CAMEL RIDES! The whole reason we came to Port Macquarie in the first place. And it turned out to be so much more of an adventure than we had bargained for! John- who is 80 and has very hairy ears- came to collect us at 9 this morning. On the relatively short drive out to the beach he told us about coming to Australia from England for 10 pounds and going on the boat around the world for 6.5 weeks with his family. He told us that Australian men beat their dogs- and their wives, and wasn't that something to look forward to. He said to us "have you heard of Farrah Fawcet?" and we said yeah, and he says "is she dead yet?" I don't even know where that one was going. Oh right, she was beaten by her husband.
We went through a little dip in the road and had to slow down because there were a bunch of cans and cardboard- clearly someone had lost a few 6packs out of the back of their truck. We drive by, and crazy John asks us if we drink beer, then says, hey, want to sit around and drink those beers? I ask "haha what, do you want to turn around and pick them up?" Sometimes I should not open my mouth, because faster than you would think an 80 year old can move he whipped the car around and before we knew it we were picking dented cans up off the street and putting the ones that were not apparently leaking into the boot of his car. Luckily we convinced him that they could be drunk later and we did in fact want to ride some camels, so we carried on. (I know this sounds insane, but I am not even joking one bit).
We get to the beach and meet the other John who leads the rides, and his friend Mary who lives across from the beach and wanted to meet a fellow American (or Yank as I have oft been called in the last few days) because they don't see many of them through here, apparently. She says to me "so you are from California?" more as a statement than a question so I ask how she knows. She says "isn't anyone who would travel out here from California?" I guess that is fair enough.
The camel ride itself was awesome. We were the only 2 there and the camels hadn't been out in weeks because of all the rains and floods. I got to ride Neptune, Hannah was on Minindie, and Bullah the bull brought up the rear and tried to cause trouble. John told us that Australia is the only place where there are herds of wild dromedaries anymore, their humps are all fat, that camels can lose a third of their body weight in water loss and gain it all back just by drinking, a camel can drink about 52 gallons of water in 10 minutes! Amazing. Riding them was funny- they can fit 2 ppl on- one on each side of the hump- and since we each had our own camel we sat behind the hump. When we had to get off and on the camels essentially lay down and tuck their legs beneath them, which feels really weird!
After the ride we got back in the car with Crazy John and he took us up to the lighthouse and we got to watch a pod of dolphins playing in the water! They were swimming in and out of waves, and were very cool. We also went to see a few more beaches, and he showed us where the bus station was. He didn't have anything else to do this morning, but since we had to get out of town we said our goodbyes. He offered to split the Bundaberg rum and coke cans we found this morning, but seemed even more pleased when we told him to keep them all. Friend for life that one.
We went through a little dip in the road and had to slow down because there were a bunch of cans and cardboard- clearly someone had lost a few 6packs out of the back of their truck. We drive by, and crazy John asks us if we drink beer, then says, hey, want to sit around and drink those beers? I ask "haha what, do you want to turn around and pick them up?" Sometimes I should not open my mouth, because faster than you would think an 80 year old can move he whipped the car around and before we knew it we were picking dented cans up off the street and putting the ones that were not apparently leaking into the boot of his car. Luckily we convinced him that they could be drunk later and we did in fact want to ride some camels, so we carried on. (I know this sounds insane, but I am not even joking one bit).
We get to the beach and meet the other John who leads the rides, and his friend Mary who lives across from the beach and wanted to meet a fellow American (or Yank as I have oft been called in the last few days) because they don't see many of them through here, apparently. She says to me "so you are from California?" more as a statement than a question so I ask how she knows. She says "isn't anyone who would travel out here from California?" I guess that is fair enough.
The camel ride itself was awesome. We were the only 2 there and the camels hadn't been out in weeks because of all the rains and floods. I got to ride Neptune, Hannah was on Minindie, and Bullah the bull brought up the rear and tried to cause trouble. John told us that Australia is the only place where there are herds of wild dromedaries anymore, their humps are all fat, that camels can lose a third of their body weight in water loss and gain it all back just by drinking, a camel can drink about 52 gallons of water in 10 minutes! Amazing. Riding them was funny- they can fit 2 ppl on- one on each side of the hump- and since we each had our own camel we sat behind the hump. When we had to get off and on the camels essentially lay down and tuck their legs beneath them, which feels really weird!
After the ride we got back in the car with Crazy John and he took us up to the lighthouse and we got to watch a pod of dolphins playing in the water! They were swimming in and out of waves, and were very cool. We also went to see a few more beaches, and he showed us where the bus station was. He didn't have anything else to do this morning, but since we had to get out of town we said our goodbyes. He offered to split the Bundaberg rum and coke cans we found this morning, but seemed even more pleased when we told him to keep them all. Friend for life that one.
I love it! Camels and crazy old men - what more can you ask for in an adventure?
ReplyDeletehahaha. rum and coke comes in cans? weird.
ReplyDeleteAs much as you should be jealous of my kittens and chowder, I'm pretty sure Australia and CAMEL RIDING (!!!!!!!) take the cake. Bring Bullah back for me? Maybe Jack will let me keep him at the barn...
ReplyDelete