Arriving to the Middle of Nowhere…Oz Edition
Although we really enjoyed Melbourne, we were more than ready to experience a side of Victoria which took us “into the Outback” as we headed to the Southern Cross Train Station for our first overland adventure down under. Of course, we’d be schooled soon enough by our friends that we were merely in the “suburbs” (ha!) and still at least a few hours from the edges of the “Outback.”
Our journey took us 3.5 hours by train and then by bus to Wangaratta, or “the Wang,” which is the charming term for the town, which naturally also refers to male genitalia in Aussie slang.
From our first impressions, public transportation, even from real city to “rural city” as the they call small towns, is impressive, easy and quite affordable. In fact, our two round trip tickets only cost us $27 USD, which we pre-purchased online!
We made it to Southern Cross Train Station with our doomy roller bag in tow (see last post) with plenty of time for walking up and down the platform at least 15 times before it was time to go. (It’s often hard to get steps in on travel days.)
As Mandy paced alongside the carriages, Greg held down the fort, and our newfound excess of baggage as at least four mini humans ran up and down the aisle receiving 10 hits of Fairy Floss (aka cotton candy), a line of Coke, and colored sugar poop pellets being dispensed from an electric blue mini toilet bowl. We were happy to see Australia’s children are acquiring the same nutrients as ours.
Our first stop took us to Seymour Station, where we were once again greeted by well-preserved historical signage, and modern coach buses, which were full and clearly being used by all types of people, as they should.
As we headed further north, the (not-Outback) terrain began to get drier and scrubbier…
…the magpies slightly larger, and the signage a bit more daunting.
Signage that was in fact, right next to the historic bus station in some “rural city” in the middle of nowhere. Yes, even out here in the suburban sticks you can still get around. This is in a country, like ours, which is heavily dependent upon the caahr. (Not a typo that’s how they say it.) My goodness…the US has a lot to learn.
But Oz does seem to share their love of water towers. They just plaster theirs with cute little marsupials. Let’s count how many times I use the word absolutely bucolic out here….
Experiencing Life Down on the Farm
When Georgian trail friends, Joel and Leah reached out to us to come visit their dairy farm in rural Victoria, we were quite elated because we had no idea they were even still following our page, nor that they lived in this part of Australia. (Speaking of, all you silent stalkers…say hello or post a comment…we’d love to hear from you!
That said, we jumped at the chance for a rural farm experience and to explore a part of the state of Victoria we wouldn’t get to otherwise….
From Wangaratta (aka “The Wang” or penis in case you missed it above), Joel picked us up in his work car which he uses for his day job…helping local farmers get financing for their projects. On the way home, the sights were already juicily…bucolic.
Joel comes from a long line of dairy farmers, including his 62-year-old dad Brian who lives nearby and “has farmed from childhood and will ‘til the day he dies.” Since we met them in 2018 hiking in Georgia, he and his partner bought the farm in 2021 and have had two little girls, in addition to their 340 slightly more cumbersome bovine daughters. Here’s one of them. While there, we enjoyed absolute tranquility and even got to keep our routines up. Though our morning jogs were undoubtedly permeated by different scents in the air.
Taking a ride at dusk in the ATV on their 600 acres to go kangaroo hunting! Nah-reez (= no worries); the only shots we took were via smart phone! But we did encounter a couple trouble makers congregating on the wrong side of the pasture along the way.
But BOOM!(er!)…out of nowhere…we saw exactly what we were looking for. Our first mama and joey shooting across the paddock (that means farmland), and even as we whipped at a speed of 30 mph we could barely keep up. Apparently, they can reach speeds of 44 mph or 71 kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, Joel informed us, what we see as an absolute wonder, he can see as a bit of nuisance because they often compete with the cows for grazing pasture and water, particularly during droughts. Additionally, they can damage fences, crops, and water sources.
After this experience, Joel rumbled us over into the pasture where the herd was grazing for a sunset spectacular, and to allow what now felt like a safari vehicle to be surrounded by curious creatures. He invited us to allow them to approach and even sniff us. One took a whiff of Mandy’s outstretched paw and apparently didn’t find her smell too enticing. There was no offense taken because the feeling was mutual. Others just stopped and stared. Such soulful creatures.
After that, we returned to the house and Joel tried to explain where we could fetch some milk in the morning for our coffee. His instructions were to go to the dairy, climb the tank via a ladder, and scoop the milk in the pitcher. We must have looked a bit bewildered by all this ladder climbing business because Leah took one look at us and told Joel to show us instead. As Greg peered into the giant vat of cold and frothy milk, fortunately then it all made sense.
And that milk was seriously farm fresh! Normally we don’t really drink much milk except for our coffee, but OMG…it was so delicious we’ve had to down a couple glasses. Unfortunately, the unpasteurized delight wreaked a bit of havoc on Greg’s stomach for the weeks following, though Mandy’s seemed totally fine.
Joel and Leah’s homestead.
Mandy, smooshed into the back seat, making new friends with the blue-eyed beauties, Hazel and Phoebe. We were heading over to Joel’s dads’ farm to pick up a vehicle we’d be borrowing for our explorations.
It’s a Ute, Clark!! By vehicle, we mean a ute, or utility truck, where Greg got the opportunity to not only learn how to drive on the other side of the road…but drive a stick…with his non-dominant hand. Eeek! Good thing there’s no one else on the roads around here!! Fortunately he adapted fine. Mandy, on the other hand, dozed off and then had a mini panic attack when she realized she “was at the wheel.” 🤣
Back on the farm, the game of dog-and-chicken was an everyday and quite entertaining occurrence…at least for some. Also back on the farm, Joel outfitted us in some rather glamorous full length plastic aprons and sexy rubber boots to accompany us into the trenches.
By trenches, you can probably guess what we mean. For the record, we didn’t know what to expect. We’ve seen a lot of awful documentaries about the horrific farm factories in the States…so we were pleasantly surprised to see how the process of where food comes from at a small farm in rural Australia. In fact, the cows seemed most interested in chowing down as the automated milk machines collected the milk out of their udders, which lasted about 5-10 minutes. They also enjoyed releasing quite a few chocolatety deluges, narrowly missing our friends on multiple occasions and sprinkling all of us with presents. After, it was all over, Joel informed us, “that was one of the messiest ones he’d seen in awhile and we got lucky to experience it.”
Wow. Being a farmer is some seriously down and dirty work and this whole experience certainly made us respect what they do even more, and grateful there are people who still want to do it. Even more so because they are unable to keep good, consistent labor and there is simply no immigrant pool, legal or otherwise, to pull from. They said the US is lucky in this regard, but it will be interesting to see how that changes our food supply in the next few years.
Waiting for their turn to party, the spectators were a little unsure about the new arrivals (aka us.) It was interesting to experience the different personalities of the cows. Some were timid, some sociable and some simply curious.
Leah predominantly runs the admin of the farm and her to do list is naturally endless…including laundry, so her husband doesn’t always smell like cow poo.
Our abode during the five-night visit, which is a converted container they use as their guesthouse. It was absolutely perfect for us and even included a little kitchenette and sofa.
And just in case you’ve been following us since 2018, this was Joel and Leah when we met them back then. We hiked with them for several days from Svaneti to Usguli and are so happy we had the chance to see them again!
