Hugh’s Hunt for adventure

It wouldn’t be uncommon for a young lad from the Narrabri Shire to be curious about life beyond our boundless pastures, though venturing past them may be harder to do.

Hugh Hunter’s first thoughts of worldly adventure came in Year 10 while attending St Mary’s College in Gunnedah when he decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps and start planning a post-grad gap year, working on a cattle station in Western Australia.

His first taste of life abroad came a little earlier when his adventurous parents encouraged him to study for six months in China.

“People my age weren’t thinking about leaving home and venturing out of the country, I put it down to my parents,” said Hugh.

“I recently found a report I’d written before the China trip, saying I didn’t want to leave dad to do all the cattle work on his own, the main thing I was tossing up about was who would help him on the farm.”

Being the oldest, Hugh felt the pull of responsibility, and a lot of his mates voiced the same concerns.

For his trip, Hugh took courses to prepare him for things like homesickness and culture shock, and he flew off, feeling apprehensive for these unfamiliar feelings to hit him.

But they never did, so he slotted right into life with his homestay family and was surprised to learn that dad and the farm were doing just fine without him.

When his gap year came around in 2021 at the age of 18, it was his uncle who found him a post 2.5 hours out of Kununurra on the Spring Creek station of east Kimberley.

There, Hugh got to work on a 3000-head cattle operation and once again, fell right into his element, embracing the demanding life of a ringer, for eight months.

“It was not what I was expecting, it was hot, the hours were long, you were up at 4.30 am, had an hour break at noon, then kept going till the sun set – it taught me how to push myself,” said Hugh.

“I loved the lifestyle, and I learned a lot of life skills too. You would work hard for two weeks and get two days off, ride horses for 8-10 hours a day, and be around cattle 24/7.

“The bosses yelled at us a fair bit and one was an old cowboy bloke of about 60 years old who gave us an absolute hiding if we stepped out of line.

“Now I can do anything.”

Hugh’s team was also sent out across WA on contract assignments, and the crew would process 15,000 head of cattle in six weeks and brand 5000 head of calves.

It was on one particularly rough eight-hour stint atop a horse when young Hugh gazed yonder across a particularly dusty and dry plain and started daydreaming the Euro-trip dream.

Luckily, a life on the land doesn’t cost much, Hugh’s pockets were full, and he knew he wasn’t ready for university, so he once again heeded the call to adventure.

“Everyone says you’ll be broke once you go to uni, so I thought – I might as well spend this money on an adventure while I have the chance,” said Hugh.

“Looking back, I’m glad I took another year off because if I went straight to uni I wouldn’t be as mature as I could be, and now, I’m driven to study.”

From the next March to June, Hugh spent four months conquering the Euro trail.

Landing in London, he had his first opportunity to push himself out of his comfort zone when he approached a table of lads at the local pub.

The lads took him in, the night took a turn for the awesome, and the interaction set the tone for the rest of his trip.

“I met more people in four months than I’ve met in the past 19 years of my life,” said Hugh.

Only planning three days ahead, he made it through Denmark, Hamburg, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Morocco, Spain … and we’ve probably missed a few spots.

“I was just making it up as I went along, and through word of mouth from people I met, I went to some surprising places like Bosnia and Serbia.”

Hugh spent his time visiting new and diverse cities, riding camels and dirt bikes in the desert, surfing on glorious beaches, and even attending a bullfight in Grenada (which he wasn’t too keen on).

“You get to a new place and have to make new friends every single time, part of it is sad but you soon realise it’s a fleeting thing and to just enjoy the moment while you’re there, then you have to let go, – I had a lot of time to think too, because a lot of the time I was alone,” said Hugh.

He might have almost been abducted by a German rapper, and unsuccessfully attempted hitch-hiking in 40-degree heat in Morocco with a 23-kilogram backpack, until luckily, a bus came along and picked him up.

“I feel like someone’s watching out for me. A lot of the time I’d have to work hard to get an opportunity, and then others it would be sheer luck – like a bus turning up in Morocco,” said Hugh.

Hugh spent about $130 a day and used apps like Couchsurfing and the many different transport options to get him to where he needed to go.

“People don’t realise just how easy and cheap it is to get out there and give it a go,” said Hugh.

On June 30, Hugh headed off to Canada to take one last stab at his bucket list; hunting in the Rocky Mountains.

“My parents did it 23 years ago and their stories were incredible, I knew I had to do it,” said Hugh.

“I recommend it, even if you know nothing about horses and hunting.”

So he landed smack-bang in the middle of the Calgary Stampede, where he met another Aussie who was working on one of the rodeo’s 20 chuckwagon teams.

Hugh quickly took up a job, joining a team of eight, had a bed, sleeping in the stables, amongst the hay and horses. – Naturally, he was stoked.

Once again, fate delivered, when his boss arranged a job for him, as a trail rider, taking hunters out to hunt Bighorn sheep in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, where he spent the next three months.

Out of all the hunting he could’ve done, Hugh reckons the Bighorn sheep were the most impressive.

“We hiked in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, camping, living off the bush, and eating moose meat – I can’t vouch for how good it is because once we had a few off steaks and it was a pretty terrible experience,” said Hugh.

When Hugh worked at a cattle station, he was living out of a shipping container, and often sleeping on the land, but it was nothing this remote.

His longest stint in the Canadian bush was three weeks, and he’d often carry 40-50 kilo loads including backpacks and guns, alongside a horse wrangler, and a guide who found the sheep.

They didn’t see many bears thank god, just a mum and some cubs and one stalker.

A sport of extreme wealth, hunters were about 60, the guide was 50, and they’d come from all over the place, spending thousands for the glory of shooting their own Bighorn.

Once hunting season was done, Hugh decided to give the city of Vancouver a whirl, and it was here, right at the end that he might have learned some of his biggest lessons.

“I was living in a basement in Vancouver paying ridiculous rent in the city and I realised I wasn’t a city boy,” said Hugh.

“It was in Vancouver that it came to me that I miss the wide-open spaces and that I have no city-based hobbies.”

In July, Hugh decided that he’d like to go to uni and learn how to start his own business.

He signed up for a Bachelor of Business majoring in innovation at the University of Newcastle last August.

Feeling content that he hadn’t missed any crucial experiences, he was ready to come home and buckle down into a new phase of his adventure – his career.

“I’ve always had a positive and open attitude, I loved the hunting trail, and I enjoyed every day of my time away,” said Hugh.

Now he’s back, he’s settled into life at uni and is encouraging anyone and everyone who’ll listen, to get out and experience the world.

“Whoever is reading this – you’re in your prime, so you may as well just go and do it because tomorrow is not guaranteed,” said Hugh.

“People know me, if they read this and want to hit me up, I’m open, if you need me to push you over the edge, I’ll do it.

“You only live once.”

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