We’d had enough of the farm by the time we left. Funny how sometimes 2 weeks feels like a lot longer. We drove the short distance into Perth where we hit a stroke of luck as we rocked up at a hostel which just happened to have a carpark and a 3 bed room which had just become available. That evening we drove out to the airport to meet my friend Jenna. Very exciting to see one of my best friends after so long away travelling. Perth was having a heatwave while we were staying and I had contracted a tummy [View Full Entry]

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From Exmouth we drove straight to the cattle station which we had arranged to go work on as part of the WWOOF scheme. It was 0.5 million hectares 80km down a dirt road somewhere in the Carnarvon region. The station was run by a lovely couple no older than Mike & I. They got up very early and worked very hard. We ate lunch and dinner together - all prepared for us. Mike & I worked from about 8am-3/4pm 6 days a week. There wasn’t much point having too much time off because there’s not much to do in the middle [View Full Entry]

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We spent 7 weeks in Exmouth, working at Exmouth Cape Holiday Park. Staying still for a while was very good for us. It was great to just live a normal life again, albeit one in a tent. Having a base to work from, familiar things and a routine is necessary when travelling for long periods. It gave our minds time to turn to the little things, like what was for dinner, why that same little old lady is in the laundry EVERY day and how come the moon rises from a different place and at a completely different time every night? [View Full Entry]

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We spent a week in Alice Springs. Not so much because of its charms but because we were looking for work. We were staying on a crap campsite. No camp kitchen - not even a fridge. The upside was that there were these Rock Wallabies which would descend from the rock outcrop at the edge of the site every dusk to get fed and generally bicker amongst themselves. They were very cute, tiny little furry things. Although Alice seemed like a haven in the desert at first, we soon tired of it. It’s not a pretty place and there are lots [View Full Entry]

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From Adelaide we started the journey north, passing through the Clare Valley winemaking region and stopping in a town called Burra. The campsite was cheap at $15 and Burra was a sweet little country town. We spent a couple nights there because we met a lovely couple who had a lead on potential zucchini (courgette) picking work. Unfortunately we got a different story from the zucchini farmer who now only wanted “experienced” zucchini pickers. So we carried on up into the Flinders Ranges National Park. Australian national parks are not like UK ones. For a start, you have to pay t [View Full Entry]

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We were pretty keen to leave Melbourne by the time we finally could. We had been stuck there for ages waiting for the car in dismal weather. We were a good hour away from the city and it wasn’t cheap to get in either. Work prospects didn’t look good and we couldn’t afford to stay in the city to look anyway, so we set off down the Great Ocean Road. We opted for a speedy tour because we want to get away from the southern winter as soon as we can. The ocean road was actually mostly inland, fairly windy and [View Full Entry]

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So we escaped from the city, heading south for nowhere in particular. After the stop at Botany Bay we drove a bit more to the seaside town of Kiama. Kiama’s big attraction is that it has a blowhole in the rocks. Well, you gotta have something I guess. We stayed on a campsite called ‘Surf Beach’ which was located on the headland between Surf Beach and Kendall Beach! It was here that the sea started to turn rather nippy. Baltic, some might describe it. The waves were really cool for the body board, as one rebounded from the shore it met [View Full Entry]

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Hey Hey! So here's the first installment of our Australian Adventure. We set off from Brizzy in the Chang-mobile for Byron Bay - only a couple hours down the coast. We found the campsite. It was nice but shocking expensive at $38 a night. We paid it because it was really close into the centre of town. The park, and Byron at large, was crammed with backpackers. It was our first enounter with the rest of our species and we didn't much like it! The weather was also rather showery and generally dismal. Fortunately the sea was warm and the tail [View Full Entry]

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Forced by lack of employment opportunities, we signd up for a farm training scheme which 'guarantees' you work for the length of your visa once you have completed the vastly overpriced week long course. They sent you a list of things you would need for the course, but after much to-ing and fro-ing with the school maam style organiser of the course we felt that if we purchased the boots in Brisbane they would for sure be wrong by her standards. We didn't understand why they had to be as specified (and we still don't). I think it's more of a [View Full Entry]

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I feel Sunnybank needs an entry, even though technically we are in Sunnybank Hills, but that's not on the list. So avid blog readers, I haven't written a blog in freakin ages (except for the moody insert about the farm) because, for the large part, we have been living the quiet life in a south Brisbane suburb with my sister Clare & her husband Tony. We hadn't anticipated staying this long but after backpacking for 4 months getting to live in a beautiful house with all the comforts of home + sunshine every day is proving too hard to leave. We [View Full Entry]

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