First Week

So how is life in Australia? Well, to be honest, my first week here wasn’t much different from Germany since I spent most of my days working with Mark’s horses.

In the mornings I started grooming and riding Salsa and Shrek, and after that I drove over to Geoff’s place to ride the other three. Salsa and Shrek are very nice horses and I enjoy riding them a lot. The other three horses are so terribly ridden they feel like a four year old horse that’s being ridden for the first time, even though they’re all around 9. They’re all from Germany and have been trained there, but after a couple of years of hillbilly riding, they seem to have forgotten it all. It’s physically painful to ride them, my back was killing me for a couple of days.

Driving to the other yard was a bit of an adventure for me. It’s not just the driving on the wrong side of the road (even though I ended up driving on the right [as opposed to left] side and when a car came up in my direction in the same lane I was like “This is weird, it looks like that person is driving in my lane…oh shit!”). Whenever I want to blink I wipe the windshield instead because the thingies are also on the “wrong” side. The adventurous part, however, are the gravel roads. They are real, legitimate roads but you’re driving on dirt which is fine when the weather is nice, but it was stormy and rainy all week, so I just crept along there, having visions of how I would end up dead on an Australian gravel road in my first week. Also, it’s amazing to me how Mark can complain that German roads are so narrow, when Australian roads are even worse. They’ve got speed signs up, for example you’re allowed to drive 80 at a steep hill with a tight turn. 80! At my most courageous, I drive 40 there. How people survive doing 80, I do not know.

As mentioned above, the weather was nasty. It is winter here, and apparently the wettest winter in history. I now know why. Out of 7 days, we had one day of sunshine with only a couple of small showers. The rest of the week, we had storm, torrential rain, hail, thunder and lightning and even a power-out. Wow, I know. I wear at least 5 shirts on top of each other day and night because it is so cold and Australian houses are not made for this kind of weather. At least we got some beautiful rainbows and the sunrise is always very nice.

Since Belinda and Mark were in Canada for a wedding and the kids stayed with his parents, I was also responsible for the dogs and chickens and I had the house all to myself, which was great. Both dogs are really old, super nice and funny. I let them sleep in my room because it was the warmest in the house and also because in Australia, people don’t lock their doors and I’m a big old scaredy cat. I had to man up twice because there were big, ugly spiders in my room and it was either kill them or sleep on the sofa, and who knows, maybe there would have been spiders on the sofa, too, so I opted for the killing. Please note that when I say big, I mean as big as the biggest you will ever see in Germany. It was disgusting, but I got the job done. In the feed room, me and the English groom came across a spider the size of a small mouse, and that thing was furry. I decided that I would let Debbie be the brave one and dispose of the spider, while I ran to the other side of the yard and only came back when the spider had been removed. Yeah, I’m curious as to what my reaction will be should I ever encounter a huntsman spider…

Now that I’m going into my second week here, things will get more exciting soon. Whenever Mark or Belinda drive down to Adelaide next, I’ll grab my backpack and start the travel part of my Australian experience. The (rough) plan is to spend a couple of days in Adelaide, enjoy the city, go to the beach, go to Kangaroo Island and try to see some dolphins and whales, while they’re still in the area. After that I’ll do Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. I’ll travel by Greyhound, because it is affordable and I can actually see the country (as opposed to if I were to fly) without having to worry about the driving myself. Besides the tourist/sightseeing aspect of it all, I hope I’ll get some writing done as well because there should be no lack of inspiration.

So the next entry will probably be up when I’m in Adelaide, I’m just not quite sure when that will be exactly, but it’s definitely going to happen soon.