6th August, 2014

So this morning the girls went on a sunrise horse ride which required them to get out of bed rather early, 5:30. 

I drove them down and saw them off, before Trent and I returned to camp and had breakfast, then went fishing in the river which is at our campsite, no luck again.

We drove down to collect the girls and then Trent went on a horse ride, which was actually the first one of his short life. He was pretty confident the young fella and had a ball.

After all of the horse riding, we returned to camp and I managed to finally change the oil in the car. The staff at the mechanical repair shop here were quite helpful, they gave me an oil catch tray and allowed me to dump my oil in their drums and even took my used oil container.

After lunch we drove out to Chamberlain Gorge which is where the rich and famous stay.

 

There are normally boats for hire down there but they have stopped them the last few days, apparently because of the wind but we suspect it's to protect their Barramundi stocks, fishing is not allowed after the 20th of August. 

We saw the sunset cruise depart and then Trent and I started fishing. I got chatting to this bloke who had come down with his son and before too long Trent was on to his and our first ever Barramundi. He was a bit small at 30 cm or so and had to be returned to the river.

Then we drove up to Brancos Lookout and took in the sunset, the view was nothing short of spectacular. 

Given that I didn't go on the horse rides, I have had the kids give their perspective of their days.

TRENT

I had a great day today, I rode a horse with a Mowhawk named Rambler for 30 minutes. He was brown, had a black tail, two white hoofs and a white patch on his head. 

About five hours later we went fishing and I court a 30 cm Barra. Yay. It was the first Barra anyone in our family has ever caught.

ALYSSA

Hey everyone, 

Today the whole family got up at 5:30 and Mother and I got prepared for a trail ride through the wilderness of El Questro Station. We lay in bed for ten minutes and attempted to muster the will the get out of bed because it was the coldest morning we had experienced in five weeks. 

Once we got to the station we headed to the stables, we could feel the excitement welling up inside of us as the majestic horses came into view. We were greeted at the gate by an outback kinda bloke called Chris, we then met our guide, who's name was Sam. 

We put our helmets on and were led over to a horse called Shazam, Chris then asked us who was the most confident on a horse and Mum (looking quite intimidated by the large creature in front of her) said I was (which is completely true). Then I mounted the horse and took it over the the trough to have a drink. Mum was taken to a rather fat horse called Moonshine who was more placid than Shazam. Both horses had been muster horses but had since retired to a simpler life. 

After the initial struggle to get Shazam out of the stables (he appeared to not want to leave and kept going the wrong way) we headed off into the wilderness. Guided by Sam (who we learnt was an extremely good polo player and got here a week earlier for a photoshoot before deciding to stay for longer and help out) we crossed rivers, rocks and dry grasslands. About halfway through the trip we got to ride near the bottom of a big red mountain wall, we also saw some wild cattle along the way and after that we got to trot through dry grassy areas. 

When we got back we dismounted and got a picture holding the horses rein, thanked Sam and left. It was fun riding through the beautiful scenery and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to all who were interested.