An Australian Adventure - Deep In The Bush With Pea!

Pea and her Australian friend Dion take a five-hour road trip from the coast deep into the New South Wales bush to attend a sheep dog trial in the tiny town of Gilgandra (Gulgiri), just outside Dubbo. The episode mixes Pea's first attempt at driving on the left side of the road, Australian country life observations, kangaroo facts, and interviews with the sheep dog competition organizer and a finalist. It ends with Pea sleeping in a traditional Australian "swag" on the edge of the Outback.

Pea drives on the left side of the road for the first time ​

• Dion puts her behind the wheel on a country road — steering wheel is on the right side of the car
• Pea lived in the UK but never drove there because she used public transport
• Her brain keeps telling her to drift right; she has to consciously stay left
• The turn indicator and wipers are reversed too — she keeps hitting the wrong stalk
• She blames the British for Australia driving on the left: "bloody English people... they're all a bunch of weirdos"
• Speed limits are strict — going 3 km/h over the limit gets you a $300 fine thanks to speed cameras
• Pea jokes about using the "Asian pass" (pretending not to speak English) to get out of a ticket
• She handles a roundabout, with Dion coaching her to watch for traffic from the right instead of left
• After driving for a while, she hands it back to Dion so they can reach their destination faster

Australian countryside and wildlife observations along the drive ​

• Long drives require frequent rest stops — Australia has them built along the roads for tea and coffee breaks
• Lots of dead kangaroos on the roadside — Pea feels bad about them
• Red painted X marks on dead kangaroos mean wildlife officers have already checked the pouch for a surviving Joey
• Kangaroos have a bad habit of hopping alongside a car and then jumping in front of it at the last second
• Dion once had a kangaroo crash into his windscreen — the safety glass held, but the roo's claws would have been dangerous if it had broken through
• Most wild kangaroos are aggressive and will treat humans as threats; alpha males will fight to defend their females
• Kangaroos have retractable testicles — they pull them back inside the hip bone during fights so they can still reproduce afterward
• Kangaroo meat tastes like really strong beef, is extremely lean with almost no fat, rich in iron
• Not mainstream (beef, lamb, and chicken dominate) but growing in popularity
• Australia culls kangaroos to prevent crop damage and overpopulation — farmers are given quotas each year
• Pea admits the hypocrisy of loving animals but being fine eating them pre-packaged: "Yes, we even eat the face or the heads in the Philippines"

Bush fire danger explained ​

• All the trees along the drive are eucalyptus (gum trees) full of flammable eucalyptus oil
• When it gets hot, the oil vaporizes off the leaves and can ignite like a gas flame — this is why people say the trees "explode" in fires
• It's actually illegal to start fires during Australian summer to prevent bush fires

The farmland and rural Australia ​

• Australia's population is concentrated in major cities; farmland is vast and empty, mostly cattle
• Pea spots beautiful lakeside land and wonders why no one builds there — Dion explains it's all zoned farmland and too hilly for houses
• Pea jokes she should marry an Australian farmer
• Dion mentions the TV show "Farmer Wants a Wife" — farmers struggle to find partners because young people leave for university in the cities and never come back
• He suggests a spin-off: "Farmer Wants a Filipina" — notes that Filipino women would be ideal for farm life because they cook, clean, handle business tasks, and aren't shy about getting their hands dirty with cattle

Arrival in Gilgandra — population 980 ​

• Just outside Dubbo, right on the edge of the Outback
• Much drier than the coast side of the Great Dividing Range
• Pea notices the Filipino presence — Dion confirms 1.6% of Australia's population is Filipino per the last census
• Pea jokes about Filipinos having a "built-in radar" for spotting each other
• She spots a massive outdoor standing table designed for drinking beer standing up, "like the Vikings"

Sheep dog trial competition ​

• Over 200 dogs entered this weekend event — it runs for 4 days
• Despite 200+ dogs present, you can't hear any barking — they're all experienced travelers on the competition circuit
• The dogs are Australian working Border Collies trained to herd sheep through a course of gates and hurdles
• Judges start each dog at 100 points and deduct for imperfections
• The sheep sometimes resist but "resistance is futile"

Interview with John, the competition organizer ​

• His dog Puma recently won big trials in Geelong, Victoria — impressive for a young dog
• Sheep dog trialing is about 150 years old, one of the oldest sports in Australia (though not officially recognized as a sport)
• Entry fee is only about $20; the main event winner gets about $400; total prize money distributed is around $2,000
• It's not about the money — it's bragging rights and a major social gathering
• Farmers coach each other off the field but compete seriously on it
• Dog pricing: a pup costs about $1,000; a trained dog runs $5,000-$10,000; the most expensive dogs in Australia have sold for over $30,000
• Even a $30,000 dog is a bargain because one dog can do the work of three or four humans
• A farmer with 500 sheep might only need a couple of working dogs — 500 sheep "isn't a lot"

Interview with Sarah, a competition finalist ​

• From south of Canberra, lives on a small farm, travels the sheep dog trial circuit
• Has 10 dogs total, currently working five, with a young one coming up
• Her star dog Peggy scored 84 points, making the final
• She travels with two other women — they leave their husbands at home to look after the farms while the wives go competing around Australia
• She trains her own dogs rather than buying pre-trained ones because "it's about the journey" — the bonding experience and personal improvement matter more
• Describes it as a "9 to 10 year apprenticeship before you start seeing results"

Sleeping in a swag on the edge of the Outback ​

• Dion pulls out a traditional Australian swag — a canvas roll-up bedroll
• You just take off your "kickers" (boots) and jump in; it's waterproof if it rains
• No campfire allowed — it's illegal to start fires during Australian summer due to bush fire risk
• Pea asks about snakes, spiders, scorpions, and kangaroos; Dion says no scorpions, maybe a spider, and kangaroos might nuzzle up and chew grass next to you
• Pea's sign-off: "I got Pea in the sack"

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