Becky and Mike

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 bug, which sorta sucked. We went out for a beer one evening with Jenna’s cousin who lives in Perth. We couldn’t get into the pubs in the main nightlife area of Northbridge due to not ... read more

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? The work was good. Our second and thirds weeks there we were flat out as it was the school holidays. The park was packed. We worked 8 hours a day with one day off in ... read more

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 to get in and then there isn’t any development in the park atall except for the stuff in the park headquarters, owned by the park: usually accommodation, restaurants & a general store. But because they have ... read more

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 one moving in the opposite direction and collided. On the body board you kind of skip over the top. I see why everyone surfs out here. They get the body-boarding out their system when they’re ... read more

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 farmer uniform than anything to do with safety. We took a Greyhound bus to a hick town called Gympie, where they picked us up and took us to an even hick-ier town called Goomeri for ... read more