One Mans Odyssey

I really did feel like I was joining the army when I started my work farming. No offence intended to the the true soldiers who go through a ton more. It was just the whole sleeping in a hostel with the strictest rules I've ever encountered. Waking up at 4.30 every morning. Working the hardest I've ever worked in my life. In fact even when I sat on the back of a truck to work with a load of Koreans every day it reminded me of an old war film.  Despite all of this I really did enjoy my time working on the farms of Stanthorpe Australia.

I'm not going to lie, the work itself was hell on earth. The first week being the worst where you were bent over from 6 in the morning till about 3 in the afternoon picking Capsicums (Green Peppers for us English Folk). 65 Green Peppers on average to a bucket, 110 buckets on average a day. Note I said on average, statisticly speaking I was the worst worker on the farm picking capsicums tallying only 68 buckets on my best day. What can I say? I'm not used to hard physichal work, this was definitelya shock to my system.

Usually reserved for good workers I was moved accross to the lettuce team. I can only assume the previous supervisor just wanted me out of his sight :p This is where things definitely started to look up work wise. Given the position of loading the trucks it was still very hard work but it didn't make you feel like your spine was about to explode and at this time that was heaven. After a week of this I was probably the most phsyically fit I've been since I got to Australia and was moved to the position of cutting lettuce. Though not really a better job as as such the difference was that you get paid depending on how much the group cuts and we had a good team. On an average day cutting lettuce I would earn $200 compared to the $120-150 with previous jobs on the farm.

The other side to working on the farm and undoubtedly the better side was the people you meet. As everybody is in the same situation working together in this community in the middle of nowhere it creates a very special environment that I havn't found in any other hostel. Everybody socializes with each other and generally speaking you knew every person in your hostel. It is a big change to the disposable types of friendships that are formed in a lot of hostels as you all end up spending so much time together. The great people you meet whilst working the farms is definitely a great experience in itself, often people you may not have even spoken to under different circumstances.

Three weeks into my stay, Stanthorpe played host to the Apple & Grape Festival which celebrates harvest work and local wines. Alll in all it's just a great excuse to close off the streets, bring in 70,000 people to this small town and have a huge party. The parade was definitely nothing special but we had a lot of fun listening to bands in the park and enjoying the life that it brought to this remote location for one weekend.  

After all the hard work and everything that goes with it I can honestly say that when it came time to leave this farm town I was slightly sad and would have even stayed a bit longer if I'd had the time. It really is a unique experience that you have to go through to fully understand but I highly recommend any backpacker in trouble with money to try it for a minimum of two weeks and see what you think. If nothing else it's another experience to add to the journal.

Until next time…

After my happy arrival in Brisbane things suddenly took a turn to the serious. There comes a time in most backpackers travels where that monster of a bank balance seems to suddnely become thier last supper and a thousand memories. This is the place where it hit me!

Leaving myself with only 2 nights worth of rent and food money I knew I had to work fast. After one right of relaxing and just enjoying the calm before the storm, I was out on the streets job hunting. I spent hours looking up things on the internet and local notice boards to come up with absolutely nothing. Sure bar work and labouring is readily available but within Australia you need to hold certain certificates and things to prove you can safely work in these environments and these don't come for free.

Nearly at the point of giving in I strolled into my hostel, tail between my legs for a break and a moment to strategise. When all was looking bleak, they came from nowhere… Two girls holding recruitment signs, asking the receptionist if they may hang them up. The hostel may have disagreed as they would lose money on their job club (Try and avoid this in Palace Backpackers where you basically pay to get work, surely it should be the other way in an unskilled job) but I was straight up there talking to these two young scottish lasses. They described how it was an upcoming Marketing company and after wowing them with my "fashion sense" (Apparently shorts and a sidewards cap doesn't suit my character, in usual circumstances I may agree) I was offered an interview 30 minutes later, something must have gone right.

Suited and Booted with the very outfit I nearly threw out the week before I headed into the office and stepped into one of the most crazy interviews that I've ever partaken in. I won't go into too much details in case this reaches the tabloids when I'm rich and famous, but I may or may not have been asked to audtion for the part of a chicken. One hour later I was succesly hired and ready to start work as a Door to Door Salesman for an energy retailer.

What followed was some of the best training I've ever recieved for a job and then an emotional rollercoaster as I battled my mind with the stress of living and working on near enough no money in a city on the other side of the world. This was defintely the hardest pat of my journey so far but I came out the other side and instead of going home went farming. What? Yes, Me, I went fruit picking whilst in Australia. The man who once said he would never do a day of Manual labour worked on a farm for an entire month!

More about that soon!

Moving on from my good times in Byron Bay, the next location would have a lot to live up to. Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast was the unlucky next stop on my hit list. As I rolled into this overdeveloped 'city on the sea' I was already feeling pretty ill and run down as well as lacking anything that you could really call a bank balance. My stay in Surfers was short but unfortunately not sweet. I spent the majority of my time here in my hostel feeling sorry for myself. What little time I did manage to get out, I found the place to be very commercialized with huge tower blocks looming over the beach and expensive bars in every second lot.

If you want to party then this is the town for you, the place comes alive at night and you wonder if there was every any intention in this city for anything else. With more bar crawls, clubs and strip shows than you can imagine packed into a few streets there really is no obvious escape for just a quiet night out. My advice to anybody thinking of visiting; Come for the clubbing or come for the theme parks, anything more and you may be disappointed. Saying that for what it is they have gone all out and if you had the money and were into it all you could surely have a lot of fun here.

Next Stop: Brisbane

DISCLAIMER:OK, so this is Byron Bay as I remember it. Must have been nearly two months ago now so I'm doing my best but may not have included everything that happened. Everything that does appear in this post however, did happen!

It all started with the true Australian Dream… When travellers are asked about their plans when in Australia, beach life no doubt will be part of it and our plans were no different. Some like to take it to the next level, jump in the surf and ride the ocean. This was a dream we all shared and one that we all managed to accomplish on our surf camp.

After arriving in Byron Bay from a crazy week of surfing and partying it was clear that none of us wanted it to end. As we walked along daydreaming and noticed a house for rent the idea was thrown around that we rent our own party house for a week. Not accepting this as pure fantasy I set to work making this a reality. Several phone calls later 3 of us were in inside this house making a viewing. We walked around the house in awe, you have so many worries when going inside, will it work, is it going to be old an dirty? Any worries we had were flattened the moment we steeped in . As the agent showed us the BBQ area a $10 note stared at me from the floor, if you believe in Omens that surely this had to be good.

Brimming with excitement we all grouped up and told the rest. Eight friends, brought together through sun, sea and good times about to live the dream for a week in one of Australia's best surf towns. A plan was devised to cover both rent and food for the week, the money collected and we were off shopping. Eight different people, eight different backgrounds and not a single issue whilst shopping with each others money. After stocking up with enough food and wine for a small army it was off to get the keys and move in.

3 Double Bedrooms, 2 Lounge Areas, 2 Bathrooms, 1 Kitchen, 1 Huge Garden, 1 BBQ and one private path to the beach. After living in hostels for however long, this really was heaven. Each and every day we cooked, ate and cleaned together and everything went by without any big stresses.

The Ten Commandments - or - Typical Day in the BB House

1. Wake up
2. Drink Beer
3. Eat Lunch
4. Go Beach
5. Eat Dinner
6. Drink Beer & Wine
7. Head out to Clubs
8. Party at House
9. Sleep/Charge Up
10. Rinse & Repeat.

This is one experience I can't really put in to words without it loosing it's effect. Unfortunately it is one of those times where you really had to be there. Of course I could tell you about the times that we made songs with pots and pans, the time we had a bodybuilder crawl through our window at 3 in the morning or even the time we borrowed some instruments and created our own band in the high street. The problem is I just can't translate the good times and fun we had throughout these moments in a simple blog post.

This week was one of, if not the, best weeks I had in Australia. And to top it all off Australia Day fell in the time we were in the house. A day where every single one of us managed to acquire an Australia Flag Cape and Parade around the garden with a Tooheys(Beer) in Hand. A day where we had an amazing BBQ in the Garden and celebrated our first Personal Settlement in Australia.

A lot of this week has been lost to memory, whether it be the general haze that a little too much drinking creates, the time between the events and now or the sheer amount of new things that happen whilst travelling. Whatever the reason this is an accurate report on our week in Byron even if I can't do the Purple House Crew justice in the words of praise I have. Until Next Time…

For the past month orso I've been pretty rapped up in surviving and must admit this blog has been really neglected but it is time to get back on track. I figure the easiest way is to make several posts in chronological order which over the next few days will be added and bring you up to date. First one coming up now…