Arrival at Malden!

So some of you might be wondering - where on earth are we actually headed?! Good question. Glad you asked...

Well, last year when we decided to go on this crazy outback honeymoon adventure you might remember I put it out there on my old blog, Cinderella at Brindabella, our plans to get some work as a jackaroo/governess team. Within 24 hours I had almost ten emails in my inbox offering us work all over Australia. To say we were blown away was an understatement! One particular email stood out to us: a couple in central Queensland (between Emerald and Longreach) with twins, a cattle property (which suited Matt down to the ground) and the mum was one half of the brains behind popular madeit business AnK Bowtique (which suited me down to the ground). After much emailing backwards and forwards as to job descriptions, logistics, accommodation etc. we committed ourselves to signing on as jackaroo and governess at Malden, near Alpha, starting in February 2012 after our six weeks at Boort and making our way up to Queensland. 

The drive between Injune and Emerald

After leaving Injune at 6.30am we hit Emerald by late morning, travelling through some beautiful varying country again. We shopped up a storm at Woolies in Emerald - I have always hated, I mean hated, grocery shopping with Matt, as he always tries to fill the trolley with about fifteen times the amount of food we would ever need. You could always hear me telling him to put things back, stop touching, we don't need that! Yes, like a child. Now it was pay day for shopoholic Matt - despite the fact we had literally no room in the camper for all of this food! It took some 'creative' packing methods...

If packing were and Olympic sport, my husband would win gold!

On the road again from Emerald, due west for two hours to Alpha - much more substantial than what we were expecting. There is a little supermarket, post office, newsagents, bank, butcher, two servos, all you need really. Continued out of Alpha north for 60km to reach our destination, 'Malden'. 

 

The floods in the past few weeks had put Alpha under water, and the Native Companion Creek which you have to cross into Malden was at one point up to 10 metres. The day we arrived it was at just under 2 metres, not low enough to drive through. Luckily there is a little footbridge which can accommodate four wheelers to ferry our food and a few possessions across. 

We met our hosts and new employers Alex, Kristy and the kids Tom and Maddy at the creek, crossed across with all our stuff on the bikes and made it safely to our new home sweet home - the donga. Perfect basic accommodation for us newlyweds. It has a great front porch area and car port, two bedrooms, a dining/living/kitchen area and bathroom. We settled in the first night after dinner up at the house with Alex, Kristy and the kids (a few kilometres from the donga). I'll put up some photos of the donga soon, haven't got around to that yet.

We both started work straight away, Matt in the yards as well as out mustering and me in the schoolroom supervising and (I hope?!) teaching the twins something of use in their lessons with the Longreach School of Distance Education. 

So far, so good. Despite it being about 40 degrees we haven't found it too hot - well it's hot but what are you going to do?! The kids are (so far) delightful in the lessons I have taught, if not a little unmotivated at times so I might have to get a bit creative there! Matt is enjoying working with cattle again after his year stint with sheep and potatoes. What I am not enjoying are the resident frogs living in my toilet! I am insisting on Matt doing 'froggy patrol' before going to the toilet. Speaking of which...best be off!