Teamsters Ride : Barellan NSW

I was invited to enjoy

“a unique slice of Bush Heritage

and ride alongside a wagon,

creating unforgettable memories.”

As the brochure continued

“ the sound of the chains, the creaking wheels,

and guidance from expert horsemen will give you

a sense of freedom and camaraderie like no other.”

I Didn’t – resist that is. 😉

Rather, I paid and packed.

And Drove, and drove and drove somewhere,

to where the land is flat, flat, flat

and the soil is red, red, red.

And the people are great, great, great.

Australian Saddle Safaris,

aka Brad, Michaela and their crew are Fantastic hosts

and their horses are equally great.

And so we settled in ……

Met the crew:

Both big and small….

Found the ‘kitchen’ and the fabulous chef….

with special meals offered along the way….

Even had a room with a view 🥰

And so to Day One

There is always a mix of emotions on this day.

(Memories of other ‘day one’s’ come to mind : https://leepowrie.com/2019/03/21/morocco-ride-day-one/)

Personally, I am usually nervous

wondering who will look to the heavens

when someone (almost always me🤣)

has an unplanned dismount!

No one did – lift their eyes to the heavens,

and while for me it, it was a close thing,

it was only that –

Close.

Very Close. 😉

The horses and riders meet and need to work out how the gears work,

where is the brake;

ah there,

now,

does it actually work? 😜

Meanwhile, the horses, bless them, have not read the brochure.

They do not know it is a leisurely 100km walk; a gentle time warp.

But they DO know there are

donkeys,

bullocks,

draught horses and the absolute Final Straw –

CAMELS

To begin with, they lulled us into our comfort zone.

We walked behind the creaking, squeaking carts for a good junk of time.

with them apparently quietly absorbing the scene;

with them apparently nonchalant about the whole ‘affair’

Confident, therefore,

that we were all on the same page,

We planned to pass ‘the mob’.

The plan being to do it quietly,

in a disciplined, controlled manner.

A bit like ‘the movies’ 🤣

And just like that,

our beautiful steeds,

whether on a lead rope, or ‘free wheeling’

reminded us they didn’t care at all about

any advertising brochures, time warp, slow paced walk.

All they cared about was getting away from those CAMELS,

those dragon breathing,

fire generating, smelly monsters,

surely out to destroy us all?

As is always the case in moments or such excitement,

no photographic evidence of the chaos.

We all grabbed hold of anything that seemed vaguely stable,

be it horse,

ground,

or each other 😉.

So a bit of imagination is required for this day one excitement

as we look at more relaxed ‘holding on’ photos 🙄🤣

Having survived day one, we carefully negotiated our way around ‘things’ and spent the next six days doing precisely as we anticipated.

Enjoying a unique slice of Bush Heritage,

riding alongside a wagon,

creating unforgettable memories with the sound of the chains,

the creaking wheels

and guidance from expert horsemen

giving us a sense of freedom and camaraderie like no other.

With grateful thanks to amazing new friends;

for the company,

the sharing,

the laughs,

the nervous moments

and for generously sharing your photos.