where did I leave you

Yesterday a week ago I arrived back in Belgium after my almost 8 month Aussie adventure. 

Today, my laptop is fixed so I can blog again with all my pictures at hand ! 

I left you guys hanging at West MacDonnell National Park in the NT. After those couple days national park we had to head back south again. And so we did.

The Breakaways

 This had been said to be one of outback south Australia's best kept secrets !
The entire area was once (about 70 million years ago) covered by an inland sea, it's a very eery place to say the least it's almost like you're on mars. Even though this place has one of the world's harshest environments there are still an array of native flora and fauna who have successfully adapted themselves to survive the climate. It's awesome, hot, weird and even a bit scary driving through here.

This is a dog fence.

The fence is almost 2 meters high and stretches over 5,614km through South-eastern Australia.

By 1885 this pest-exclusion fence finished and should protect the (relatively) fertile south-east part of Australia and protect huge sheep flocks in Southern Queensland.

The necessity of the fence becomes very clear when you read stories about one station alone in SA losing more than 11,000 sheep in a year to dingo attacks, even as recently as in 1991 a station lost 3000 sheep in one year. The sheep farmers fought back with poison and shooting, and eventually ending up building world's longest fence.

After a night in Coober Pedy we stopped at hart lake in South Australia the next day.

Lake Hart is one of Australia's many salt water lakes. Which makes that you can just walk over the entire lake because it is entirely covered with salt. 

Lake Hart

Kati Thanda- Lake Eyre showing it's famous pink colouration from algae

The most well-known is Lake Eyre. Situated not far from where we were at this time is lake is the lowest natural point in Australia at approximately 15m below sea level and on the rare occasions that it fills (a few times a century) the latest lake in Australia and the 18 largest in the world!

April 10 was our last night on the Stuart hwy.

So we ended it good with a little fire, garlic bread on the BBQ, a very good tomato soup and of course our great books we had bought in Alice Springs. 

next up, Barossa wine valley, SA

 Because we had seen the entire coast up to Port Augusta we decided to by-pass Adelaide this time and head for the Barossa Valley.

This major wine-producing region has cute village names like Mount Pleasant and Nuriootpa. So we went cruising through there for about 3 days. It was great we went wine tasting at this big winery, Whistler Wines. We went here because they have a kangaroo nursery too! Hence the cute little kangaroo picture.
The wine on the left here is called 'Get in my belly!' (wadup Austin Power reference!!) hence the x-ray picture on the bottle too ;-).

After a delicious lunch of crackers and cheese from The Barossa Valley Cheese Co, grapes and a little bit of tatziki with a great view over the valley we presumed our driving tour through the valley.

Our last stop in South Australia was Bordertown where we got to meet these cool guys!

What makes this town special is that it is home to the white kangaroo!

These kangaroos aren't albino, they are just Western Grey Kangaroos who turned out white. According to a story the first white male white western grey kangaroo was found an captured in 1980. By 1984 the first white western grey kangaroo was born and ever since then white kangaroos have been borne in successive generations. 

So April, 14 2015 was the day that I saw an entire breeding colony of white kangaroos, not albinos naturally white kangaroos.

writing this all in retrospect was fun because I was still in Oz so it wasn't all so far away at all.

Now, however, that I'm back in Belgium it's a bit sad writing about it because it all seems so far away and I want to go back so badly but on the other hand I really enjoy it a lot too because I'm constantly reminded of those great happy times.

all about my first and last state Victoria will be for the next post!

xoxo Lizzie

Out of place

And all of a sudden this once so familiar place and world isn't what it was anymore to me. Or maybe it's just me that isn't familiar anymore. I don't know. 

It's hard to explain how, what and why I'm feeling because it's so good to see all my friends and family again after so long but I can't help but long for the day that I can go again. Because over here, somehow, I feel so very out of place.  

Everyone has their lives here and I have mine in Australia. 

Only time will help me build my life back up here again. I guess I'm just fighting it now because I'm afraid of losing my wonderful Australian life. 

I'll never let go of that life. I just have to make room for more. 

Not quite yet

So normaly I would fly back to Belgium today. 

We woke up at half past 5 this morning so that by 6 we would be on our way down to Melbourne, we being Steve and I as he offered to drive me down which was very awesome. By half past 8 I walked into the international terminal of Melbourne airport. Five minutes later I found out my flight was canceled so, after getting directed and redirected all over this side of the airport I finally found the Jetstar help desk. After an hour and a half I walked back out of the airport again, crossed the street en entered the very fancy Parkroyal hotel ! 

As it so happened that due to engineering requirements my flight was rebooked to tomorrow morning which means that I got a hotel room worth up to 150$ and a 30$ voucher for any thing I want in the hotel ! 

So here I am in a fancy hotel leisurely walking around debating if I would go to the spa now of later.

Aaaaah, how wonderful life can be.

Not quite heading home yet, it seems Australia is giving me one extra day of wonderfullness and I'll enjoy every minute of it!

The saddlery

As much as I love my showjumping and dressage training I am very greatfull for all the non-schowjumping/dressage hours I've got here. I've learned so much more about horses by stepping a back from all I already knew about horses, or thought I knew.

Here at Steve and Charlotte's I ride 3 of their horses. 3 different objectives in 3 different saddles. 

Starting off with dear Milo.

This fatty Charlotte broke in herself a couple of years ago. 

As you can see I ride Milo in a European (English) saddle. This gives me my daily feed of dressage. Well, not really dressage but you'll understand what I mean I think in comparison with the other saddles.

Anyway I work with Milo almost everyday. I can really ask him to collect and walk(trot/canter) up which is great. I love seeing him progress as I ride him everyday. It gives me just that little bit more satisfaction seeing him progress because I actually know what I'm aiming for and how I want him to work. Which is somewhat different with Bobby, for instance.

This is Bob, Steve's stallion.

Bob I ride in Steve's roping saddle.

 This super comfy saddle is awesome, it's heavy as and a pain to get on his back properly but once you've got it in place and you're sitting in it, it's like sitting in your sofa. Awesome.

Bob isn't your typical ass hole stallion, he does test you (like every horse does eventually) and he is a bit more stubborn than your average gelding perhaps but he's willing to work for you and won't play up a every little thing which is great.

I hope to get back to work with him soon as I haven't done much the last couple of days with him because of his sensitive feet, but as soon as Steve's got some time to shoe him we're off again! 

Thirdly I'd like to introduce you to Chilli, Steve's quarter horse mare.

I'm doing mostly ground work with her at the moment but if I ride her with a saddle I ride her in an Australian stock saddle as on the picture above.

Chilli is a great horse, I'm sure of it. It's just that I'm finding I hard to calm her down for a relaxed ride. Even without asking anything from her but to walk around the big paddock she seems on edge and ready for action which isn't a bad thing I guess. But I'm doing a lot of ground work with her, some awesome things Steve taught me to open her mind so she relaxes more with me too hopefully. Meanwhile I'm also working on the little issue she has with bringing her head down and following her head into a turn. She can turn unbelievably quick by stepping over with her front feet (which is what you want your horse to do) but she doesn't turn her head and neck in doing so, so I'm trying to get her relaxed with her head down and turning with her head and neck as well as the rest of her body. 

And than there's creamy.

(Creamy is the cream coloured pony in the middle, obviously)

Creamy is an about 2 year old unbroken pony. She's a quite ignorant and belligerent little thing. So I'm trying to do some ground work with her to, to open her mind that we humans are awesome to be around!

Now that Steve's back I hope we're going to find some time soon to get this big boy out of the big back paddock.

Meet Wilson! 

We got this cutie pie a couple of days after I arrived. This horse is what you call a blank page because it has no history with humans in any way (we think). After Steve managed to get a halter on him, load him on the float and drive him home safely he lived in the round yard for a few days before he got castrated as they don't need two stallions on the property. So now that his booboo is all healed up and forgotten about mostly I am excited to start putting some real things on him.

It's amazing to learn about thresholds and teaching a horse to be brave and a these other little things that do make the difference for the rest of their lives.

I can't wait to put all these new things I've learnt (both on the ground and in the saddle!) into my showjumping and dressage training!

 

More about the good life soon ! 

xoxo Lizzie