Phillip Island (2nd & 3rd August)

So Phillip Island is beautiful!

It really was beautiful, but not quite what I expected. I expected it to feel a lot more islandy. So not so populated, not like a continuation of the mainland.
It was also raining! Which made the southern end of incredibly wild and majestic. So we went walking looking for wildlife, and finding very little disappointingly. I was hoping for penguins. Phillip Island has a fairy penguin colony. Instead we paid to see the penguin parade in the evening, in the cold, wet.

The little fairy pingus were incredible, but we weren't allowed to take pictures 'coz they're sensitive to flashes. But they were cute anyway. we saw about 37 of them come up out of the sea, and we got entry into the koala sanctuary with our tickets, where we went the next day =)

The koala sanctuary was quite brilliant. A natural environment that almost makes you feel like they're in the wild, almost. The broadwalk through the sanctuary were brilliant. Tree top height, close enough to touch the koalas.
Incredible.









And after wandering around Cowes and Rhyll and the rest of the island, and buying some travel companions for my Tig, we were off.

Hitting the Road (30th July- 2nd Aug)

So this is it. Road Trip from NSW to WA. Well that's as far as we planned. So 'Hitting the Road', Young to Phillip Island. All 999km of it... plus diversions and meanderings!


So off we go, through Canberra again, down the windy mountain roads into Cooma, a town so proud of it's snow. There was no snow there, despite being winter. And then down to Merimbula. Somewhere along the way we named the car. George the Ford!





So Day 1 we went as far as Merimbula, where I saw my first fur seal! and was introduced to the public bbq's of Aus! These things are brilliant! Electric or gas bbq's in every town, for free. Yes, we spent the entire trip living on barbecued food but it was so good, particularly when you can make steak sandwiches for tea and bbq bacon for breakfast the next morning. Made me very happy anyway and it was much cheaper than paying for gas for each meal!

The start of the trip was also the start of the reign of the book. That is 'Offbeat Australia by David Astle.' Thank you Jenny, I'm sure Casey didn't enjoy it all that much. I would look up every town we came to in my book. Merimbula unfortunately had an amazing sounding water park, being in the middle of winter, it didn't seem like a good idea, not wanting to be ill for the entire trip. So to Eden! where started the sleeping in the car and morning coffees on the beach.

Sleeping in a car is not actually that difficult, especially with a decent size car, a Ford Fairmont in this case. Pack rucksacks in the footwell of the back seats, spread the mattress from the swag on top and you have a mini bed on the backseats. A swag for those who don't know is kinda like a sleepingbag without the warm, comfyness. It's a thick canvas bag with a thin mattress in. We had a double!

So waking up in Eden on Day 2. Beautiful sandy beaches and here, though we didn't sea it, the Bass Strait meets the Pacific Ocean, the Bass Strait being part of the Tasman Sea to the south! And onwards we wander to Lake Entrance. Of course we meandered, the road meandered away from the coast, we meandered down to Mallacoota.

A beautiful spot, where Casey fished, I wandered around the estuary and we pulled muscles off the rocks. A beautiful day, and in Lake Entrance we found showers and Pelicans.
I had never realised pelicans were so prolific in Aus!

And showers! Now there was the biggest issue of the trip! Maybe if we'd had a little heat it up in the sun sort of shower we'd have got on a lot better but we didn't think of that until much later. It's very hard to find public showers, but we managed.

Day 3 we packed plenty into, and plenty of the book. Firstly in Lake Entrance; 26 Anzac sculptures, chainsawed from cypress trees planted in WW1.









Then onto Bairnsdale, where we stopped for the simple reason there was a park listed in The Book! With a 40m flying fox (zip-line) and an Aboriginal Canoe Tree.
Then to Sale (originally named Flooding Creek) for a morning at the races. I don't think we did very well that day!

And in my opinion, the best part of the day... wandering around Tarra-Bungle National Park attempting to find a swinging bridge! We spent hours wandering. Saw some of the biggest trees in Australia, saw lyre birds and eventually found the bridge.
The drive out of the park was highly entertaining. Managed to miss a turning somewhere and spent half an hour driving down a dirt road. Narrow, with logging truck tracks. I was so glad I wasn't driving!

That night we decided to head for Port Welshpool, solely for the 'welsh' connection. Upon finding very little there we picked up chips in Welshpool and headed for Agnes Falls for the night. Beautiful waking up under trees.

So we started setting up our routine. Driving about 300km a day, stopping when something takes our interest, often from the book. No rush. Park up somewhere quiet for the night, often with a public bbq, though you have to be careful. You're not actually allowed to sleep in your car/camp in public places in Aus. Wake up to B-E-A-UTIFUL views and always watch the sea for whales!

You Live and Learn (A Summary)

Visit Oz/ OysterWorldWide Farmwork

So the work part, the finance for my trip- Done!
And writing this, initially I'd been finished for 3months. It's now 6, so I can be reflective.

The company I went out to Aus with was Visit Oz, affiliated with OysterWorldWide, which is who I booked through. They say they'll train you and guarantee you farm work. The reason they focus on farm work is that is the type of work you have to do for your second year visa.

Now if you want to work on a farm that's all well and good but you can actually get a second year visa from fruit picking too, and that's easy to find yourself, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. The problem with fruit picking for your second year visa is finding somewhere that has enough work to employ you for the necessary 3months to get your visa.

Now the training, I'm sure I've said before how much I enjoyed my week at Goomeri and you do get to do a fair few things, even some I've never done before, but even the new things you done do enough of to 'learn'. The things you do do are quite easy, anything else you only get to do once, just to say you've done it. In all honesty, if you have a bit of general farm knowledge the training doesn't feel that necessary, just enjoyable.

I guess the main benefit of the training farm is the guaranteed job. It does offer more possibilities. I'm sure it would be hard to secure a job with a racehorse trainer (one job I was offered) without being with a company. Having said that, most people who went to such places had so little experience they wouldn't have been doing anymore than mucking out stalls.
But in all honesty, once you're actually out there, in a town, even if you start by just working in a bar, it's not hard to find work. In a small town, you get to know people quite easily. It's easy to find someone who needs a hand, or is willing to give you a go; a farmer, a contractor, a shearing team willing to let you start working just sweeping the shed. It's actually good work.
So really finding work on your own isn't difficult at all, even if the idea is daunting.

Now from my experience I would say go to a bigger property, or a commercial farm. Somewhere that employs a lot of people, because while I did enjoy my time at Wallendbeen, and in ways it was brilliant, it was lacking people. Happiness, enjoyment is meant to be shared. Don't forget you will probably be in the middle of nowhere with limited access to the nearest town. If you're working alone, chances are you will get lonely. You can argue that you enjoy your own company as much as you want but on your own for 3-6months you will one company. No question. Besides, the more people you meet, the more friends you make, the more opportunities you have for later on.

Also on a lager property there will always be specific jobs that need doing. Always knowing what needs to be done, there's no standing around around looking for something to do.

Now for what I consider the important bit. If you travel with a company, find work through a company, have a company as your security blanket, there are some responsibilities that company should take, some information they should give you, help you with and I'm actually appalled that they don't but hopefully someone else can learn from my mistakes.

Wherever you work, make sure you sign some form of contract. Know what hours you're expected to work, for what length of time, what time you have off. It's actually quite easy to forget about that sort of thing particularly if you're working on a small property, living with the family, just completely part of that family environment.

Make sure you also get an exact breakdown of your pay, even if you are paid by bank transfer. Most places expect to be paying you about $300-$400 after tax. The tax for a foreigner working in Aus is 30% but pre-tax minimum wage is over $600. That means they're taking off over $150 a week for rent sometimes. Yes that is only the same price as a cheap hotel but it's still quite shocking if you sit down to work it out, not expecting it.

So yeah, make sure you know what you're being paid, for what hours. Get it all on paper, signed and keep track of it all yourself as well.

You live and learn.

The Final Countdown (22nd-27th July)

My final week at Wallendbeen. I can't say I was all that sad about leaving. I'd had fun, but it was time to go! I had actually started packing days before leaving, made a point of getting all my laundry done, spent the week wearing clothes I knew I'd be throwing away not keeping. I didn't get rid of all my work clothes, just the worn out ones.
Hand-me-down jeans worn for 4 years and worked to death were cut into shorts and everything packed away, ready to travel.

My last real job other than the day to day was sowing a paddock. Not for crop, for pasture. And why was this paddock used just for pasture? Because it was an obstacle course: rocks, tree stumps, fallen branches, trees, gullies. If it was inconvenient it was in that paddock! It would be impossible to get any big machinery through that paddock. My challenge!

But preparing the seed was fun. About 12 different types of seed of varying amounts from 2 sacks to about 2 handfuls! All had to be evenly mixed... in a big bin a bit at a time until i had 8 sacks of pretty purpley-blue seed.

Sowing that paddock was not without it's little mishaps, as no paddock was but it was done. My time at Wallendbeen was done. I'd climbed the grain silo for some brilliant pictures. My final meal was wraps and falafels, hummus, sour cream, cucumber and other such yummies. And I was off to Young to start the next bit of my Aussie Adventure.

Sculpture Party! (23rd July)

So I've already said how beautiful the people at my sculpture class are. This is just to re-iterate that!



My last night there...One turns up with cupcakes, another with champagne and one leaves work on their break just to come and say goodbye. There's also more Cadburys Mini Drops and leaving halfway through for more bubbly.

All in a mad flurry of getting all my pieces finished and playing with googly eyes....

I love my sculpture class!!! 

Sydney Film Festival (10th-14th June)

So after much deliberation whether I wanted to go, and having missed the first train, I was off to Sydney Film Festival. I was going as a volunteer and I barely had a clue where I was going, or know Sydney well enough to really be able to find where I needed to be. I hadn't received much information about what I was doing or where I needed to be going and trains to Sydney and hostels for a week were not going to be cheap, but I was going.

Now without checking I can't remember the names of anything I saw. I'll look them up later at some point. But I really did have a great time as was so glad I actually went.
The shifts I was working could consist of almost anything: scanning tickets; manning entrances with a torch; running around with a mic for audience questions at a talk or; just standing and pointing people in the right direction.
The shifts would start about half an hour before a show and often extend over 2 shows or films. Instead of being paid (we were volunteers), we were given vouchers to see a film for each shift we worked.

Unfortunately for me the festival lasted a full 2weeks, so most of the films I wanted to see just weren't on while I was there. I did get to see some very interesting 'cult' films, which I will again recap when I've refreshed my memory.

The people I was working with were quite brilliant, and a real mix: student; the people who planned and organised the event; people who had just been volunteering for years. The couple of evening I went out for meals with other volunteers probably provided me with all the proper food I ate that week. The restaurant/pub, whose name I will never remember was just across the street from Events Cinema where I worked most of my shifts. It was very nice; cheap meals, and reminded me a lot of Varsity in Aberystwyth, right down to the animal skin covered bar stools.

The few evenings out and seeing films were about all the time I had off. I generally didn't have much time between shifts. My only free time was generally first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening and that time was spent watching films with my free vouchers. The exceptions were the day I arrived where my free time was spent working out where my very cheap hostel was, how to get to the main cinema from there, and where the other cinemas and theatres I was scheduled at were.
Or it was raining, which always took me by surprise because I would go into the cinema on a lovely morning and walk out into rain, having not realised the weather had even changed.

The one day I had off, well not starting until 5pm, I of course started with a nice lye-in. Well as nice as you can get in a hostel, then I went for a walk. Me being me, my walk terminated when I found a nice treed park in which I could lie down in the sun and read... I will never be a city girl.
Continuing my walk at about 3, I found my way to Sydney Sky Tower which had the most amazing views of the city. Unfortunately I missed the sky walk (where they basically hang off the top rim of the tower) by about 5 minutes and since they lasted an hour I couldn't do the next and get back in time for my shift =(






And the other thing worth mentioning of course is the cupcake stall I chanced upon. Well it would have been very hard to miss being in the foyer of Events Cinema. Now if I'd picked up one of their clubcards straight away, I would have had a free cupcake by the end of the week. Who can resist a cupcake/coffee deal. Was my stop before and after every shift. I was very unhappy on the nights I finished my shifts after closing.

All in all a brilliant week, and I never got my key deposit back from the hostel, my train left before reception opened. I hope the Italian guy I entrusted my key to enjoyed it.

Mini Adventure Series No.5 (30th May - 2nd June)

Oberon... Kind of!

So this time I got to choose the location of our mini adventure, and having no idea where anything interesting was, I stuck a pin in a map. Well not really, I chose a place based on it's name... Oberon, king of the fairies, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Off we go on Friday night to Oberon, and there really is nothing of interest there, so we stayed the night, had pancakes for breakfast, and wandered on.

We had noticed on our way there signs for Jenolan Caves, so we dubbed that worth a look and were off. I'm sure they were absolutely lovely, but having been to Yarrangobilly a few weeks previously which were self guided, quite impressive and free, we couldn't justify paying to explore caves unless we were to do a proper caving excursion, not just the self guided walks on offer. So we had a nose round where we could and wandered on. I've since heard that there's an even better cave system in the area anyway.










Earlier we'd seen another interesting sign, this became something f a system for our travelling. This sign merely said 'The Wall' at Kanangra-Boyd National Park. Now what a 'wall' could be was a defiantly interested me. It turned out to be incredible. I'm not even going to try to describe how beautiful it was. Pictures can defiantly do a better job.

And a short walk further down the trail was a waterfall, which was really quite unimpressive, until we decided to go scrambling down it. So much fun but we did stop before it became a proper climb. It still wasn't an impressive waterfall but the views were good and it was fun enough to make it worth the effort.






Being only Saturday we journeyed onward. I'm sure Casey was only looking for a decent pub, but we ended up in Katoomba, and I was promised something impressive in the morning.
Unfortunately Sunday was a bit wet and horrible so half the plan just wouldn't have been enjoyable. The plan was The Three Sisters; a trio of peaks in a deep valley. The effect with the rain and the clouds in the valley viewed from Echo Point was incredible but the cable car ride from Scenic World just wasn't really suited for the weather. Another time maybe.

Despite the rain the trip home was fun. Firstly to Bathurst and a drive around the racecourse in the ute. Sadly there was a speed limit so no fun racing.

Then a brief stop at Koorawatha where the rain let up to allow us a look at the waterfall again, this time with water running. There wasn't really much of it still. Not your most impressive waterfall.





And back to Young along the scenic route, stopping at Greenthorpe to see what the Aussie definition of a castle is... Not quite what I would call a castle.