T-minus 4 months... Progress.

Whey!!!
I have finally booked my flights! Travel Insurance is sorted. List now consists of visa and Australian bank account.... And a hotel in London for January 14th before my flight.

So for a few more details so you actually know what I'm doing....

Flying from Gatwick on the 15th of January, 20:40.

Not sure what time arrival in S.Korea is on the 16th but depart at 19:35 (looking forward to the flight back just for the 12 or so hours in Korea... not that I'll get to see much but my hotel room I'm sure)

Anyway, touch down in Brisbane at 06:20 on the 17th!

... And then a day in Brisbane... must write a mini list of things to do and see there... not too stressful. Long flight.
Then after a night in a hostel it's off to Rainbow Beach (only a 3 and a half hour journey) for a weekend of relaxing, recovering, beach, boat trips, surfing, quad biking.... or anything else I happen to want to do there....

Monday work starts... To the training farm in Goomeri where I will spend the week being taught the essentials of farm work, including how to ride horses, motorbikes, tractors; to use a chainsaw; fencing, and; how to muster cattle... I will so be able to use a lasso by the time I come home.
Then by the end of the week I will have hopefully been offered a job and be off somewhere into the outback...

The first job is guaranteed with the company I'm going with (oysterworldwide) and that can be up to 6months. After that I want to do a bit of travelling hopefully, possibly go to Kangaroo Island, and maybe even for a couple of weeks in New Zealand, I'll book that when I'm there though, should be cheaper that way... Then back on the books for another job...

So yeah... now you know generally what I'm going to be up to for the next year...
A few facts...

• The Outback covers about 70% of Australia's landmass.
• The Australian Outback covers roughly 2.5 million square miles.
• That's about 30 times the size of the UK, (about the size of the entirety of Europe!)
• Farms can be about 200 kilometers from the nearest town.
• Temperatures can range from 50'C on summer days (when I'll be arriving) to -10'C on winter nights.

Scale image.

And another song...

 

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Getting Started

So here we go. So most of you I'm sure know by now that the plan is I am off to spend 2013 in Australia. 
I will be flying out on the 15th of January, spending a couple of days on Rainbow Beach, going to a training farm, then spending the rest of the year working on various ranches in the Australian outback. Hopefully I shall be able to keep up some kind of contact during that time.


We're currently at T-minus 6months... with a lot to sort out before then, most important I would say are: insurance, flights and visa. The former being quite simple, the latter two presenting the problems. One of the terms of applying for the visa is you must have a return or onward flight... simple enough... Now flights... it would be easy enough to get a flexible return date but do I want to come straight back? or, do I want to go to NZ for a few weeks before coming back? what to do??? The sooner I decide, the sooner I can book flights, the cheaper it will be... what to do?




And a song I rather like at the moment...