Mildura: Part 1

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I took the Greyhound bus from Sydney Central Station on a 17 hour mission of a journey to Mildura, Victoria.

The bus and the drivers were nowhere near as cool as Oz Experience, although this was transport, not part of a fun road trip adventure i had become so used to.

The bus stopped in several small towns on the way and some big ones, including Canberra the capital city where i sat in the bus station for an hour and a half. It was bloody frezzing outside, im sure it would have been warmer at home that night. I was shivering like everybody else even though i was wearing warm clothes. Inside the TV had the rugby league world cup final on between Australia and New Zealand but it was boring and they even had adverts after a try was scored. - World Cup Final, what the hell...I hated Australian TV from that moment on.

It was about 9-9.30am when the bus finally dropped me off at a petrol station. I called Layla, the hostel owner and she picked me up and drove me to what was to be my home for the next couple of months. I arrived to my room, it was different to any other hostel i'd ever stayed at. It was a working hostel, Mildura is not really the place for backpackers to come to see the sights. It had 2 bedrooms, 3 beds in each. A shower room with a washing machine in, a seperate toilet, and an open plan kitchen/living area. $130 was value for money.

I met two of my 5 room mates Mattias and Erling, two Swedish guys aged 18 and 19 who have turned out to be a right laugh and they speak amazingly good English so communication and sharing jokes is not a problem. The other 3 room mates were Taiwanese girls who had adopted English names, obviously because its easier for everyone to remember and say. Peggy, Lisa - 2 sisters and Cindy. Peggy speaks the best English of the 3, Lisa only speaks a small bit but is improving and Cindy is incredibly quiet.

I had been told i would start work on Monday, i arrived on the Sunday but i didnt get my first day of work until Wednesday. A cash in hand job moving boxes of tiles from the back of a truck into a couple of building sites. 2.5 hours of work for $50. Money at least. I was running out fast. I didnt even buy beer or milk, just the most essential of essential food products. Bread, butter, peanut butter, cheese, potatoes, onions, orange juice and cola. I was drinking the home brand coffee black with no sugar. Thats how desperate money was but also how much i was prepared to discipline myself.

Some of the money from my first days work went towards a box of 24 Victorian Bitter stubbies which killed some time as there isnt much to do in Mildura except drink, play cards, watch DVD's and make your own fun. Yes, i have watched 3 seasons of criminal minds back to back. There is table tennis, basketball and some weights at the hostel but thats only fun for so long. There is a McDonalds over the road which i have yet to pay a visit. My room went down to the Murray River for an afternoon, it took forever to walk there.

The number one attraction at the moment is the supermarket Woolworths which gets a visit from myself daily, twice if its lucky.

I got work on the following Monday where me and Mattias where picked up at around 6am by a guy called Anthony. The work was at a farm about 110km away, just outside a small town called Robinvale. It involved constructing the end of a new patch of vineyard, putting 10ft or so logs in the ground at the end of each line of future vines.

It was painful as my role was to hold the logs in place while the tractor pounded the logs into the ground, then following directions from Mattias to straighten the posts, i wacked them time after time with a crowbar. It was like hitting concrete!

After hours of that it was time to measure out places where they would dig holes and we did so with a tape measure and plastic knives. The last task was to lug an insanely heavy metal bar, about my height in length, lampost thick to each marker, while the tractor smashed down on it knocking a small block of wood into the ground. My hands were literally black with bruises by the end of the day.

Tuesday was another boring day at the hostel but i was back working Wednesday and Thursday, this time planting vines. We planted hundreds over the 2 days, up down, up down we went, following the tractor as it dug holes. We had to make sure the roots were covered and that the tops were roughly the same height out of the ground.

I didn't work again until Monday. By this time i was a designated driver, driving the mini bus to and from work each day. I felt a slight privilage but at the same time, once each working day had finished, i just wanted to be home.

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Im currently working at another farm in a different direction. Steve is the name of our boss this time and the farm and vineyard we are working on is enormous. I'd say 1km x 500m and thats just the patch we are on. Its only about a 45 minute drive to this one and the driving includes flat, long roads through desert scenery. I see Kangaroos most days, most of whom are looking to commit suicide along with the odd wandering cow and sheep. I nearly hit one the other day, missing it by inches as 3 bounces across the road and the third decided to run in the same direction that i was driving. 10 minutes later i saw a dead one blocking an entire lane in the road.

I have done about 40 hours of planting in 4 days at the current farm and over 10 hours of covering the baby vines with protective card. Friday it rained heavily so we had the day off even though we had to drive there to check. On the way back we got out and tried to pull up a tree from the roadside for our Christmas Tree but we failed. We have made do with the skull of a lizard that we found at work, stuck on top of an empty beer bottle.

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I have got to know the roomates really well now as i am not just living with them but working with them too. Activities at the hostel are getting more desperate and random. We had an hour long debate on what we would do and have done to us if a Russian was staying in our room. We profile new people like they do in Criminal Minds. I have watched more DVD's in the past 3 weeks than i have in my entire life. Drinking is a good distraction.

We introduced the Taiwanese girls to Vodka at the weekend, they got completely smashed as they can only just about handle 2 beers. We pushed one of them around the hostel in a Woolworths trolley and got many random pictures.

Woolworths have put up a $1000 monthly prize draw for information on missing trolleys. They should just check the driveway of our hostel.

Our shower room flooded due to a leak in the washing machine so we had to mop that up. We have splashed out on two tennis balls so we can play balcony football.

Its not fun getting up at 5am but when pay day comes it will be worth it.

The mini bus died today so i had to drive a new one.

The flies at work drive everyone crazy.

The Taiwanese girls cooked us cakes that were more like rocks so thankfully they have not made any more.

Because i am a hostel driver i don't have to pay the daily $5 bus fee that would normally be for fuel.

Good times are just around the corner.

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