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Published: December 19th 2009
Wobbly Boot Hotel
"In the town of Bogabilla on the McIntyre River..."With no further work available for us at Graincorp, we packed up and left Moree on Friday 13th November. Heading for the coast, we decided to call into Stanthorpe in Queensland and see what might turn up there with the stone fruit picking and apple thinning.
As we approached “the town of Boggabilla on the McIntyre River” we were searching through our CD collection for the John Williamson song “Wobbly Boot Hotel”. We stopped to take the obligatory photo of said establishment. It was hot and dry as we stopped at Goondiwindi and had a quick walk up town to get bread for lunch. The next task was to find a shady spot for lunch. We found the Botanic Gardens, which were more like a picnic park, but the lake in the centre and the big gum trees offered shade and a sense of “coolth”. Wendy was feeling the heat so much that she continuously ran the tap over her legs and feet. On departure we realised that we couldn’t turn around with the car hooked on so we had to detach it and re-hitch.
We continued our journey eastwards, wanting to check out the freedom campsites along the
It gets cold in Stanthorpe
They hold a "Brass Monkey Festival" during Winter in Stanthorpe McIntyre River along the Border River Tourist Drive. We quickly worked out that we need to plan these side trips differently, as attempting to take our rig down a not-RV-friendly track does not make for happy travelling for the rest of the afternoon! Yep, we had to unhitch for the second time that day. We DID end up at a most amazing spot for the night, just outside of Texas, Qld. It’s right beside the Dumaresq River, great fishing spots, lovely babbling creek, friendly horses, big flat grassy campsites, and a cool change had arrived just before us - so cool that we had to bring out the winter woollies. A fellow camper told us that the temperature had dropped around 10 degrees in a matter of minutes, and we thought it just a wild windy storm as we were travelling along.
The next day we arrived in Stanthorpe with Wendy not feeling too well (tummy bug). As we booked into the caravan park, Peter mentioned that we were looking for work. Within 3 hours the Park Owner offered us 4 hours work each, cleaning cabins and motel rooms on Sunday mornings in exchange for a week’s site fees.
The road to the coast
Beautiful drive from Stanthorpe to the Gold Coast That was a sweet deal and we could have that arrangement for as long as we like! After filling in application forms at the local seasonal employment agency, we were told that there were hundreds of people in front of us on their lists. After doing a bit of sight-seeing, we noticed that the local Anglican Church was soon to have their Annual Fair. We got to thinking that we should give Sewroo ironing board covers and peg bags a go at market stalls. When there’s no work available, why not create our own jobs? We booked in for the fair, and took a day’s drive across to the Gold Coast to visit our friends at Sewroo and collect our first supply of stock (and other display items). It was such a pretty drive, that we’d like to explore this part of the country more. There’s National Parks and pretty little townships like Aratula, Boonah and Canungra. We suffered a bit of culture shock being back in busy civilization. We got ourselves set up to operate our stall and started to plan a circuit of markets.
The church fair was a very small event, but we had the best
Blue sky country
Our site at Stanthorpe position for our stall and made quite a reasonable profit and had fun to boot! We’ve since done 4 other markets to date and that little church fete still ranks as the best sales turnover.
Wendy was asked if she would like to spend some time learning the computer/reservation system in reception at the caravan park office. Would she WHAT? We have long pictured ourselves relief managing caravan parks, and with our new lifestyle, we are one step closer to achieving that. We’ll get our training and experience as we travel around, and see what develops.
We were starting to get used to the idea of basing ourselves in Stanthorpe until just before Christmas, doing the cleaning job, getting more office experience, doing the nearby market circuit, when …… we got a call from Berryexchange, reportedly the largest blueberry farm in the world, offering us the job we’ve been chasing since July! Well, of course we had to change plans AGAIN (we’re very flexible - Peter’s quote for this kind of situation is “Because we CAN!) The next day we decided to be tourists in the Stanthorpe area, so we got to visit the apple juice factory, having
Lorikeet
The namesake of the caravan park we called "home" for 3 weeks. a lovely chat with the lady there (and sold 4 peg bags to her before we left). Driving past fruit orchards, strawberry fields, and vineyards, we then went to one of the many wineries in the area - “the Granite Belt” is making a name for itself as a great wine producing region. The lady who looked after us was a wealth of information about seasonal work in the area, as well as the wines she was serving to us. There was also a display of some beautiful photographs - all her work. We enjoyed a beautiful lunch on the lawn overlooking the dam and surrounding hills.
Wednesday 25th November saw us leaving Stanthorpe to head for the coast. We checked out of the Caravan Park at around 3 pm and several people were frowning, because you always leave in the morning. Again, Peter just said “WE CAN!” So we hit the road, stopping for the night at Beardy Creek just north of Glen Inness (another freeby night), and then onto Grafton for lunch.
Stopping to shop in Grafton helped us realise that Christmas is coming. The roving “Elvis” added to the noise and of course there were
Friendly neighbours
One of these ducks has a deformed foot but that didn't stop him from getting around the whole park. decorations everywhere. Amazing prawns were the bargain of the day, so they soon found their place on our dinner menu. With pantry and fridge restocked, we only had to get fuel in the motorhome before heading south down the highway for about an hour to set up at our new home for the next 3 weeks. Good in theory! The computer system at the servo was down, so after phone calls to our bank, and much frustration from everybody, Wendy had to walk across the 4 lane highway (at South Grafton) and up a couple of blocks to get cash from an ATM at another petrol station. While all this was going on, Peter drove around the very small truck parking area 3 times to allow trucks to get fuel. Eventually…yes! you guessed it, he had to unhook the car and turn around. While all one and a half hours later with much heat and higher blood pressure, we were on our way. THEN - after missing the turn into the caravan park (and pressure still at a high level) we arrived at our new home. The lady at reception indicated that there was doubt that we’d be able to
fit our rig on one of their powered sites. WHAT THE??? Peter discreetly left the reception area before he killed somebody. Everything was fine in the end of course. We suspect that they just wanted us to take an ensuite site so that they could get more money out of us, because we were taking advantage of a really generous deal they had advertised on their website.
The Lorikeet Caravan Park is a nice park, with lorikeets (of course), plus kangaroos, ducks, a beautiful swimming pool and spa, easy walk to the beach and 5-star facilities. As we enjoyed our delicious prawn salad for dinner, we were able to relax, and then got ourselves ready for our first day of blueberry picking.
We were the most mature of the new recruits - there are lots of backpackers from many countries. This place is HUGE! Have a look on Google maps to get an idea. (Range Road, Corindi.) There are about 550 acres of blueberries. They grow on bushes which are about 6 feet tall. Sometimes they are in beautiful, fat, juicy, ripe bunches which makes for easy picking. Others are scattered in random fashion all over the bush.
Yummy Blueberries
The bushes grow to about 6 feet tall. These varieties usually produce a smaller berry, and the actual tree is quite brittle and scratchy when the picker reaches in to retrieve the fruit, (but no prickles). These are NOT our favourites! Nevertheless, each and every berry is plucked individually by human hands. There are 13 crews, comprising about 30 pickers, then there’s the packing shed staff, maintenance, management, water truck driver, and there’s even a “Kenny” (portable toilet delivery driver). We’ve experienced various weather conditions, pay rates, berry sizes, bush types and states of mind as we learn our new skills. We feel we are getting faster at the process, and try to improve on the previous day’s results. It’s mostly fun and when we are feeling a bit down about the low rate of pay and the heat/humidity, we just think that we are making it possible for blueberries to be in the shops so that mothers can buy them for their little kids to enjoy. When our granddaughter, Matilda was 1½ she used to absolutely love them, still does, so much so that she would eat her Nanny’s supply in one visit - and then go to the fridge to look for more.
Peter’s birthday
Happy Birthday
The surprise worked. was a Monday, so that left very few options for places to have a nice dinner out. Woolgoolga has a few Indian Restaurants that we were hoping sample but they were closed. We settled for the Woolgoolga RSL Club. It was raffle night, so there were quite a few patrons in the club. The bistro was not crowded, we ordered our meals, enjoyed our drinks, our meals were brought out to us by a surprisingly professional waiter, and we tucked in. By the time we had finished our mains, the raffles were finished, the whole club quietened down and emptied out. There was only one other patron in the bistro. We had room for dessert, so we wandered over to the cake selection to make our choices. Peter returned to the table while Wendy teed up the surprise with the waitress. After plating up the slice of cake, she placed a candle on Peter’s, lit it and as she delivered it to the table she began to sing “Happy Birthday”. Wendy felt like she had to join despite her reluctance to sing in public. Peter was suitably impressed with the organisation of “rent-a-crowd”.
Last Thursday we experienced a surprise
Stranded
Stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a flat battery. How will the NRMA man find us? At least we wouldn't go hungry. breakdown in our car when we finished work. We attempted, unsuccessfully to jump start the car before everybody went home. We called the NRMA just as our boss left us sitting in the berry patch in the middle of nowhere, with an expected 90 minute wait, and a giant thunder storm approaching. Well, we thought we could be in worse situations, so we just picked a bucket of berries (there was plenty there for us to eat) and sat down on the picnic blanket to meditate while waiting. The NRMA man arrived in about an hour, started the car immediately (only a flat battery), was very grateful for the gift of farm fresh blueberries and the storm passed.
With the pay rates for our berry-picking efforts not making us rich enough to retire, we have attended the Sunday markets in Coffs Harbour on the past 2 weeks. There are or 3 or 4 markets held EVERY Sunday in Coffs Harbour which seems a bit excessive. Not our expected great results, but we have made a profit, got to meet some nice people, and had a day away from the berries. We intend to do a few more markets here
Woolgoolga Markets
A very beautiful spot to have a market. The beach is behind us. on the Coffs Coast, then we’ll be at the Maitland one on 20th December, so that we can be back on the Central Coast for Christmas.
We’ll be there until the middle of January when we have a business commitment in Tamworth for 10 days during the Country Music Festival. We then hope to get work in Tamworth for the next few months before heading for South Australia for more seasonal work.
While we have only been on the road for about 7 months so far, and we haven’t travelled all that far we really do love this lifestyle and have learned many things on our adventures.
Some things we have learned are as follows:
We have learned that we need to plan ahead a little further out to secure the right seasonal work;
We have learned that we really can live (and work) in close proximity together and love each other more;
We have learned that nearly all the material things that we had in our lovely beach side home are not very important, and certainly do nothing to define who we really are;
We have learned to that it’s the simple things in life that make it the most enjoyable, like walking along the beach at sunset, watching native animals and birds enjoy their lives, watching a dog play in the surf, taking a walk along a bush track and experiencing the solitude, soaking in a hot artesian pool, observing how blueberries grow and ripen on the bush, and listening to the rain.
We have learned that Blue Berry Picking is like getting back to mother earth. It can be so peaceful and meditative, and we learnt that when it comes to the factors that influence farming, we cannot control everything. Peter has described it as a spiritual experience, and wants to write a book called “Life’s Lessons from the Blueberry Patch”.
We have learned that we really do create our own destiny, and when things go wrong, this too will pass, so get over it and wait for it to pass without the stress.
We have learned that living our lifestyle is very inexpensive, and you would be amazed at how far you can stretch a dollar.
We have learned that technology is an amazing thing that keeps us in close contact with all our family, friends and clients. Even when it appears to let you down, there is always another solution.
We have learned that you never drive a 24 foot motor home with car attached into a road or garage with no exit point.
We have learned that there some really beautiful people all around us, all with some wonderful stories to share, and all much the same as us. We have met many wonderful friendly people from all over Australia, and the world. (we currently work with people from around 7 different countries)
We have learned that our family and friends are all very important to us and we look forward to spending time with them face to face this Christmas.
That’s all for now, we hope to catch up with many of you when we arrive “home” next week for a few weeks.
To all of you who read our blog, may your Christmas be full of Love, Peace and Joy, and that you find that experience sets the scene for your wonderful, fantastic, profitable and enjoyable 2010.
NB Needless to say we aren’t sending Christmas Cards this year.
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Maxine
non-member comment
What a wonderful read!
Thank you for the great read - it sounds like you are having some wonderful experiences - thanks for including me in your adventure!!! Have a fabulous Xmas and I look forward to hearing about all your new adventures in 2010!!!! All the best to the lucky wanderers! Maxine xx