Page 243 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien

shorn three weeks ago. Now the 37 heaviest should be chosen for the market on the morrow. We weighed the on
electronic scales and I painstakingly marked the weight and the earmarks then the 37 heaviest were selected and
the rest was let go to get some more meat on their ribs. Sue has marked the sheep with different coloured chalks
and they meanwhile looked like Indians on the warpath.

Early next morning we loaded the sheep unto the Ute and a trailer and went 160 km to market. The weight of “Our”
sheep was in the upper middle range and looked much cleaner than some of the other herds there. Ian and Sue
take good care of their sheep and beef cattle and the can always bring first class animals to the markets. We
followed the auctions with bated breath. The first sheep fetched about AUD 40 far from the expected AUD 100. But
these sheep were rather small and scruffy. We kept all fingers crossed and, lo and behold, Ian got AUD 109 per
sheep. He was happy with the price. Ian and Sue also keep beef cattle and farm grain crops in addition to the sheep.
It is hard, but very satisfying work.

Thus our stage on the sheep station neared its end. An almost 40 year old dream had become true. Then, we
dreamt of emigrating to New Zealand and have a sheep farm there. Now we were able to experience how our lives
would have looked, had we been able to fulfil our dream then. It is a good life. We have made new friendships, had
super experiences and took very specialised new skills and knowledge and some muscle aches from the friendly
sheep station. Tired but happy we left for the mountains to recuperate and slept 12 hours on the first night.

SUNSHINE COAST
Everyone and his uncle praise the sunshine and other coasts sky high, so, we go there. We pay attention that we do
not hit the high rise and high price area and chose to go to Tin Can Bay, opposite Fraser Island. The village is small
and a bit sleepy, even the sea is not at home when we arrive, but it will come back in a couple of hours. We are really
lucky. Tin Can Bay is one of only two locations in Queensland where Dolphin feeding, under supervision, is allowed,
albeit one has to be there already at 7 am. It is still rather cool, but Misty, head of the dolphin pod, is already there.
Today he has left the rest of his family far out in the bay. He is a dolphin in third generation and come punctually
every morning to the pier to play.
Each dolphin gets only 3 kg of fish, about 10 % of his daily ration, the rest they hunt themselves in the sea. At 8 am
the buffet opens. Everybody gets a little white bucket with some fish, walks into the water and gets Misty to eat the
fish out of one’s hand. Misty loves the attention. After about 20 min all the buckets are empty and are taken up to the
kiosk. This is a signal for Misty, he quietly leaves the pier. Ciao see you tomorrow.

Fraser Island is known for its pristine beaches and archaic rainforest, its clear blue lakes and its Dingoes. They live
since thousands of years on the island and are the purest race Dingoes on earth. Some years ago Fraser Island has
been declared a national park and all not indigenous animals were banned, among those, cows, goats, chicken and
other animals. Now the darker side of this measure starts to show. The dingoes do not find enough food anymore.
The start to plunder the rubbish heaps of the hotels and campgrounds, but this is by far not enough. The Dingoes
are slowly starving to death. Tourists are not allowed to feed the dogs, because they would otherwise become
aggressive against humans. Meanwhile there are protest organisations which have taken up the case of the dingoes
and it is to be hoped, that the food situation will soon be improved.

The rainforest has many peculiar and very special trees and plants. One of the really imaginative plants is the
strangler fig. Birds eat the fruit and then let their droppings with the seeds fall on top of some trees. There the fig
starts growing downward with thin long arms until it reaches the ground. There it makes root and grows thick and
fast winding its arms around the poor tree. The tree usually dies and leaves a shell of thick fig arms with some little
windows into the empty interior, once the initial trunk is rotted away. The strangler fig builds thick buttresses like
structures at the foot of the tree as stabilisers and looks quite bizarre. Between this baroque structures high, red
Kauri Pines grow rod straight towards the sky.

RAINBOW BEACH
Rainbow Beach offers an attraction which can only be seen on foot from the beach. We started out and after a
couple of hundred meters the way was almost blocked by water. We remembered, that the lady at the touri info told
us that the beach was only open at low tide and was blocked at high tide. Now: is the tide coming or going? How high
will she rise? How long until she recedes? If we continue, will we be trapped and if yes for how long? Questions
upon questions, we simply ignore them and continue. Worse comes to worse, we can still wade bare feet back
through the water. Soon we arrive at our destination, the coloured sands of rainbow beach. They are really worth all