Banana's ahoy!


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Oceania » Australia » Queensland
March 6th 2008
Published: March 6th 2008
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Tully-A pretty wet placeTully-A pretty wet placeTully-A pretty wet place

And they ain't lying!
We had now finished our roadtrip and said goodbye to a tearful Sarah who was now carrying on up to Cairns. We however, had to earn some more pennies and so we checked in to 'Banana Barracks', a hostel which helps find harvest work for you. We got a nice double room with tv, fridge and air-con, woohoo! The hostel was attached to a pub which they also ran, it was really nice and the hostel gave you some good deals on drinks etc. They gave us free mince, sausages, noodles and onions on a Monday (to make sure you are eating-aw!), from Tuesday to Thursday they always had competitions on for the backpackers to win money etc, and on a Friday they gave each backpacker a jug of either beer, white wine or red wine free! it was awesome! So after getting all organised and had dumped our stuff we went out to see what was in Tully. It looked a really pretty place and it at least had more shops than Childers so it all looked pretty good! Since it was a Friday we had the weekend to do anything as it was only Monday to Friday you work so over the next couple of days we just went wanders through the town, and shops oh and also for a few drinks!

On Sunday night we went to see what work we had for the following day, we were told we would be working on a banana farm in a place called 'Bingil Bay', about 35 minutes drive from the hostel. Our manager Billy would be picking us up the following morning at 6.30. Monday morning we got up bright and early and got organised for billy picking us up. Another girl would be coming with us called Arun, a lovely Korean girl. At 6.30 we jumped in to Billys car and headed to Bingil Bay. After a 35 minute drive in silence apart from when me and Laura spoke to each other we arrived at the 'shed', it was nothing like Ivans in Childers! Sure it was a shed but my god it was filthy! You had to walk along broken crates etc to get in to the shed for one then once in it had holes in the roof so when it rained there was big puddles everywhere (as you can see from the Tully sign, its a wet place!!) and there was mud and dirt everywhere, but hey it was money so we just had to get on with it! We met our supervisor, Rose, who was a lovely Philapino woman and she told us what we would be doing. To cut it short i stood for 8 hours per day on a broken box overlooking a conveyor belt/tank filled with water and sorted banana's into 2 piles, one for good banana's, and one for ok banana's, then the rest that were eeky i chucked! It was erm......mind numbing, soul destroying, boring etc etc thank the lord for ipods thats all i can say, i honestly think thats what got me through the day, the fact that for 8 hours i got to listen to music! I stood at one side and Arun stood at the other, she was nice but since she barely spoke any English we couldnt exactly get a good conversation on the go! It wasn't just all banana'a we seen, oh no we also got to deal with cockroaches, frogs and my favourite insects ever-spiders! yey! Thankfully due to working with Lychees previously i had had to deal with spiders before so i wasnt too freaked out unless they were really big which unfortunately for me some were! Anyway, as me and Arun sorted out the banana's Laura had also a exciting job to do, she had to put the lids on the boxes of banana's that Rose filled, then put them on to a crate, fill the belt with new boxes to be filled and also the best job ever-she got to take off the bags from the hung up banana's which had rat's pea all over them-oh the joy and excitement she got out of her job too! EEk!! There was 3 others who also started the same day as us, a French couple and a Aussie guy, they hated it too but we all got on with it and made the best that we could out of it. Me and Laura always had a Laugh singing and dancing about and joking around, it was good!

The hours were 7-4 Monday to Thurday and on a Friday we got to finish at 1 o clock, so when Friday morning came we couldnt wait for 1 o clock to strike. The day never went to well for me unfortunately, firstly it started with me getting my usual soaking due to the pipe i stood beside being broke and so gushing with water-by this time id had enough of it and so went a little mad at Billy to fix it-thankfully he did and so i could start work. So off i went and stood beside the now covered up pipe, i seen a black banana and so grabbed it to throw it aside but oh no it wasnt a black banana, it was a black frog which decided to leap at me! After shrieking it jumped off me and hopped on its merry way outside-bleugh! About half an hour later, i had recovered and was now shoulder swaying along to 'Jive Talking' (a good old classic by The Bee Gee's)! However, as i looked up at Laura i felt something on my arm, i slowly turned and looked down only to see the BIGGEST spider i have ever seen crawling on to my arm-OH MY GOD! It was huge, not big, huge! To give you a idea of the size put your hand out in front of you, spread out those fingers and look-now you have a idea of the size of it! Massive, grey and extremely hairy! I was a mess, i hit it off with my other hand (as i had a glove on!) and ran (like id never ran before) screaming and shrieking! Obviously this got some people's attention and so they came running over, Rose and a Indian guy (of many we worked with, they normally worked outside though picking the banana's) who looked horrified too! All i could say was eegh, oh my god, eegh and oh my god! The Indian dude got a big plank of wood and wacked it, it took about 5 hits to kill the *! I was shaking, obviously, and so took a few minutes to compose myself before heading back to stand and try to distract myself with grading the banana's. I managed to do this although i did check around me for spiders about a million times after that. At 12.30 we finished up and so all we had to do was clean (i never thought they knew the word) and so i helped Laura and Mike loads the crates up, as i was putting one on down i went-what a Friday i thought, get me out of here!!!! As i lay with one leg down a hole lodged between the crate and cement i didnt know wether to laugh or cry haha Being unable to move it quickly as it would have broken i slowly managed to bring my leg back up and get a much needed hug from a laughing Laura! (the cheek haha) My leg was ok, just very red, scratched and eeky looking-i didnt want to touch it until i got home as i was filthy and so we got on with the 'cleaning' before getting the hell out of that place. Since we were a 35 minute drive to and from work Billy had gave us a car to use, it was a nice Silver one (i actually dont know the name of it-shocking i know but i forgot to look lol!) and so i ran to the car so i could get my frustrataion out as driving soothes me haha! Only to find one of the Indian guys (BJ) standing by the car, to ask us out! NOOOOOO could this day get any worse?!?!?!?! After trying to tell him no we ended up having to make up boyfriends and even then he still didnt get the hint, no no me and laura kept telling him, we are going to pick up Chris and David at their farm now blah blah! honestly! Eventually we got home, showered, cleaned up and fed-ah all better!

At night we would come home (arrive back about 4.40) go to IGA (supermarket) and get any bits and bobs we needed (or some much needed Strawberry milk!) then have our showers and chill out for the night with tv and chatting! We had became a bit obsessed with some programmes such as 'Biggest Loser' and the awesome 'So you think you can dance' and so our nights became a bit repetative but we loved it as nackered after working in the heat.

On our first weekend there we decided to head to 'Mission Beach' a gorgeous beach thats meant to be lovely and was also going to be one of my stops on the way down! We went on the Sunday and would you believe it, it stayed dry the whole day-the first in ages! The hostel ran a free bus there and back so we hopped on and about 30 minutes later we were there. It was paradise! Absolutely stunning! During our few hours there we went a lovely walk along the sand, took a paddle, went on the internet (as computers at hostel were rubbish) went for lunch in a cafe, strolled the shops and had a pretty awesome day. At 4.30 we were picked up and headed back to 'Banana Barracks'. Sunday night meant only one thing, well actually 3-'The Biggest Loser' and 'So You Think You Can Dance' on tv but also we would be working again tomorrow-NOOOO!!!!

I had planned to stay and work for 3 weeks and Laura for 5, each day our times in there got shorter and shorter until we couldnt do it anymore, we were sick of it and so we decided after Laura had a very bad Monday (she had to work beside BJ as Mike was off-enough said!) that we would leave that Wednesday and head to Cairns where i would start my time of being a bum and Laura would get another job for a few weeks. Hooray! Wednesday could not come soon enough! It eventually did and so it was goodbye to banana world forever!!!! Billy the idiot of a manager who hadnt said 2 words to us the whole 10 days we worked there unless he was mumbling something or telling us not to use the car other than for driving to and from work had to take us back on the day we finished and also pay us. Well, eventually he did both but when he dropped us off again it was silence, the ignorant bugger didnt even say thanks for working for me or goodbye or anything-nothing! What a muppet! Ah well, thank god we never have to deal with him again! Good bye and good ridence! Since it was time for me to become a bum it was 'bin time' for my working gear-it felt so good to bin my minging shirt and trousers-yey!!!!!

We had paid for our hostel until the Friday and so on the Thursday we had a nice chilled out day just wandering the town, going shopping and resting! B l i s s!!!!!

Friday morning came and so we got all packed up and headed to the bus stop where 'The Greyhound' would be picking us up at 10.40 to take us to Cairns! By the bus stop there is a huge gumboot (wellie boot) which you can go up and see the town of Tully from and so we joked about and done that! At 10.40 the bus came-cheerio Tully! Me and laura had had a great time there when we were out of work and to be honest we had a good time in work too, just joking about but i was glad it was goodbye! I will never be grading another bloody banana again, but hey it was the experience i was going for and i definately got one, one that will never be forgotten!

Oh and if your wondering, no, i havent eaten a banana since! x



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Where i stood for 8 hours per day!Where i stood for 8 hours per day!
Where i stood for 8 hours per day!

This was how Billy fixed the pipe-a wee plastic cover!
The work fridgeThe work fridge
The work fridge

I hope they didnt expect us to use this!!!
Dont i look pretty?Dont i look pretty?
Dont i look pretty?

Prepared for the rain!


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