Days of getting things done and learning

Temperature - Day (maximum):
Sunshine and warm

Wundowie – 03.04.2001 – 21.04.2001

The days here on the farm fly by. We actually only wanted to stay for a week, but as is so often the case, we totally misjudged the amount of work. We make many trips to the city of Perth, about 70 kilometers away, to apply for a new gun license, buy an emergency signal transmitter for Tanja, extend our return ticket, negotiate with the TV station Channel 31, buy a trailer, get the rest of the food for the desert crossing, get our Holden fit for the 2500 kilometer trip to North West Australia, shorten my Red Earth Expedition Stage One book and much, much more.

The most important thing of all, however, is the training with our friends Jo and Tom to be able to train wild camels. In just under a week, we learn how to handle wild camels from the two camel specialists who made the Red Earth Expedition possible in the first place with their infinite patience, advice and gigantic help. As there are two completely untrained, wild camel bulls waiting for us at Anna Plains Station alongside our five trained boys, we first have to learn how to tame these large, powerful animals. We learn the technique of putting them down (command: hush – down) and getting them up (command: epna). Jo also shows us how to tie up a camel like a parcel to avoid being stepped on. Tom welded us an iron rod with an eyelet at the end so that we could pull ropes on or through chimney legs from a safe distance. This reduces the risk of being seriously injured by the violent kicks. We hear a lot about camel psychology, what camels want and don’t want and, above all, that training doesn’t have much to do with beating. Jo shows us once again where we should stand and when, thus refreshing old knowledge. In this way, we are already getting used to the close contact with the animals again.

Today we spend the day getting our Holden and the trailer ready to go. Although we really like it at Melinda and Phil’s, we are now longing to welcome our camel boys back and prepare for stage two of the Red Earth Expedition. We enjoy the last evening with our friends and look forward to tomorrow.