swan of Swan River, Perth |
10 days into our stay in Perth we left the city and relocated to a more rural setting, up in the hills of Mt Helena. Here we are not surrounded by high rise buildings and shops, but lots of bushland, big trees, local grocery stalls and tavernas...it was like stepping back in time, and the area has a real charm to it. It is like what we imagined outback Australia to be; it’s not often you spot kangaroos, an emu and bandicoots on the way to the corner shop!
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| Late afternoon in one of the paddocks |
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| Mundaring reservior which supplies the water to Kalgoorlie |
In Mt Helena we have been helping out at a Australian warmblood stud which is owned by A Danish lady. We found this place through a site called HelpX, where basically you sign up to do voluntary work and homestays with a family or business in return for food and board. It is a really good idea, and a great way to experience a different side to the country you are visiting as well as meeting new people and gain new skills (HelpX is worldwide so you can apply for work in almost any country!).
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| Having an afternoon rest 'n' roll |
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| Two of the resident Alpacas at the stud! |
Middays can get very hot and dry up here in the hills, as well as very dusty too! So we are up at 6.30am each day in order to get most of the horse related work done before it gets too hot- lots of poo picking, feeding, grooming, handling, exercising and training! There are 20 horses here at present, which is made up of a mixture of yearlings, foals and brood mares...so as you can imagine there is alot of horses to feed and subsequently alot of poo to collect (luckily we have a trailer pulled by a quad bike to help with that!).
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| Some 6:30AM poop picking in the paddocks! |
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| Max and the poop collecting quad! |
During our stay here at the stud we have fallen in love with a thoroughbred horse called Beauty, she is about 4 years old and is an ex racehorse from Perth. Together we have been working on re-schooling her, which has involved taking her back to basics and lots of lunging, free schooling and riding in the round yard. Her previous racing trainers decided she wouldn’t make a desirable race horse as she wasn’t up to speed! She is a great horse though, with a lovely temperament, so we are working on making her a suitable riding horse for a prospective buyer...fingers crossed!
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| Lunging Beauty the thoroughbred horse at the stud |
Also whilst at they stud we have had the opportunity to visit other breeders of Australian warmbloods, aswell as attend a lecture on Veterinary dentistry where we discovered the ins and outs of horses teeth which was really interesting as it was something we didn’t go into detail with whilst studying at uni.
So we leave Perth the first Monday of April to head down to Victoria where we will be staying in Melbourne! We’ve been told that it might not be as hot as sunny in comparison to Perth though, so maybe a coat may need to be purchased?! We also need advice on places to go and visit whilst in Melbourne, as we will have a week being a tourist before embarking on our some more HelpX homestays, including a Dutch family and lots of animals :-)
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| Watch out! Roo crossing! |
