Colin kicks it Aussie-style in an outback hat borrowed from Chris Dougall during a tour of the Dougall cattle property in Miriam Vale, Queensland, Australia.

Journal and photo by Colin McAuliffe

Today was in interesting day. We awoke at a decent hour on a cattle farm in Miriam Vale, a small town about an hour’s drive north of Bundaberg. We were staying with Chris and Suzanne, some friends that Nancy had met on her bike journey from Cairns to Brisbane.

Anyway, Chris and Suzanne treated us to something I had not had in a very, very long time: breakfast burritos. I love breakfast burritos; they’re yummy. Especially when it’s actually breakfast time. You see, Suzanne was born and raised in Texas, so she knew the joyous wonder of the breakfast burrito.

So, post-burrito, the team headed out on a whirlwind tour of the farm. You see, Chris and Suzanne’s cattle farm practices a method of raising the cows called “low-stress cattle raising”. In other words; they raise happy cows. Now, on the tour, outside of what I was told, the cows seemed like any old cows, mooing and looking at me funny and whatnot, so at first I couldn’t really tell the difference between a regular cow and a low-stress happy cow, but, when I returned to the ranch house, I was startled to find a cow sitting on the living room couch watching television and eating beans on toast, that’s when it dawned on me just how happy these cows really are.

Ok, so that didn’t really happen, but it would have been really funny if it did. Anyhoo, the tour of the ranch continued and we saw some cute kangaroos bouncing around, and it was all very interesting, and Chris and Suzanne really do have a good thing going for them with all this happy cow business.

So, once the tour was done, the team had a bunch of work to do on the cars, so we done did it.

So, after the work was done, Chris and Suzanne had organized a classic ozzie-style bbq/campfire for us that began around 6 or 7 or something. The food was delicious, and classic Australian style. All the ozzie classics were there: rump steak, sausages (on bread w/o buns), profiterols, and potato salad, and I ate them all, heartily even. Afterwards, when it started to require a lot of effort for me to breathe, I realized that I ate way too much, but by then it was too late, so I had some desert, and continued to not be able to breathe for another hour or so.

Once I was able to talk, I struck up some really interesting conversations with some of the people attending the BBQ, especially Chris, who had some cool tales. He, kind of like us, had travelled from the US to Panama over land; however, he and a friend of his did it by motorcycle. And, they did it on one motorcycle, I mean, I know that sometimes I feel like I’m in quarters that are a little too close on this trip, but sharing a bike with another guy for that long must have been really intense. I have a lot of respect for a person that can put himself into that kind of situation. Chris told me another great story about his solo hike down into the Grand Canyon that also impressed me greatly, and strengthened my desire to visit the canyon.

So, it was a good day, and a long one, and now, my good friends, now I am going to sleep.

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.