CUDDLE A CUD-LOVING COW

Saddle up for a great ride

HORSE riding enthusiasts are in for a treat. A ride is being organised that will start out on a trail near Millaa Millaa and will finish at the Tully River bridge downstream from Cardstone. This used to be the old H-road used by power workers. It was also used by locals as a shortcut from Tully to the Tableland. It was closed to traffic in the 1980s. It has been used recently for eco-challenge related events. The horse ride is scheduled for October 4-6. It involves a one-night camp at Cochable Creek ( pictured above) before riding back the next day. Participants should be self-sufficient, have their own horse and gear including swag, tarp for rain, food and beverage. All gear will be transported around to the camp site by truck. This will be an outstanding ride through rarely visited country. Some hardy souls will recall the Valley Mail Ride from the back of Ingham to the Valley of Lagoons and the Dalrymple Gap Ride over the mountain from Broadwater near Ingham to Cardwell. Those were the days. For more information contact Tommy Johnston on 0428 853 438. FEELING down? Got the blues? Life is just going crazy and you feel like you are being sucked into the vortex? Here’s the way to get back up on top. Cow cuddling.

Yes, all you cattle folk out there looking to add value to your operations, cow cuddling is the new wellness craze. It’s how stressed-out city folk like to chill. And at $75 a session and rising it’s a good earn for the cattle owner. The upshot is you get paid, you get your cow back and someone, whoever, walks away feeling like they’ve just reached up and touched the sky. Therapy dogs and sweat lodges are now oh so yesterday. Now, people wanting to reach a higher level of astral projection want to cuddle a cow while it is lying down, happily chewing its cud. True.

The Travel and Leisure website tells us that a B&B in the US is charging $75 an hour to cuddle a couple of docile cows. And there are plenty more getting in on the craze … people, that is.

We’ve got millions of cows out there. Surely some of them want a cuddle.

Flee running of the bulls

SOMETIMES in this world of easy living, it’s good to be out where the wild things roam. One of these places is the Herbert River Gorge section of the Girringun National Park, upriver from Ingham ( pictured left). There have always been large numbers of wild cattle in the scrub and grassy sections of the gorge ( pictured far left), but the numbers were thinned when the Government began an aerial shooting campaign early this century. The brahmancross scrubbers are wily and learnt quickly to head for the thickest rainforest along the banks when they heard a chopper. Hikers walking the gorge often find themselves face to face with a stiletto-horned scrubber bull, especially when following the narrow cattle pads through headhigh weeds. It is not a pleasant