Farm life in Cooranbong

Cooranbong - 20th - 24th May

We met our hosts, Karen & Steven a few years ago on our New Zealand cruise & kept in touch via Facebook. When Karen read that we were going to be travelling around in our caravan, she offered for us to park the van in her 'yard' which just happens to be a 100 acre farm they share with 18 cows, 1 bull, 3 horses, a stray sheep & a beautiful Neapolitan Mastiff dog named Lucy (who is almost as big as the cows)!
Although we didn't know them very well, other than enjoying their company during drinks & trivia around the bar on the cruise ship, we figured they must be good people to make such an offer to relative strangers.
Cooranbong is 120km north of Sydney on the way to Newcastle. Karen met us out on the road & guided us to their property, opening & closing the gates so as not to let the cattle out. As we were driving up to the house along their endless driveway, the cattle seemed to be checking us out as much as we were checking them out.

Steven met us at the final gate & it was decided the best place to park was 'out the back' but there were a few low tree branches that could have caused a problem as the van is quite high. 'No problem' says Steven as he goes into his shed & returns with a chain saw & commenced 'pruning' the tree  so we would fit! Gotta love country hospitality.

During our first cup of tea I mentioned I didn't expect to be waited on & was happy to share some cooking etc to which Karen said "you are our guests & as such will not be lifting a finger" and she was true to her word. I didn't so much as put the kettle on the whole time we were there.

First duty for us was to help feed the cows. They received a little treat from us of some bread rolls with their usual bale of grassy stuff.  It was so much fun feeding them as one of the cows 'Snowman' & the bull 'Oddjob' were quite tame & loved being hand fed. They were so gentle & beautiful to be around.

The next day Gary had a great time riding around the property on the quad bike (while I anxiously quoted statistics for deaths in Australia while riding quad bikes) for those of you playing along at home there were 22 deaths in 2015. Thankfully, Gary didn't become a statistic & enjoyed every minute of his ride. Steven then gave us a tour of his shed where, along with the usual tractors etc It turns out he is a collector of 'engines'. I had a girls look while Gary was like a kid in a toy shop.............

We had a beautiful lunch at Caves Beach & saw the sights of Cooranbong, the Weetbix factory (Sanitarium) where we stocked up on Gary's favourite breakfast cereal at the outlet shop.
They also took us to see the kangaroos that roam wild on the grounds of the psychiatric hospital which is partially closed down. The hospital is a few kilometres off of the Main Street on the edge of bush land & as we were driving along Karen pointed out the many, many Asians walking along the side of the road to see the kangaroos. She said they flock there every day. We drove around the deserted grounds of the hospital & saw literally hundreds of kangaroos just grazing along the grass. There were many with joeys popping their heads out of their pouches. At one point I exclaimed "oh, look at that cute little Joey looking out of its mums pouch" to which Karen replied "that's a boy kangaroo" it seems what I thought was a joeys nose was something completely different. Oops!!

Gary even got his hands dirty by helping Steven mend a damaged fence on the property. He really enjoyed that too.
Our four days on the farm went by so quickly & we had so much fun. Karen & Steven were fantastic hosts & we can't wait to go back & see them again,

Next stop ....... Port Macquarie