This weekend, Shan and I drove more than 300km to visit Shan's grandparents who live in a little town called South Kolan, which is about 20 minutes west of Bundaberg in QLD. Shan had told me about the dirt roads and the endless sugarcane farms so we were well prepared heading into the 4 hour drive north. Although long, the drive took us into the country and when we found ourselves on a red dirt road surrounded by sugarcane and not another car in sight we felt like we were visiting the
real Australia - the Australia you see in movies.
We only got lost twice, which is better than most people we're told, and we found ourselves in South Kolan in the mid-afternoon. We checked into the local hotel-motel (after only giving a name and number to book days before - no credit card number?!). The motel was clean and tidy and the staff at the hotel were really friendly.
We drove the few km's to Shan's grandparents house. As we got out of the car we heard a motorbike and turned to see Shan's Uncle Ricky taking off into the paddock. Then their red cattle dog Peg came and greeted us - seriously, this was SO Australian! Grandma, Grandad, Ricky and Shirley (and currently Ricky and Shirley's daughter Holly), all live together in a three-bedroom house on 50acres of land. Ricky told me they've spent the last couple of years clearing the area around the house so the cows (they have 8) can roam. They also built another dam. It's all sounded so industrious I was jealous.
For dinner, the family took us to a little pub called the
Bucca Hotel where we ate the biggest meal we'd ever had. It was so delicious I couldn't stop eating and wound up with stomach pains for a good hour afterwards. The pub was so country we asked before taking photos of nearly everything - Shan will put these up later.
On Sunday, Shan I went to the house again and her Grandma had made us pikelets for breakfast (awesome!) and then her grandad told us he had pumpkins for us to take home. I was thinking- yeah, cool, a couple of pumpkins would be good. A couple turned out to be 30, all stacked together at the end of the verandah and inside the trailer underneath. At our insistance, Grandad took us to his pumpkin patch down near the dam. At seeing how many pumpkins he'd grown from the seeds of just one pumpkin, I yelled out to Shan that we were moving to the country to become pumpkin farmers - what we couldn't eat, we'd sell! Grandad then told us all about the cows - which ones were for breeding, which ones were for eating, the two that belonged to himself and grandma. He's so proud of their little piece of land and you can tell he wouldn't be anywhere else.
We spend so much time in the city, working on a computer in jobs we like, but that arent really going to change the world, being on the farm and seeing how proud they were with everything they've grown, I realised how hard yet fulfilling being a farmer would really be. They achieve so much on a daily basis that they don't find themselves forever wondering what else they could be doing with their lives because they're already doing so much.
Grandad and Grandma took us into town to visit more of Shan's family for lunch, before we began our long journey home. We spent most of the time daydreaming about the day we can own a little hobby farm where we can take the kids on weekends and they can garden and raise lambs, and we can plant fruit trees that will grow as they do. We even stopped in a little town called Childers and looked in the window of the local real estate, just to see. The daydreams were so good by the time we came home I think we were both kinda considering staying in Brisbane and getting straight into seeing this little dream come true...
A google map of our weekend trip - 309km - a bit over 4 hours each way.
On our first dirt road, next to a cane field.
Peg, the cattle dog. She's super friendly and was trying to shake my hand.
The house on the farm, the sun setting and the moon rising.
Inside the Bucca Hotel.
A hearty country meal with the family.
Shanny with breakfast. She really was that exicted.
When we were inside having breakfast we noticed Grandad just standing on the porch looking out at the property. He stood there for a good ten minutes just looking.
Grandad and his pumpkins - seriously cool.
Checking out the pumpkin patch. Apparently they like to be buried in ground that had been burnt and is covered in ash. I asked Grandad why, he said 'they just like it'. Fair enough.
While Grandad and I trampled through the pumpkin patch, Shan took photos of flowers. cute!
Shan and Grandad walking back to the house.
Ready to go with our pumpkins and mandarins.
Grandad explains the cows.
Their letter box is the one at the back. It's 1km from their front door.
Kristen, this pose is for you - long grass and lone tree :)
Shan and her gramps as we said goodbye and parted ways - us heading to Childers, them to South Kolan.
