Coddiwomple

It's slow going writing this particular blog post as I am doing it with only one functional hand.  After almost 7000kms on the bikes, injury found me while running.   I wish I had a fantastic story to tell, but I simply tripped on a rocky trail and fell over.  You know that meme that goes "If you want to know if you're old fall over.   If people laugh you're still young,  if people panic then you're old!"  I can confirm, I am definitely old! It probably didn't help that two of my fingers were quite obviously either dislocated, broken or both.   I begged Kerstin to remove my wedding ring before the finger started swelling, being three hours from the hospital I was imagining the worst case scenario of the ring tourniqueting my finger and its subsequent death and amputation.  Poor Kerstin, this kind of thing makes her faint, but she gritted her teeth and pulled off the ring.  I then gritted my teeth and asked the ex-army maintenance guy to try and relocate my

Without our daily bike rides, Kerstin and I were soon feeling grumpy and sluggish, our bodies and minds needing some movement, flow and positive energy.  So, just as soon as our new trail running shoes arrived on the mail plane, we laced up and headed out. Fitting a run into a day that starts at 0430 and ends at 2030 sounds impossible.  But a commute of less than a minute means that once breakfast is sorted, usually by 0630, we can head home, put on some running gear and head straight out again.  And as we are already into weather that means you need the air conditioner on by 1030, running at dawn works out just perfect.   Here comes the sun It's a beautiful time of day out here, the early light brings out all the subtle colours of the landscape which are lost once the sun is bright and hot overhead.  We use the 'Rory loop' a five km circuit, using some of the old Barkley hwy, which is now pretty much just rubble, a route shared with us by Rory, the helicopter pilot. We als

There's plenty of things I anticipated learning when we accepted the positions at Avon Downs.  I thought I'd learn a lot about cooking for groups, about different cuts of beef and how to prepare them.  Maybe some stuff around the logistics of running a community which is 260km from the closest centre, and even then, its still Mt Isa... But I didn't really expect to learn a new language.  To be fair, I haven't spent a lot of time in the Territory.  But they really do speak their own dialect here.  Much different from costal Queensland, which is a slower, relaxed kind of Australian drawl.  Here it's fast, brief and usually mumbled.  I think I spent the first month constantly asking people to repeat themselves, answering the phone is always a diabolical risk.  And trying to understand the radio chat, impossible! Then there is all the slang and local shorthand.  To be fair some of the slang I suspect has been created by the Ringers themselves, as they are on their own l

Q:  "Which is more important, the journey or the destination?' A:  "The company." Introducing the team at Avon Downs Station.  This video was made as part of a competition between AACo Stations for the Employee Challenge.  It's a great way to show the outside world what life on Avon looks like.  It will change your perspective on who works on Cattle Stations. There is a lot to be said for keeping company with Generation Z.  The stockcamp (the staff who do all the stock work) are all aged between 16-23 years old.  We feel pretty privileged to be given access and insight into their world.  They are generous when asked for explanations of everything from the work they do, to how the social system between them as individuals, as a team and as a Station works.  I'm pretty sure the education is going both ways!  If you want to be reassured about the future, then I recommend spending some quality time with it.

I recently took a phone call from one of the ringer's mums. Not quite sure whether she had dialed the right number, she asked "are you the new cook?" and I replied "I am the other half that came with the new cook, I am more the (kitchen's) helping hand". We then continued to have a lovely chat. She was kind enough to enquire whether we are settling in okay and then she asked "are there still frogs in the toilets?"  Ha! I laughed out loud. I told her that almost every toilet we have cleaned on the station so far has come with a "froggy" surprise. Fortunately, they don't make themselves known while you are "in business" but once you proceed to the flushing part of your toilet visit, they jump or slip-and-slide into your vision. God knows how they get into the system in the first place, but once they are in there, they are hard to get out. This is not so much of a worry if they reside in the staff toilets. But when it comes to

It is probably a bit overbearing to say that the Coddiwomple blog is back by popular demand. We are sure everyone's life was just fine without the daily posts from two middle-aged ladies riding their bicycles around the countryside of Eastern Australia, trying to circumnavigate the potholes of menopause and midlife while following the endless backroads of this nation towards unknown horizons.  But after what could be described as a four-week crash course in "working and living" on a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory, we have built an appetite for sharing some of the anecdotes and experiences of Kitchen Coddiwomple with our family and friends. In only a month, we have enough material to share stories until the cows come home (literally). There is a fabulous saying in German: "das geht auf keine Kuhhaut" - which freely translates to "you won't fit it on a cowhide". And if we all thought that riding a bicycle from Melbourne to Cairns the

This is just the briefest of notes to let you all know that we have landed (in the middle of nowhere). A flying start, hitting the ground running, jumping into the deep end of the pool - it is all of the above. The Coddiwomple Bicycle Tour feels like a ride in the park at this point.  We have been warmly welcomed by the entire crew here at Avon Downs. And given how young the team is, Louise has already nicknamed us "The Agony Aunts". A couple of important notes: we DO NOT HAVE mobile phone reception out here! Unfortunately all your beautiful and encouraging text messages will end up in digital nirvana. But we do have internet access (most of the time). Shortly we can also be contacted via the landline which is 08 8964 5551 (same time as South Australia).  If you would like to know a little more about where we ended up, please find following a brief introduction into the Avon & Austral Downs Station duo.  Avon Downs and Austral Downs Stations Mail is delivered once a week