Change In Plans

IAN AND DI FARGHER AND THE BAIRD FAMILY

Greetings from Angorichina Station, in the Australian Outback.  We are settling into a comfortable and very pleasant rhythm of activities with our exceptional hosts, Di and Ian.  It feels like a visit to friends in their very remote country house, set on a 200-square-mile desert sheep farm.  They have been hosting tourists like us in their home for the last ten years, and are very, very good at this. What amazes me most is that they create this home-like, welcoming environment with no staff. In India and South Africa there would be lots of help. In South Australia, it’s just Ian and Di.

Yesterday morning, Ian took Zola, India and me on a tour of the local sights.  Tallulah stayed back at the ranch with Di, and was as happy as could be.  On our tour we saw a lot of old, old, ancient rock formations.  The Flinders Range mountains were formed about 600 million years ago.  Because the soil and rocks are all exposed, you can see the layers and striations, and the folds and fault lines.  The park area is well curated, and little signs explain pretty clearly the patterns of flooding and erosion which created this dry, hilly desert country.  We also spent time looking at ancient, earliest-life-form fossils of sea tubes and cyanobacteria, some dating back 550 million years. 

At one bend in the ancient river gorge, we tracked and found the elusive Yellow-foot Rock Wallaby.  Very skittish little marsupials, living a tough existence in these harsh conditions.

In the afternoon, we saddled a few of Ian and Di’s horses.  Zola and Tallulah got to ride by themselves, with Di leading them.  Zola looked very sporting in his bush hat.  Ian, India and I then went on a longish trail ride through the dry creek beds, and over the hills.  I am a very poor rider, and my horse, Ned, was showing a lot of signs of gleeful insubordination as we walked around the paddock.  Once we got on the trail, though, Ned was very content to walk obediently behind India (on Cindy), and Ian (on Magic).  Apparently, at one point Ned was meant to be a racehorse, but, as Ian joked, Ned’s comfort zone was clearly at the back of the pack, so maybe racing was the wrong profession.

Halfway through the ride, Ian told us that we were “the guinea pigs” for the idea of horse riding with guests.  Apparently they bought Cindy and Ned, and were hoping that the trail rides would be OK.  I seem to fall off horses about 20% of the time that I ride.  I am glad this ride was in the other 80%, or we could have set back the guest-riding attraction by years.

Just before dinner, we piled into Ian’s Land Cruiser, and drove up the biggest nearby hill, to drink beer and watch the sun set over the desert.  Zola immediately found several flat rocks to play with.  While the adults talked of boring subjects like drought, politics, and sheep econommics, Zola created an entire World War II naval battle, with aircraft carriers, destroyers, kamikazes, and submarines.  We practically had to drag him away from the rocks after the sun went down.

This morning, while Ian and Di watched the kids, India and I ran back to the hill top where we had watched the sun set.  It was brutally hard for me to keep up with India and with the two sheep dogs that Ian had sent with us for company.  The view from the top was beautiful in the early morning light.

When we got back, Ian was fixing a water pipe down by the shearing sheds, and Zola and Tallulah were supervising in their pajamas from the back of his pick-up truck.  Both kids were barefoot and very happy to be out on the range.

Ian took Zola and me up for a flight in his old Beechcraft plane, ostensibly to check on the levels in the remotely located water tanks.  Ian has been a bush pilot for 30 years, and clearly likes to fly.  We pushed the plane out of the garage and onto the driveway/airstrip.  30 seconds later we were airborne.

We got a much better sense of how big a 200-square-mile ranch is by flying around it for a while.  The dry, craggy landscape is even more beautiful from the air.  We checked the water tanks, and looked for sheep and wild goats. 

The highlight for Zola was when Ian said over the headphones, “Zola, do you see any enemy aircraft out there?  Uh oh, they are right on our tail.  Time for evasive action!”

Ian put the plane into a steep dive, bringing us down from about 800 feet to 100 feet, so we were skimming over the rocks and sand.  Zola shouted “Whoo hoo!” then “Ian, they are still on our tail!”  Ian pulled back on the stick, and we climbed to about 1,000 feet, while Zola made machine-gun and missile noises over the microphone. After we leveled out, Ian made a series of sharply banked left turns, and then another power dive as we cleared the crest of a low range of hills. 

From the back seat, we heard Zola, “Whoo hoo, whoo hoo! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-rat -a-tat-tat-tat.  Take that, bad guys!  I think we lost them, Ian.”  And Zola and Ian both laughed and laughed.

After we landed, Zola said to me, “Wow!  Mom would have loved that… NOT!”  Ian confided that Di would also have loved it … NOT!

Today we are planning to drive over to the Prairie Hotel, which is run by Ian’s brother and his wife (who happens to be Di’s sister).  In the afternoon we are planning to take another trail ride.  Ian and ZOla may also take the motorbike out for a spin, since Zola seemed to enjoy that yesterday.

We are having a great time at Angorichina.  We will be sorry to leave tomorrow morning, to fly up to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock).  In the meantime, we will enjoy our remaining time as pretend sheep farmers, ringers, and outback adventurers.