July 26

Bullo River

Posted by on July 26, 2015 in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Our week at Bullo River Station has surpassed all our expectations.
  Bullo is a working cattle farm of 160,000 hectors (1600 square km, 3 times the size of Singapore) and 8000 head of cattle in incredible wide open spaces of wild pastoral land, scattered with boabs, surrounded by escarpments and mountains, with usual crocodile infested rivers that are teaming with fish.

 

Brahman bull

  
    

BIG Boab

 
We have all had the most amazing experiences. Horse riding, quad bikes galore, helicopter rides to incredible gorges with swimming holes to die for and massive water falls to jump from, barramundi fishing, rifles, handguns, remote nights in huts on the escarpment overlooking billabongs full of bird life with a stunning night sky with shooting stars, feeding orphan cows and pigs, up close with wild buffalo, sea eagles and croc’s, wallowing in mud baths on the flats, and that is just the kids.

 

Charlie the colt… 4 weeks old

          

Mud

  

sitting on the edge of the crocodile infested Bullo river waiting for a bite!

 
 

Flying into the spectacular Cascades for the day.

  
    
  

Kids daily job, feeding ‘Margaret’

 
The adults have helicoptered into amazing fishing spots, caught sharks, barramundi and jew fish (and eaten them), and even wrestled a 2.5m crocodile hooked by Holly. They have tracked and hunted feral pigs, and have had lots of 4WD experience. Emma and I also learned the important skill of castration and spent an afternoon in the yard creating steers (bulls without balls) with a pocket knife and a few friends… warning for Holly’s future boyfriends!  Alex also discovered how tasty prairie oysters are, until he realised what the actually were!  

 

Useful life skills?

    

Dirty Harry, 44 magnum!

  

First of 2 barramundi… soooo much fun

  

Alex hooked and I retrieved this massive Jew fish

    

An unexpected bonus while fishing.. mud crab

  

The view from the huts on the escarpment… this is only a tiny fraction of the property

  

Castrating bulls…. ?!

  

Branding.

 
We have had the most welcoming and attentive hosts in Franz and Marlene, and their staff. Through them we have been given a little insight into life on the land in the top end with the joys and challenges it presents.

 

Captain Zigzag, our gorge trip

  

Whistling kite

  

Sea eagle

  

Something to do while fishing, good for the skin… umh!

  

Gate man

  

Guess what these are hanging from the yard gate?

  

Double barred finches

 
Once again, it is going to be hard to move on, but Western Australia and the Kimberly here we come. 

(Just to say, after Kununarra we are unlikely to have power or reliable network for a while, so there might not be another post with pictures for a while.   I might be able to put up text, and I will add the pictures later… life on the road! Today we head into the Bungle Bungles, then Halls Creek Crater and then back up to the Gibb River Road in about 5 or 6 nights)

 

Netting for live bait (mullet) on the mud flats… don’t go too close to the water, there are crocodiles

  

Wild water buffalo

  

“Fishing” on the mud flats… things to do while waiting for a bite