Looking back on my trip to Aussie there isn't a single thing that I would change except perhaps make it longer and change the weather on a few days, but that's just getting picky on my part. the trip as a whole was defiantly a experience of a lifetime that I am glad I was able to share with a great group of people. I was so excited to finally be in the trip it took the first day and a half for me to finally come to terms with actually being in Australia. Touring the Healsville Sanctuary was a great first taste of both the wildlife and the people but the first major impact for me was when we had dinner at La Camera. Both the menu and some of the differences in word meanings made it finally seem real that we weren't in Kansas anymore. This as well as meeting with the head of Primary Industries and learning about the impressive National Livestock Identification System in place were two of the biggest impacts and first impressions I had.

My birthday at Gilligan's

    Although I can't pick a favorite, the farm visits were a very high ranking portion of the trip. All of the visits helped me gain a little more insight as to what the average rural Australian family or farm are like, something that just touring the main tourist sites would never convey. Going off the beaten path and staying in small cities like Wagga Wagga and Albury were also a favorite part of the trip. although the hotels may not have been quite up to par with those in Sydney and Melbourne, but locals were very welcoming. They all were people that our group could connect with more since we had small towns and or agriculture as common backgrounds.

Dinner cruise in Sydney

  Towards the end of the trip were some of the most memorable and fun times, especially when the whole group celebrated my birthday at Gilligan's in Cairns as well as surprising me with a cake at dinner. The most indescribable sight we saw, however, would have to be the Great Barrier Reef namely the bottom of it while scuba diving. As soon as we returned home, as a matter of face before we even left I was ready to go back and do more exploring in what had quickly became my favorite place I have ever visited. I can only hope to go back someday and spend some more time in Sydney and go out to the Reef and Green Island again for sure. 

Our scuba diving group

My Birthday!

Day 8

May 30th

Fire making

Most of the day today was spent in the air for us as we had a three hour flight to Cairns in Northern Tropical Queensland. We arrived around noon and then went to the Tjapukai Aboriginal cultural center. Highlights included boomerang and spear throwing demonstrations,  a didgeridoo performance, and hunting / natural foods lessons. It was very entertaining to learn and practice throwing the spears and the boomerangs from real indigenous people. 

Boomerang throwing

The weather hasn’t been in our favor however, it has been raining off and on since we got here which hasn’t made for the best sight seeing but hopefully things will clear and warm up before we hit the reef. Tonight we are heading to a bar called the Salt club that is known world wide. The next on our agenda is dinner at The Fish which is said to be the best place for sea food in the city. Last but not least we will be hitting the downtown area to celebrate my birthday and one of our last times out in Australia.It’s hard to believe that we have been gone for eight days, especially since we didn’t get a May 22nd with the international date change.  

My Birthday cake!

Put it on the Barbie

The view from the Emu farm

Tom the lamb

The day started out at theTrigger Vale sheep farm. In my opinion this was the first true family farm that we visited. We got to meet and visit with the whole family, even the kids as they paraded around with a lamb that they had kept aside for special nursing. IT was very interesting to listen to the talk about their view on how much fat ewes should have as well as how that correlated with reproductive efficiency. Most of the main stream sheep industry want all sheep to be as lean as possible because of thee push for leaner meat. The approach at Trigger Vale however was to incase reproductive efficiency by giving the ewes more of a reserve to help support themselves as well as the lambs. 

Some of the Emus fighting

The barbie at the Emu farm

We then moved onto what proved to be one of the highlights of the day, a visit to a Emu farm. They are in their breeding season so they were very territorial and aggressive. The males make a drumming sound while the females made a grunting sound.  Contrary to many other species, it is the females that are more aggressive. The main product that they profit from these strange birds is the oil. they also use the feathers, leather, and meat to some extent. The oil comes form the fat and a special process that requires expensive equipment is required to do so. They hosted us for lunch and we were able to experience our first true Australian barbie of sausage and steak. 

Shorthorn Bulls

At the second barbie

Our last stop of the day was to Sprys shorthorn ranch a leading seed stock operation for the area. The bulls they had were some of the most impressive that we had seen the whole trip and we were able to go in the paddock with them and get a good look at each bull as well as hear individual information about each. We had the privilege of getting treated to another home cooked meal of steak on the barbie accompanied of course by beer and wine since water isn’t a normal drink to have with meals anytime we want it we have to make a special request. Today was a great day to get to became more personal with the locals and enjoy food that wasn’t from a restaurant. We are will stay two nights in Waga Waga before moving on to Sydney on the 29th. 

Opposite Ends of the Spectrum

Lima Park

Lawson Angus 

     We started off this morning from the small town of Seymour and went to the Lawson Angus farm. This visit was significant to our group because they have a partnership with Gardiner Angus Ranch back in Kansas which is the family farm of Grant on of the students with us on the trip. Their work with genetics proved to be similar to the states as expected with their connections to Kansas.They were also very on top of AI and embryo work within their herd. He also told us about the large fires that they had in the area in recent years and about their impact on the local farmers and how many cattle/farms were lost. After our visit we went to Mandala, a well known vineyard for biscuits and coffee or tea and got to browse around and sample some of the local wines. We then moved on to Bonnie Doon and had a quick lunch before moving on again. 

Some of the fire damage

Our next stop, Lima Park was the polar opposite of the first farm. They do all natural breeding for their Herefords and have a much more lax standard on what they expect for weights, average daily gains, and things such as EPD’s. The main focus and profit at this farm was the sheep portion of the operation. It was very interesting to see the shearing barn and hear about how much the wool contributes to the farms profits as well as the meat. He also told us about his main herding dog, which interestingly enough is a three legged Kelpie. It was very interesting to compare the opposite approaches to running their cattle farms. We worked our way North to Albury where we will spend one night before moving again to Waga Waga tomorrow. This evening we were able to go out and see a bit of the night life of Albury as well as get a decent steak dinner. there is no better way to close a day! I’m really looking forward to touring the Emu farm tomorrow afternoon as well as the Cargill arbitrator.

One of the owners of Lima Park

Two flights down one to go

Well day one has almost came to a close and there is only one long flight left before I'm living in the land down under....well temporarily. Mr. Pake Ebert had to have too the highlight of the day for everyone as we got to share the experience of his first flight with him on our first journey from KC to Dallas. The shortest flight was luckily on the smallest plane of the trip and it has only been improving from there. I'm currently in LA waiting to board a airbus at 10:45 (12:45 central time) that could quit possibly hold my whole hometown, ok maybe not but at least a food portion of it. It will be interesting to see how well everyone, myself included, can handle going right from sleeping on a plane and then customs to our first adventure at a wildlife refuge the next morning, I guess time will tell!