Over the weekend, Brandon took me to his farm near Pinnaroo, a small town right on the South Australia/Victoria Border. On the first night, we ate at a nice little pub. The following day, we drove to a town called Loxton, which was about an hour away, where we met up with some of the Blacksell’s family friends on the Murray River. We spent the entire day wake boarding, waterskiing, tubing, and just relaxing by the water. Overall, it was a perfect day! After devouring a few Australian style pizzas, we headed back to the farm.

On the way home, before even being able to finish my sentence about how I was disappointed that I still haven’t seen any traditional Aussie wildlife, we saw a young kangaroo bounding across the road! I found this really impressive, but even more so when about ten seconds later I saw the rare Malleefowl, a ground-dwelling bird about the size of a chicken. It all happened so fast, but I realized that I had just experienced traditional Aussie wildlife within the span of 15 seconds!

That night, I stayed up watching with pride as Canada beat Sweden in the men’s hockey finals. The next day, we headed back for Adelaide, but took a detour in order for Mr. Blacksell to show me a dairy farm. It was interesting but challenging to be at a place where you’re knee deep in cow manure while being attacked by thousands of flies who make it their life-long mission to find a way to get up your nostrils.

I was happy to have had that experience, as I know I will never be a dairy farmer. I guess I’m just too much of a “city boy”! – Charlie Joy ’14