Harvest Trail

Tomorrow I start work at a farm picking cherries. It's about an hour outside of Melbourne and I'll be living on the farm. I plan to work for 3 and a bit weeks (if everything goes well) and make my way to Sydney for Christmas and the New Year. My work day will be 7.30- 5pm 6 days a week, yikes!
I had hoped to have my blog up to date before leaving, but after several hours online, uploading photographs and replying to emails I still have more to post. I've spent most of today gathering things for the farm, I'm now the proud owner of a cowboy hat and the world's largest bottle of insect repellent.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to get online over the next few weeks, so if an email goes unanswered do not worry!

This is me at the Rush Cafe, were I worked for a whole four days, with Beau, Uta and Mac.

Kangaroo Rescue Centre

Joey's Ready for a Ride Home

Alice Springs is home to the Kangaroo Rescue Centre. Driving through the outback I was amazed to see so many dead Kangaroos at the side of the road. Rental companies urge tourists to avoid driving at night and early mornings as this is when the majority of Kangaroos are hit. Cars are often written off, due to the size of the Kangaroos, males grow to over 2 metres high. Unfortunately female Kanagaroos are often hit while they are carrying a joey in their pouch. The Kangaroo Rescue Centre in Alice Springs was set up to take in joeys that survived car crashes their mothers didn't. It is also the goal of the centre to educate people. If you see a Kangaroo at the side of the road, they want you to check the pouch (if there is one) for a joey. They urge drivers to carry an empty pillow case, this can act as a surrogate pouch. Most towns in the outback have someone who will be willing to nurse the joey back to health. Nursing a Joey We arrived at the centre in time for the Joey's feeding. I noticed the owner nursing a Joey and thought it a bit gross he had most of his own lunch around his mouth, but then felt awlful when I realised he let the Joey's take milk from his mouth. In all my travelling, I've never felt so sick!
Sian and I both agreed they do excellent work at the centre, but neither of us could imagine taking a look inside a dead Kangaroo's pouch.

Sian eating Kangaroo Curry with no remorse, later that day.
I've uploaded a video to this post, but I don't think the link is working. It has uploaded to my vimeo account (right hand side) and shows a Joey preparing for bed.

On a Wing and a Prayer

When we picked up our Wicked Camper (that's the company name, I haven't gone over all "street") we were given a road map that showed us places to camp and fuel stops. As Wicked is a low budget camper alternative we were also asked to check the oil and water each day. This required Sian and I to remember to take a look at the engine first thing each morning, before it got too hot. Six out of six mornings we failed to do this. I mean it really was expecting too much of us. We also liked to test how far a tank of petrol will really go and discovered we could do 40+k's on empty, admittedly the middle of the Australian outback isn't really the best place to test this theory.
We had to return our Wicked camper to an address just outside Alice Springs by 10am on Saturday, I forget the date with an empty tank, just like when we'd collected it. About 45k's from Alice Springs the fuel warning light came on, we made the decision to ignore it. It was around this time the camper asked me to make three wishes, I knew this because the genie lamp light had also appeared on the dashboard.
We drove (rather slowly) into Alice and decided to check out 4 hostels before booking into Annie's Place and leaving our packs there.
We rolled up in front of the drop off point at 2 minutes to 10, with a drop of petrol and a bright little genie lamp. We felt very smug, if a little relieved too.

The Next Installment

The Road Ahead
Apologies for the time between posts, but working this week has given me little free time, but don't worry I've quit!
However I do have work lined up picking cherries at a farm in the Yarra Valley (not far from Melbourne) starting on Wednesday. Tomorrow I have to register with the Harvest Trail and stock up on supplies before I head out to the farm on Tuesday. But first to re-cap on the last 4 weeks in Australia.
On our second day we travelled through Adelaide and found a free campsite (well actually a lay by at the side of the road) near Lake Albert, north of Adelaide. It was quite cold so we were looking forward to the following days drive into the Outback, just north of Port Augusta.

Sian Busy Cooking

We found the driving easy, we both took it in turns so the distances never felt too great. We also bought an i-trip devise, so we could listen to the music on our ipods via the camper's stereo.

Our Camper at Sunset

As soon as we stepped out of the camper van in Port Augusta we were hit by a wave of heat. We bought food and water for the next few days of driving and filled up the tank, before heading out into the Outback towards the Opal Mining town of Coober Pedy. But first someone had to turn 31. Unfortunately another year has passed, and I can't quite believe I'm 31. However the past year has been amazing and spent like no other.
I decided where better to spend my 31st Birthday but in the outback town of Pimba, population 35. We found another great free site, this time in front of a service station, motel and bar. It was hot enough when we arrived (late afternoon) to use the outdoor showers, a novel way to get a tan. The water is dispensed from a hose pipe poking out of a breeze block wall. Thankfully the sun had taken the edge of the water, it wasn't quite freezing cold.

Glorious Pimba!

After a very refreshing shower, Sian cooked a great meal and we celebrated my birthday. I was also presented with a carrot cake and candles, a brilliant birthday.

My Birthday Dinner

Yes I'm Alive!

After a few frantic emails from friends checking everything is OK, I finally have the time and access to the internet to post. I realise it's been quite a while, but I have been doing a lot of travelling (mostly in the Outback) since arriving in Australia on 24th October.
I arrived in Melbourne, to join my friend Sian in St Kilda, a beach suburb of the city. We had decided to hire a camper van and drive along the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide and then travel north to Alice Springs, stopping at Ayers Rock on the way. However after some research we discovered how expensive this trip was going to be, thankfully before we booked an organised tour we found two camper vans that needed to be re-located. This is a cheap and popular way to see Australia. Because of the vast distances within Australia, often people want to drive in one direction. Rental companies then require people to "re-locate" the camper van. There is a minimal charge ($1 a day with Wicked and $5 a day for the slightly more plush Britz camper van), you must pay for fuel, but often receive a small refund and the time between locations is limited. Sian and I were given a Wicked van (pretty basic people carrier converted into a camper) to drive from Melbourne to Alice Springs in 6 days. This is a distance of 2500k's (1550 miles) roughly. Yes we were quite ambitious. But we had a second camper van to collect in Alice Springs and return to Adelaide, with a mile allowance that would cover the detour out to Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon. We bought an extra two days (normal costs) for this part of the trip, giving us 6 days for the return, 2000k's (1240 miles).

Our "Wicked" Van
We gave ourselves enough time to take in the Great Ocean Road and camped near the Twelve Apostles (giant rocks off South Australia's coast). It was around 6 when we pulled into the campsite and Sian optimistically asked the manager, "what time is sunrise"? The following morning, having slept in we sheepishly left the campsite at around 10am.

Some of the 12
We were surprised when the Great Ocean Road left the ocean and went in land, it seemed to defy the trade descriptions act. However I did spot a Kangaroo and actually the only one I have seen thus far in the wild.
Technical Hitch - I'm typing this in Melbourne's State Library and there seems to be some problems with Blogger. Tomorrow is my first day of working in a coffee shop, making sandwiches (after 12 months without work, it's going to be tough!), so rather than leave this post on my laptop I thought I would post anyway and then carry on with a new post when I'm back online, sometime soon hopefully.