Week 13 – 12th Feb – 18th Feb

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Work started as usual around sunrise. It was nothing different apart from the fact that Luke appeared not to be talking to anybody. It seemed like he was in own little world. I thought it was just me and I didn’t really think anything of it. He had lent me book, which he asked me to give back at the end of the day, which I thought was a bit strange considering that I hadn’t done anything to piss him off. If he had been just another person working at the vineyard then nobody would have been bothered by his mood, but the fact that he was supposed to be our supervisor made for a really awkward and almost tense atmosphere at work. On Tuesday morning he still hadn’t come out of his pre-menstrual strop. Won Chul lost his sunglasses about an hour into the working day, so I thought I’d do the decent thing and help him find them - it’s hard work being in the sun all day, and having no sunglasses really exacerbates the situation. I was aware of the fact that, while I was helping Won Chul, Luke had stopped working and was staring at the two of us. When I started working again on my row he was still looking at me. I decided to return his look and when I asked him what was wrong there was no answer. We had all grown tired of his ‘dickedness’ so I asked the question with slightly more blunt language! He told me that he didn’t deserve to be spoken to like that and walked back to the ute. I told him that none of us deserved to be treated like crap and not be spoken to at all - he didn’t seem to understand. 15 minutes later, he returned, followed by the boss a few minutes later. John, the owner of the place, informed me that if he had put Luke in charge and that if I had some kind of problem with him then I’d have to consider leaving. We had a lengthy chat about the situation and I explained that Luke had changed into a completely different person and that if he was a man he would come and speak to us all about what his mood was about instead of acting like a kid and going to tell teacher!

John understood where I was coming from but Luke never came to have a word with me. I can’t emphasize enough how different the guy was this week. He went from being a cool, chilled-out guy with whom I got on well, to being a total knob. God knows where it came from. I thought I’d give him another day - maybe he’d come and talk to us and explain what his problem but alas it never happened. On Wednesday, Tom, Jay and I started discussing the possibility of leaving earlier than planned. I had planned to stay until the end of February/beginning of March, by which time the job would have been finished. However, I decided that I wasn’t in Australia for some cock of a South African to make my working day really painful. We had saved enough money to head elsewhere so we decided that we’d head away from Loxton at the weekend - after all, we had been there for nearly 6 weeks.

After work on Thursday, we went to a local mechanic to see if he’d be able to come and toe the van - the battery was complete shot and the van wasn’t turning over. We also needed new radiator cap as the old one was quite corroded and wasn’t forming a tight seal. We thought we’d get them to have a quick look over it to make sure everything was tickety-boo. A new battery and stuff cost us $136, which we were perfectly content to pay for our ticket out of Loxton! So we were all sorted to leave at the weekend. Jay had been travelling with a mate of his from home and his girlfriend and he’d had enough of them people all coupley and not getting involved with anyone else - Matt had turned into a bit of cock as well, so we were more than happy for him to jump into the van and flee this place which was turning into somewhat of a soap opera!

On Friday, we finished at midday as it was blistering! It was also payday, which meant a visit to the bottleshop was on the cards! On Thursday night, I had jokingly put forward the idea of a fancy-dress party for our leaving do. Nobody took it too seriously, but on Friday afternoon Jay and I snuck off to the charity shops to look for some comedy outfits. A whole host of girls’ clothes was tried on - netball outfits, nurses uniforms, dresses… I then came up with the idea of dressing up as schoolgirls!! I have to say, it was pretty difficult trying to find a skirt that would fit, but I found a cracker as well as I tasteful pink bra, little white blouse, school tie and devil horns! Jay found a similar outfit and for the grand total of $2 between the two of us, we were made! The only thing we needed was a wig for each of us. We had seen some comedy dressing-up ones in a $2-shop, but then we had the brainwave of asking one of the local hairdressers of they had any kicking about! A $15 deposit for each of the wigs was a bargain - I had myself a nice long blonde while Jay suited the curly brunette look!

We thought we’d keep I quiet, so as to surprise everyone later on. We recruited Lou, one of the English girls, to be chief ‘dresser-upper’ and ‘maker-upperer’, but other than her nobody was any the wiser! We had a couple of beers and then at about 8pm we locked ourselves in mine and Tom’s room and started the transformation into Nicola and Jane. I simply had to a couple of plaits put into my wig - without them I looked like some kind of 80s rocker or Paul Calf, for those of you who know who that is! A touch of eye shadow and a dab of mascara later we skipped out and the reaction was superb! Nobody was expecting anything - especially the Koreans! Everyone pissed themselves with laughter and it set the tone for a cracking night. All the Koreans wanted to have their picture taken with us and it felt like for about an hour we were part of some kind of photoshoot! Everyone got involved in the drinking and the Koreans offered us some of their incredibly tasty scoff, in which I duly obliged taking part. It was so nice to see the whole hostel in high spirits and everyone enjoying themselves - everyone, that is, apart from Luke who didn’t come out of lair all night. It was one of the funniest nights I’ve had in Australia and was a great send off for us. We had made some good friends at it would be sad to say goodbye, but onwards and upwards and all that… We wouldn’t be leaving until Sunday, but we thought we’d have our piss-up on Friday in order to give us Saturday to recover and start sorting our stuff out.

We didn’t achieve a lot on Saturday because we couldn’t be bothered! I cleaned the van out late in the afternoon - it was too hot to be outside any earlier! One amusing incident occurred mid-afternoon when the roundabout outside the hostel got completely blocked by the biggest low-loader I’ve ever seen. It was transporting some kind of cooling tower or massive chimney and couldn’t negotiate the roundabout easily - it was stuck there for a good half hour! The Koreans were convinced that it was a missile or part of a rocket, but I’m sure it was intended purely for peaceful use!

On Sunday we got organised and said goodbye to everyone, having left with full stomachs thanks to Brad’s superb culinary ability with bacon and eggs. Our plan was to head towards Melbourne, which is in south-easterly direction, but we didn’t need to race their. There really wasn’t much to see as we drove south and the lack of backpackers’ hostels in our Lonely Planet book suggested that there was no point in hanging around anywhere until we hit the coast. Mount Gambier, a large town on the south coast was our first destination. We liked the novelty of staying a jail for the night, so we booked ourselves into the only hostel in town - an old jail which had been slightly (very slightly) converted. The only thing to see in Mt. Gambier was the Blue Lake - an volcanic crater filled with impossibly sapphire-blue water. We saw it briefly and decided to go back the next day for a bit more of a look around as the light was starting to fade. A good night’s sleep followed and saw the close of another week. We were glad that the weather seemed a lot more bearable down south - the sight of cloud and a few spots of rain was very welcome, almost homely! Our adventure towards Melbourne would start in earnest in the morning, but for now we were more than happy to have our nice comfortable beds in which to get our heads down!

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