Billabong Station

After a two-day ride from Gunnedah to Coolah, I was sitting in the Black Stump Inn having some crackers and cheese when my personal savior named Mike Wilson showed up.  A coupla preliminaries:

*  The ride from Gunnedah to Coolah was genuinely brutal; the hottest and hardest yet.  It made me wonder for the first time if I really wanted to do this any more.
*  The term "beyond the black stump" is an Australianism that generally means "way out in injun territory".
*  Xandra Makim had come through again and connected me to Will Davison, a cattle station manager south of Dubbo.
*  Will had connected me with Mike Wilson, a stock agent on his way down to Will's ranch; a place called Billabong.

.... so I was pretty well spent, and here was Mike!  Mike and I stuffed the bike, trailer and all my crap in his car and off we went.

Three hours later we pulled into Billabong Station, just south of Forbes.  I got to meet Will and his wife Lisa, wonderful people both, and they gave me a room and a place to shower.  That was 6 days ago.

Dry lake....

The two full days I spent with Will and Lisa were genuinely great; I got a much needed rest and let the saddle sores heal up, and I also got a crash course in cattle station operations and management.  I got to help muster cattle on a quad-bike, move them around from pen to pen for weighing and sales.  The overarching concern about rain among farmers in NSW was reinforced; Will took me to Lake Cowal, which is generally very large and about 20 feet deep.  It's now so dry that the wind blows the water hundreds of meters in any direction, and the fish are left flopping in the sun.

A Billabong Saion original:
Chicken on a Shotgun

That didn't stop the festivities though; the food was great, the wine was even better and they acted as if my Chuck Norris jokes were funny.  And in a pinnacle of tolerance, probably induced by the wine, they listened to me sing Irish songs and only laughed where they were supposed to.  Awesome!

I left Billabong Station day before yesterday, 25 November.  Mike dropped me off on the Newell Highway - my new home until Melbourne - and  headed for West Wyalong into yet another headwind....