Penny had a breakfast with her friends arranged. At 8am. Apparently it is the only way to get them all in the same place at one, because of their busy lives! We were invited to join them at one of the cafes in town so we took Toby, still in his pjs, to say hello. He was passed round the ladies and was a bit of a charmer. And we ate lovely food and drank excellent coffee! I must say, these Australians know how to do breakfast!
Penny had some work to do so headed off and we wandered back to the house to pack. We’re all heading up to the farm today, Penny and Eric because they need to prepare for their branding day tomorrow and us to break our journey to Cairns. Penny gave Jamie a lift to collect our hire car, a huge 4wd automatic thing. I think Jamie is quite impressed by it. No, you can’t have one!
Quick lunch and we set off for the farm. Jamie, Toby and I had a bit of detour up Castle Hill, which is in the middle of Townsville. It is surprisingly steep and gives an excellent view over the entire city and beyond. It was great to go up there after we had been in Townsville for a while because we could really get our bearings and locate places that we had been.
We took some photos before putting his royal snoozing-pants into the seriously over-engineered car seat and heading north towards the farm. Australia has the strictest car safety laws in the world. There are so many instructions just to fit the seat…
By some miracle, we found the farm without getting lost. We were pretty sure we knew which road it had to be on and recognised it. Navigating win! We found Penny and Eric hard as work rounding up cattle, including a cow who had recently given birth and needed some obstetric care. She wasn’t going to be helped, though, so that’s a job for tomorrow.
When they had finished, we took a very civilised gin and tonic down to where the horses live and watched the sun go down. Penny created another beautiful dinner. Toby was very tired and not really in the mood for eating. Until Penny took him and sat him on her knee, whereupon he proceeded to eating all of the potatoes. All of them!
Some kind of sports match was happening on the tv. Apparently it was important. I may had had an accidental nap whilst that happened. We all headed for bed, apart from Penny who waited up for her son, Tim, and her daughter Emily’s boyfriend, James, who were driving up from Townsville after flying in from Brisbane. They are coming to assist with the cow branding tomorrow.
