A few weeks on a Cattle Farm

Here are a few pics of my recent adventure - working on a Cattle station over Christmas. The farm is larger than what we are used to in the UK - 100 kms North to South and 60 kms East to West. They have several thosand cattle and some goats all depending on bore water which is actually very drinkable on this particular farm. Some other places have salty water which is treated before human consumption.
It is also a very picturesque area with a naional park on the boundary - the Kennedy Range. Jobs I have been doing so far include fence work, cattle mustering on motorbikes and 4x4's, checking and maintaing bore water and pumps / tanks and some gardening.


Using a variety of vehicles to gather the cattle on this farm of half a million acres

Dog teasing the bungy and about to get a tail whip!

The neighbour dropped by in his plane to help locate some cattle to direct the ground crew on bikes and in 4x4's. One day they hope to move back to horses the old fashioned way!

After 12 hours and 28kms cattle mustering in up to 40 degree heat - not a pretty sight! I drank 10 litres of water. Then some beer.

A godsend!

The family road train - delivers some hay for Christmas!

Crossing the river - no wellies required as it only runs for a few weeks a year. However under the sand there is a useful supply of drinking water which does not need to be treated and is oumped to the house.

The mountains are part of the farm.

My hat didnt last ling after it proved popular with the farm dogs!

Cattle mustering - behaving themselves at this point so not much input required. However later in the day they hide from the sun under every tree/bush and moving them long becomes a chore.

Dust storm approaching.

Coral Bay Pier - water is pure aquamarine!

I took a day diving trip and swam with several Reef Sharks, beautiful coral and plenty of Rays.
Coral Bay - 1000 kms North of Perth. If my car breaks down here, well I wouldn't mind that much! Carnarvon

Carnarvon, Western Australia - no Castle or decent old pubs! but the weather makes up for that fact!

A friend of our neighbours at home in Swansea moved up to Geraldton and this is his specially made stained glass window. Nice touch!

A submarine that never made it past testing due to gas that was emitted by the fuel cells. Somebody with a sense of humour decided yellow was a good colour. "We all live..."

This is Fremantle early in the morning - a great little port town down the river from Perth.

You can stand on this street and watch the ships pass up the dock at the far end. You might make out the superstructure of a ship in the photograph under the cranes. This is where I landed on the cargo ship MSC Basel and iI booked into a hostel on this street also. (Pakenham St)

I looked around for a day or two and spotted this 1986 Toyota Corolla for sale. It had 270'000 kms on the clock but pretty much rust free and seemed to run well. So I bought it for around 500 pounds and spent a couple of hundred sorting out the odd mechanical fault, bought some provisons and camping gear and I have transport! This said, there is a chance I could break down so all necessary precautions have been taken - lucky horseshoe, fluffy dice...etc

Perth skyline taken from the Swan River. From here I am told it is around hours flight to Brisbane on the East coast. Similar distance to Singapore!

Indian Ocean voyage

The voyage from Singapore to Fremantle took 10 days via Jakarta. We spent a few days loading and unloading in Singapore and Jakarta so actual travel time was about 6.5 days. I ate with the officers 3 times a day and the food was abundant! I was the only passenger as a couple from Bristol had to cancel last minute. The crew were a mix of Russian, German, Estonian and the deck crew were from the Pacific Islands.

Here are some photos of the ship, the enormous engine (literally as big as my old terraced house in South Wales!) and the beautiful views from the ship. I watched a school of 20 dolphins swim with the ship at one point but didn't manage to spot any whales unfortunately.

This was the view from my cabin on the port side. We were passing through the islands of Indonesia at this point.
The view from the bridge - the ship was about 2/3 loaded going to Australia. It holds nearly 3000 containers, each of which is the size of a lorry trailer.
Sunset in the middle of Indian Ocean
2nd Engineer Sergei checking the fuel heaters. The ship runs on Heavy Fuel Oil that is heated to over 100 degrees prior to burning. It carried 3000 tons for this journey which took over 8 hours of refuelling.
Above is the rudder apparatus. Large hydraulic pistons linked with the on board navigation system to keep an accurate course.
Prop shaft.
Engine control lever! I was tempted to give it a tweak when the engineer wasn't looking but my common sense got the better of me.
Bottom end of the engine - gives around 20'000 horsepower. 6 cylinders, water cooled.
Top end of engine. A man could easily fit inside each of the huge cylinders. THey have a diameter of several feet.
My cabin!

SINGAPORE

SO I reached Singapore yesterday evening after many hours of delays on Malaysian trains. I was assured usually they run to time, but it was the Malaysian New Year holiday so just my luck!

Actually I consider myself very lucky as losing my bank card inside a cash machine has been my only problem of significance.

So the cargo ship will be my home for the next 9 days as I make my way to Fremantle, Perth Western Australia.

You can track my actual position at the following link...

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=ELUX6

Speak to you from the other side!

Underwater photos

False Clown Anemone Fish - we found Nemo. Actually they are not hard to find as they often live in the same Anemone due to building up a resistance to the anemone's stingers. This group had been in the same spot for a number of years I was told! Also, they are all born male but have the ability to change from male to female if the head female dies. Cuttlefish and Morganfish
Cuttlefish close up
School of Barracuda
Impressive Lionfish
Taking the plunge.

Having only limited diving experience I cannot compare the experience with much but I was amazed at the variety of coral and fish encountered. Apparently the coral suffered a lot from the tsunami and in places is only beginning to re-establish itself. Also the practice of fishing with dynamite has devastated localised areas. This is now illegal but possibly difficult to monitor so who knows if it is still practiced?

Phuket, Diving

Just some pics to start with, I will write something later when I have had some food!

Completed my PADI course, learnt a lot, had lots of fun, saw some cool sea creatures!

Good bye Cambodia, Hello Thailand!

Time is moving on and I havn't been so I abandoned hopes of visiting Badambang in Cambodia and took the bus to Bangkok. The pickup system is pointless. We wasted 90 mins driving a full sized coach around small streets and little known guesthouses to individually pick up nearly 40 people.

Surely if everyone was to make their way to one point this could be avoided. Maybe I was unlucky as I was the first to be picked up! At leadt I had the pick of the seats. The border was smooth but had a nother 2 hour delay waiting for the Thai bus.

Bangkok is so developed in comparison to the surrounding capitals so far as I can see. The taxis do obey some rules although the traffic is horrendous. I narrowly escaped a head on collision during one taxi ride. Next time I took the Sky train (overground metro system)

Shark fin restaurantOverland trainTraffic!

Siam Reap, Angkor Wat

I visited a traditional Khmer dance evening which was entertaining. As you could imagine it was geared for tourists (domestic as well as foreign) but was good nonetheless. The dancers tend to move very slowly and gracefully and are dressed up but have bare feet.
I enjoyed my food very much, even after I was waved to by the chickens foot in my curry. It looks so much like a hand and didn't have much meat on it so I left that bit behind.
Another tasty treat was barbecued stuffed frogs (left and top).
A group of land mine victims grew fed up of begging and started this band. They now play around the temples under the shade of the trees and have a CD.
Very peaceful getaway from the busy temples - West Mabon is an 8km x 0.8km man made lake constructed around the C10th and a good spot to enjoy the bbq fish and stuffed frog.
Begging in tourist areas is apparently more financially rewarding than working. These children were not begging but many do. Some have even been taught to get tourists to buy them condensed milk (several dollars a can) claiming they have a young sibling starving at home. This can then be sold for profit. Clever! It has to be appreciated though that many people are in extreme poverty. Even those in work get paid salaries of only a few dollars a month.
View of Angkor Wat Temple (built around C8th) from the air. I did not take this one as the helicopter ride was a little outside my budget!
South Gate to Bayon complex
Anyone for a jigsaw? This is an ongoing reconstruction being carried out by a French group of archaeologists. A daunting task.
The Bayon temple with many stone faced towers above the main structure. Intricate bas-reliefs are carved to depict many events including this - a battle scene
Ta Prohm temple which has been largely left unrestored due to the unique relationship it has with the trees that have enveloped it.
The size of these temples and trees are difficult to guage from photographs but they are very large.