October 2009... Mango Madness!

Hi guys,

Time for another update on my traveling progress.

Not too much to report this time. I have spent most of the last month attending one of the worst mango harvests in living memory! It wasn't my fault... promise...

So I spent about 4 weeks on Tous Garden mango farm, in the Northern Territory, about 100 km south of Darwin... (That is in Australia for Americans and other geographically challenged people out there ;)

I did one day of picking, but most of my time was spent in the packing shed. I had the most important job in the shed (so my boss told me). I was in charge of pouring mangos into the sorting machine and making sure the correct mix of chemicals got sprayed onto them. Luckily this meant that I didn't have to take any responsibility for the grading of the mangos (very tricky and boring job), or for the packing the mangos into boxes (even trickier and boringer).

The photos from this time can be found here...

Apart from the farming I pretty much kept my head down on the farm and took advantage of the air conditioning in my room. I didn't get involved with any of the scandals in Tous Garden in this time. Not too much to tell really... just some people getting drunk and rowdy... The usual...

The problem with this being one of the worst seasons in living memory was that there wasn't too much work. In a normal season once the season starts properly the work is full on, ten plus hours a day, six days a week, until all the mangos are gone. This season the work was very start-stop, with some half days, some days off and some days when we were working sun-up to sun-down, and beyond. This all also meant that we didn't make quite as much money as we would like. Thus we will have to search for another job sooner then anticipated... never mind.

After leaving the farm we spent a couple of days in Lichfield park, seeing magnetic termite mounds and swimming under beautiful waterfalls... pics here...

So... the plan over the next few days is to get my van looked at, and then to do a loop through kakadoo national park, and from there head south to Katherine and then West to Western Australia... and maybe even find a job there...

Until next time guys...

Trev

An update on the last month of travelling...

Hi guys.

Its time for another update on how my travels are going. At the time of my last update I was just finishing up in Munduburra and waiting to set off on the next phase of traveling... (at least thats where I think I got up to...)

Anyway, eventually we successfully set off on the road again. The last few of my farming pics went up ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107687&id=673491291&l=fe0b06808b ), and a whole new album was started!

The pics from the new album are here ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=120860&id=673491291&l=3ca85267a9 ) though I haven't finished uploading them yet (the internet is a bit patchy around here!)

So the first couple of days were a bit of a slog. We travelled over 1200 km over these 2 days! Skipping over large parts of the middle of the coast of queensland. Our first major destination was Airlie Beach. From here we took a cruise to the Whitsundays. This was expensive, but worth it! And it also warranted an album all of its own! ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116649&id=673491291&l=54f9fd2d1b )

After this we took it fairly easily... heading up the coast until we reached Townsville. We took a couple of days out to explore Townsville... and also took a diving trip to the SS Yongala shipwreck, which was an amazing experience all of its own. There were huge fish down there (as big as a car), rays, sharks, turtles, sea snakes... pretty much anything you could wish for!

After this we continued our journey North along the coast... stopping off at various beaches along the way. There are some beautiful deserted beaches to camp on along this stretch of the coast.


The next major stop off was Cairns. This is a glitzy place, and very expensive... so we didn't stay for too long. We did stop for long enough to check out a jazz concert in the botanical gardens though...


North of Cairnes was Port Douglas... we stopped there, but only briefly. It seemed very nice, but time was pressing by this point so we continued north to Tribulation Point... We travelled as far north as you can get with a 2 wheel drive car, so we decided to head back south and start the journey west...

The atherton tablelands is the first place that you arrive at. This seems like a very nice area. Very green and lush, with lots of waterfalls dotted about the place. We had a day when we saw 4 waterfalls in one day!

Past this things started to get dryer and less populated. The towns that looked big on the map turned out to be a few houses and maybe half a general store. The economy of these small towns seemed to be supported mostly by the petrol stations...

Worth mentioning on this route is Gregory Downs. The official camp site here is not too impressive, but down by the river is a beautiful place to camp and go for a swim. People kept on talking about the crocs... but we didn't see any.

Another couple of days saw us cross the border into the northern Territory. The first impression of this place is of nothing... as far as the eyes can see... in fact we passed an information board that said that what the place was notable for was that nothing had happened there geologically for over 500 million years!

ding North once more the landscape became slowly lusher and lusher. The camping here was amazing. It seemed like every day we were camping near a thermal spring and daily swims seemed almost normal!

Finally we approached civilization again. Katherine was a bit of a disappointment. We were so craving a Macdonalds! If only for the free internet there! There was a thermal springs, so that kind of made up for it.

We took our time to the next few places, travelling a couple of hundred km a day, visiting places of interest, slowly making our way to Darwin.

That was a couple of days ago... now we are living on the mango farm... waiting for the season to start properly. Life seems pretty good here, and I'm certain that we will be EXTREMELY busy pretty soon... but that is all for the next update (and photo album)

Thats you all up to date now. Take it easy y'all.

Trev x

PS. If you haven't recieved your post card yet it is on its way. If you haven't requested one yet... then feel free to send me youre address, but it might be a while before I have enough time to sit down and write cards....

Update on the last 6 months!

Hi guys.

After a long time of neglecting my travelling group, I've decided to keep you up to date on what I've been up to recently.

I've now been in Australia for the past 6 months. It has made a refreshing change from Asia. Much as I love South East Asia, and spending time there, it was only when I arrived in Australia that I realised how crowded, dirty and, to be frank, smelly much of Asia is! Arriving in Sydney was like returning home, but returning to a much hotter home. :)

I attended the Salsa Congress in Sydney ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=74878&id=673491291&op=18 ) which was lots of fun. Then after a couple of weeks of trying to get a job I gave up on Sydney and deciced to head up the coast to Brisbane.

I was excited to arrive in Brisbane because it ave me a chance to finally meet the infamous Jan, a girl that I had spoken to a ridiculous amount over the previos year, but never actually met (due to living on the other side of the word...).

In Brisbane I picked up a job inside one week. It wasn't the most glamorous job ever, but it got me out in the fresh air, gave me plenty of excercise, and allowed me to improve my people skills. I was door to door selling electricity around the suburbs of Brisbane. ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79336&id=673491291&op=12 )

I was doing this for around 3 months, in which time I found myself a flat to live in. It was a great job, and I met lots of interesting people, and even sold them some electricity.

At the start of may I was pretty excited because Nam was coming to Australia for the next phase of my travelling. We first met (in Australia) at a Latin Dance Camp in the Gold Coast. Loads of fun, and it was fun to be finally dancing again. :D

Then Nam came up to Brisbane and the last half of May was mostly taken up with trying to find a camper van to take us around australia!

We finally picked up this little van ( http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2327753&l=b3184bd13c&id=673491291 ) and it was time to start our adventure.... Well, it would be if it wasn't for the little matter of getting the van roadworthy and transfering the registration over to our names. Australians are crazy for red tape! It took us almost a month and a half to sort out these little bits of paper!!

Once we were finally free to travel we were just about running out of cash, so we decided to head north and start doing some fruit picking. And that brings us pretty much up to the present. We spent a month in Gayndah, picking and packing oranges. Then a couple of weeks in Mundubbura, thinning peaches.

Over te next few weeks we plan to head to the Northern Territory an do some mango picking. The weather will be even hotter, and sweatier, and the work will be hard, but it should be fun, and of course I will be taking lots of pictures to show you all what I'm up to.

Anyway, I really must be off. I hope you are all enjoying your lives as much as I am enjoying mine. :)

All the best.

Trev

PS. I will be sending out some post-cards soon, so if any of you want one then can you mail me with your address and I'll send one out to you as soon as I can.

Teddy bear orgy...

When we got back to the van one time Trevor was hanging with his bi@ches...

What can I say? Naughty Trev!

Strawberry fields forever.

I went strawberry picking the other day. it was a fun experience and it made me think of going strawberry picking when I was a kid. Sunny days, school holidays, all that stuff.

It occured to me while I was there that going strawberry picking is a bit like an all you can eat buffet... with only one course. In fact you could buy a kilo of strawberries for $10, or pick your own, for $11... So of course you have to make it worth your while.

Another realisation that struck me while I was there is that strawberries are much like people. In that the really tastey ones are often the ones that are shaped slightly strangely, wheras the perfect looking ones are somehow bland tasting and hardly worth picking in the end.

Just thought I'd share those insights with you, and also let you know that if I see another strawberry in the next few months I may throw up/explode/eat it... one of the three...

Trevors Travels

I'm not sure if you guys are aware but I have been sharing my travels with someone very close to me. He has been at my side the whole time, climbing up mountains, flying in planes, riding on trains, camping in jungles... in fact, he has seen it all.

This little guy is the same age as me, and remarkably he also has the same name! Here is little Trev.

Integral awards night...

Last night was the Integral (or Smart group) awards night.

For those of you that don't know this is the company that I am currently working for, doing direct sales, door to door, selling electricity.

There was a huge bar tab laid on, so obviously everyone there got pretty drunk. The pictures can be found here.

As you can probably see, a good night was had by all... Unfortunately I didn't get an award, but as I pointed out, if I was to win an award then it would be a pretty poor lookout for the rest of the company, baring in mind my average sales at best!

What I did get was thrown out of the bar! I think this is the first tie this has happened to me since my uncles stag party in Glasgow. And this time, like that time, I was thrown out for being with the wrong person...

At my uncles stag party the wrong person was my uncle! He got himself into some trouble (I think he threw a drink over someone) and the bouncers saw and threw him out. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately, because if I hadn't been with him we would have had no idea where he was), I was with him, and so I also got thrown out. It would be more accurate to say that I followed him out, but of course the bouncers wouldn't let me back in to the club once I was outside. My uncle managed to get himself arrested that time! I had managed to stop him from attacking the bouncers, and turned my back for a split second to try and get a message passed inside, and my uncle had thrown himself at the bouncers once again! Idiot! So I had a fun night waiting in a police station trying to get him out before his wedding started!

Anyway, back to last night... I was with one of my friends (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty), and he was totally wasted! I dunno how much he had had to drink, but he was attracting attention inside the bar from the barstaff and security. I managed to persuade him that it would be a good idea if he stopped drinking and probably left the bar, and was walking withh him to the door, to make sure he got out safely.

However, when I was within about 3 meters of the door one of the bouncers, grabbed my arm and told me that i was to leave as well! I can asure you that I wasn't THAT drunk... I was drunk, sure, but certainly not to the level of being too drunk to be in a bar. You try telling that to a bouncer though. He manhandled me to the door, and as I was stepping outside he gave me a shove on the back so I missed my footing and ended up twisting my ankle! My friend (the nameless one) wasn't too impressed with the way i was being treated, so he started to have a go at the bouncer. Luckily my experience all of those years ago payed off, and I bundled him away, across the road, and round the corner. Never argue with bouncers... it is pointless...

After various shenanagans in the center of town, I decided that i would walk home. A decision I've come to regret since waking up in the morning with my foot in complete agony, and looking like it has been through a mangle!



I'm really hoping that it gets better quickly! I'm supposed to be going to a theme park tomorrow, and I don't fancy limping around all day!

Thats not to mention if it is still bad next Tuesday, work will be no fun at all!

So... does anyone know if it is a bad sign if your twisted ankle brings out bruising?