Monthly travel update :- November, The Wild Wild West...

Hey guys.

Its time for another update on my travels. In the last one I had just left Kakadu national park and was thinking of heading towards western Australia... The good news is that we made it!

After Kakadu we spent a couple of days around Darwin, mostly checking to see if there were any jobs in the area. Finding no jobs available we decided to head south towards Katherine with it in mind to travel on westwards from there.

So waving a teary goodbye to the last K-Mart and Macdonalds for 2000km we headed south.
The trip to Katherine was uneventful enouagh, except that our van started to make strange squeaking noises as we were driving... Thinking it would be better to get that sorted out before we traveled any further we made the decision to stay in Katherine and fix this problem.

By visiting all of the garages in Katherine (six) and all of the parts shops (three) we managed to get our van fixed in 5 days and for less then $300! For these 5 days that we were forced to stay in Katherine (honestly it isn't a very nice place) we mostly checked for jobs (unsuccessfully) and hung out in the tourist information center... mostly because of the free air conditioning there...
As soon as it was physically possible we left Katerine and set off west, towards the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia... It was 2 days drive to the border, and the place that we stopped off overnight had a crocodile show every evening. I got to feed a crocodile, which was kind of exciting. After the show we found out that this was the last show for this year as the bridge had to be raised for the wet season! As ever our timing was excelent!

We stayed around after the show to watch the spectacle of te bridge being raised. This mostly seemed to consist of Aussie guys standing around, drinking beer,and offering each other such advice as "try hitting it with a hammer" and "last year we got it up much faster...".

The bridge raising was pretty entertaining, and culminated with the camp owner's son being stranded on the other side of the river, throwing his shoes across, and then jumping in to croc infested waters and swimming across. As if this weren't enough, one of his shoes ended up in the river and the owner of the camp site also jumped into the river, compete with his mobile phone and wallet in his pockets!

The next day we knew we had to cross the border into Western Australia. This is easy enough, but you aren' allowed to carry any fresh fruit or veg over the border... Luckily we knew about this in advance and all we had to give them were a few cloves of garlic and a pot of honey...
After adjusting our watches (there is a one and a half hour time difference between the NT and WA), we continued on to Kununnara. We arrived very early, mainly because of the time difference, and immediately found a job! Before noon we had our new home, a camp site called "the Hidden Valley" a new job, picking mangos, and had re-stocked our fruit and veg. Life was looking good!

It became quickly apparent that life in WA has a slightly different pace to life elsewhere in Austraia... or anywhere else in the world. We got a break every hour and a half, then a bigger break every 3 hours. The pace of the work was steady, and the people were friendly. I was going to like it here!

Our two work mates were english and were nice fellas. One of them was from somewhere near Birmingham, and the other one was a true cockney geezer... Unfortunately they didn't heed the advice of everyone around them and decided to pick in short sleeved shirts, and one of them even picked topless!!! The regretted this soon enough as the mango rash struck! Within a few days neiter of them could work, and one of them even had to go to hospital!

We are still working at that farm now. We have been transferred to sandalwood, which is not too tricky, and have made loads of new friends.... most of them Korean! It seems that WA farms, like the rest of australia, are full of koreans. Less Germans and French here though... I think I've found where all of the English people are... for some reason we are all in WA!

Anyway... that takes us up to the present day. Did I mention we only work 5 days a week!?! I like WA... :p

Pictures of all of this can be found here

Take care people.

Trev x

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.