Outback Australia

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For the last two months, I've been working in the outback. I've enjoyed it a lot. I was picked up from the bus station in Moree, which really isnt a bus station. It was more of a bus stop. I was picked up by the owner's wife named Roz, who was probably about 55 years of age. She took me to the store as I would only get to go to the store about every 10 days or so. We started driving to our destination and there was a GPS in the vehicle we were driving. After about half an hour, there were no roads on the GPS. I was like where are we going? She said it was a dot on the map. We were going there on dirt roads all the way. They joked and said if you picture nowhere, then put a dot in the middle of it and that's where we are. We are in the middle of nowhere. No neighbors, no people. Just work. The accomodation was free and I was able to save quite a bit of money! The people I worked with were alright. The owner of the farm I worked on owns over 5 farms and the smallest being 3,500 acres. They all farm cotton. While working here, I was on a tractor over 80% of the time. I only had 5 days off in two months, which was great. My shortest work week was 35 hours and the longest was 78 hours. I pretty much got unlimited hours, but not paid overtime. I was still very happy to have a job. In the states, I was lucky to get 40 hours a week working two different jobs. One of the funny things about my trip here was there was a farm my boss owned in Collarenebri. There is about 500 people in this town and another 500 in the outskirts. There is a pub, gas station and grocery store with 3 aisles and that's it. When I talked to some locals at the pub after work, they said this is civilization. If you go to Northern Terroritory, the farms are over 10 times as big and you will go for weeks without seeing a sign of life, but here there is life even though it's far from any lifestyle I have known. I am finishing up my last week of work this week, then have 7 weeks of travel before coming home. It's hard to believe I have been gone for a year already.... The things that I really liked about Australia were the beef pies, the money and some of the people and how they live such a relaxed lifestyle. There were a few people at work that definitely helped take me under their wings and get me used to work and the lifestyle. As my time approaches to leave, I feel like when I leave, a piece of my heart will be missing. I have lived in three cities states in Australia and it was sad each time I left, but now it is even harder as I won't be coming back for a long long time. I'll never forget this place and the people that were involved in my life! I definitely missed my family and am ready to come home.

So... I guess now I just write about what I have coming up in the 7 weeks. I have 17 days on the Malaysia mainland, then another 2 weeks in the Borneo part of Malaysia, then off to Philippines for 19 days, go to Macau near Hong Kong then home to be with my family for Thanksgiving. My last trip was to India where it was very historical. This trip will be a little less historical and a bit better for nature. I'll spend a lot of time on islands and in the mountains and even going to the largest cave chamber in the world!

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