Butterfly strainer

5 am alarm. Too early. The mummy sleeping bad cocoon was far to warm to venture out. At least all I needed to do was pack everything up, heard the students, clean the rooms, haul my 50 lb suitcase down the mudslide hill and somehow fall back asleep after the entire ordeal. Doable.

Luckily for me, Colin has a bed underneath the coach bus which he offered for me to sleep in during the ride. It was the BEST 3 hours of sleep I have had since I've arrived in OZ. The bus literally rocked me to sleep while I was wedged between pillows and blankets. It was magical.

Carnarvon is about 10 hours, more or.. more from Binna Burra though the ride wasn't as terribly painful as I had recalled it to be. The majority of the conscious ride was spent grading the seventy-two modules. Oh my poor pitiful brain. At least I got most of them done.

We stopped in Roma for a bite to eat, where Colin sent me on a mission to buy good coffee defined as “anything but Nescafe” which was still instant coffee.

Crumpets were also on the grocery list. Surprised? Never.

We got ourselves stuck behind a “beef bus” which was a comical name for a massive truck with TWO trailers, each double decker, to carry beef cattle around.

As we always do en route to Carnarvon, each student pair took turns doing Bob's roadkill census which is exactly how it sounds. One student in the duo sits in the ejector seat up front and the other records the type of roadkill and the condition. Oh yes, this means fresh, slightly old, or completely decayed. Yummy. Most were wallabys, as predicted, but there was a MASSIVE wild boar thrown into the mix. It was a bit grotesque and hilarious having about four of us ID-ing dead critters that littered the road.. and being so excited about it.

Going further closer into Carnarvon we spotted some camels, which are wild here, munching on the side of the road. A less wild encounter was the hundreds of cows that littered the landscape as we turned in on the familiar Carnarvon Road. Colin was constantly honking the horn to startle the buggers since getting off the road was seemingly an uncommon affair for them.

Upon our arrival we were greeted by Simon and the newest addition to the Ling household, Bob the yellow bellied glider. This thing was ADORABLE. Orphaned and left to die, Simon has since scooped the beastie up and cared for him. He's itty bitty and cuddly to boot.

Steve, the owner of Original Tours and master chef, made us dinner. He offered us seconds and thirds before we even had the chance to complete the first part of our meal. I swear his mission is to fatten us all up.

A nice steady rain just started.. magic!