After Australia I have two plans, one is to go and live in France for a while and the other is to do this trip (possibly extended!)
http://www.gap360.com/trans-mongolian-adventure
This would tick off 3 of my other must visit countries (Russia, Mongolia, China)
The order on opportunity and money (the money side of things isn't exactly awesome at the mo but hey, the only way is up!
If anyone wants to come then let me know!
Thursday 19 December 2013
Monday 16 December 2013
ROADTRIP!!
A few weeks before I left Bowthorn I started to wonder what I was going to do next. Basically it boiled down to this, getting from Bowthorn back to any major city that I had interest in visiting was going to cost between 300 and 400 bucks! Damn thought I! Then Kelly pointe out that there was an add on Gumtree asking for someone to do a road trip from Cloncurry (about 1.5 hours drive from Mount Isa, through the Outback back to Cairns! YES thought I!
At this point I feel like I should point out I am not a total nutter who will take rides off of any old person who advertises themselves on the internet. This was a woman in her early 30's, named Becca, who had a campervan and just wanted company on the trip. We exchanged a few emails and then, for good measure met up in Cloncurry for coffee when I was passing through there on the way back from Mount Isa with the family. I took Olivia with me as Kelly and Eleanor had a doctors appointment and Becca was nice to both me and my tag along toddler, which I took to be a good sign! having assured ourselves that neither of us were mass murdering psycos we arranged to head off on our trip 10 days later!
The last week or so on Bowthorn was kind of hard because I had exciting plans and was all ready for the off. However I didn't end up having to wait as long as anticipated because of the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne cup is a horse race and it pretty much shuts down Australia for the day as people rush to watch it. We went to a village event at Gregory, about 2.5 hours from Bowthorn to do this. The event was held in a sort of village hall (painted that kind of weak greenish colour that village halls the world over seem to share). Apart from the weather which was much hotter than you would find in the UK (though colder than Bowthorn) The day was very like a village event at home. There was a buffet, bar, people that had known each other forever, lots of children and lot of chatting and drinking as well as a best dressed competition and obviously the races themselves which people bet on. I am trying to remember if there was a raffle and I honestly cant remember one way or the other!
That night I stayed at Gregory Out-station, part of another cattle station run by Kelly and Micks Friends, Meegan and Munch. In the morning Kelly Mick and the two girls left to go back to Bowthorn and I stayed put so that I could get a ride into Mount Isa the following day with Meegan. Meegan and Munch had who children and I enjoyed my day with them and my chats with meegan in the car on the way to Isa but, long story short I was very Glad to get back to Isa and chill out for the afternoon before getting the bus to Cloncurry the following day!
The following day arrived and that 7am time that the Greyhounds like to leave with it. I got on the bus and this time slept most of the way to Cloncurry (I had seen enough Outback to last me by that point and was going to see a whole lot more before I was done!
Becca came o get me from the bus, but with last minute preparations to make and goodbyes to say (Becca had been in Cloncurry 3.5 months, which is an age when you are travelling) it took us a few hours to get going. This meant that we drove through the hottest part of the day, only stopping properly and the Burke and Wills Roadhouse (where they had run out of washing water and the British waitress told us how much she ad been looking forward to the shower that evening that she wasn't going to be able to have). We did stop a few other times but only briefly to let the engine cool. This first day was probably the longest and was the only one we drove through the heat of the day. No mean feat in an old van with no air conditioning!
A map of the Savannah way, which we drove part of!
On that first day we drove to Normanton and then on to Karumba on the Coast. There we stopped at a pub that Becca had had recommended to her and had a really brilliant seafood meal!
starter from the meal of awesome
we ended up chatting to these two guys, one of whom had grown up in Australia and his father who was from Britain. Conversations like that are one of the highlights of travelling and much wine was drunk and quite a few hours passed before we went our separate ways.
From here the exact running order of towns and people gets a little fuzzy in my head. I should have written this bit up sooner but as already mentioned I suck at getting round to blogging!
But anyway, we drove back to Normanton and joined the 'savannah way'. I remember seeing a sign at this point that said that we had 902km to go to Cairns.
to be continued...
I still owe you 3 blogs:
This one
Melbourne
and Amber Ridge Woofing
At this point I feel like I should point out I am not a total nutter who will take rides off of any old person who advertises themselves on the internet. This was a woman in her early 30's, named Becca, who had a campervan and just wanted company on the trip. We exchanged a few emails and then, for good measure met up in Cloncurry for coffee when I was passing through there on the way back from Mount Isa with the family. I took Olivia with me as Kelly and Eleanor had a doctors appointment and Becca was nice to both me and my tag along toddler, which I took to be a good sign! having assured ourselves that neither of us were mass murdering psycos we arranged to head off on our trip 10 days later!
The last week or so on Bowthorn was kind of hard because I had exciting plans and was all ready for the off. However I didn't end up having to wait as long as anticipated because of the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne cup is a horse race and it pretty much shuts down Australia for the day as people rush to watch it. We went to a village event at Gregory, about 2.5 hours from Bowthorn to do this. The event was held in a sort of village hall (painted that kind of weak greenish colour that village halls the world over seem to share). Apart from the weather which was much hotter than you would find in the UK (though colder than Bowthorn) The day was very like a village event at home. There was a buffet, bar, people that had known each other forever, lots of children and lot of chatting and drinking as well as a best dressed competition and obviously the races themselves which people bet on. I am trying to remember if there was a raffle and I honestly cant remember one way or the other!
That night I stayed at Gregory Out-station, part of another cattle station run by Kelly and Micks Friends, Meegan and Munch. In the morning Kelly Mick and the two girls left to go back to Bowthorn and I stayed put so that I could get a ride into Mount Isa the following day with Meegan. Meegan and Munch had who children and I enjoyed my day with them and my chats with meegan in the car on the way to Isa but, long story short I was very Glad to get back to Isa and chill out for the afternoon before getting the bus to Cloncurry the following day!
The following day arrived and that 7am time that the Greyhounds like to leave with it. I got on the bus and this time slept most of the way to Cloncurry (I had seen enough Outback to last me by that point and was going to see a whole lot more before I was done!
Becca came o get me from the bus, but with last minute preparations to make and goodbyes to say (Becca had been in Cloncurry 3.5 months, which is an age when you are travelling) it took us a few hours to get going. This meant that we drove through the hottest part of the day, only stopping properly and the Burke and Wills Roadhouse (where they had run out of washing water and the British waitress told us how much she ad been looking forward to the shower that evening that she wasn't going to be able to have). We did stop a few other times but only briefly to let the engine cool. This first day was probably the longest and was the only one we drove through the heat of the day. No mean feat in an old van with no air conditioning!
A map of the Savannah way, which we drove part of!
On that first day we drove to Normanton and then on to Karumba on the Coast. There we stopped at a pub that Becca had had recommended to her and had a really brilliant seafood meal!
starter from the meal of awesome
we ended up chatting to these two guys, one of whom had grown up in Australia and his father who was from Britain. Conversations like that are one of the highlights of travelling and much wine was drunk and quite a few hours passed before we went our separate ways.
From here the exact running order of towns and people gets a little fuzzy in my head. I should have written this bit up sooner but as already mentioned I suck at getting round to blogging!
But anyway, we drove back to Normanton and joined the 'savannah way'. I remember seeing a sign at this point that said that we had 902km to go to Cairns.
to be continued...
I still owe you 3 blogs:
This one
Melbourne
and Amber Ridge Woofing
Jess Sucks at Updating Her Blog!
ok so it really is weeks and weeks since I updated this now! I have been focusing on trying to find a job and then given up on that and gone woofing so haven't felt like I had time for blog updating anyway and mostly had nothing to say other than that I was stressed which nobody wants to hear!
I'm happy again now having given up the panicked must find a job and resorted to woofing with a lovely family in their garden centre and café business. There are other woofer's here too, Emily and Darrel from England, Mina from Japan, Kersten from Austria and Memona from France so it is all pretty sociable!
But that's enough about now, I can write about that later. I still have most of the last few months to bring you up to speed on. I am going to try and do this pretty quickly because it doesn't feel fair to be using the family's computer for long periods, but there is no wifi!
So the last think I remember writing about was getting to Mount Isa. I think I finished writing about that, but if I didn't then you haven't missed out on much.
From Isa I got on the post plane which would drop me off at Bowthorn Cattle Station. The Australian Government thinks that it is every Australians right to receive post so they put on these weekly flights out into the middle of nowhere so that people living in the middle of nowhere can receive bills and buy things off Ebay and stuff like that! The plane was small, but not so small as I had been expecting, with 8 or 10 seats I think and space for all the post at the back!
Post Plane
Inside of post plane
Pictures taken from Post plane
I think the pictures give a pretty good idea of the flight so I am going to move on. My stop was the 4th one of the day, so by 11.30ish I was meeting the family I would be working for. They were nice (luckily!) and the kids were gorgeous, a 3 week old named Eleanor and Olivia who was 19 months!
Olivia wearing my hat and trying to put my sandals on (she loved earing adult shoes and hats!
Eleanor and Olivia (Olivia loved her little sister and was v sweet with her, though sometimes also a little over enthusiastic!)
The house was all powered by solar panels (makes sense when you are somewhere that insanely hot). There was also a generator, the only problem was that sometimes it was so hot the generator and panels overheated and the power cut out! we were left in the dark a few times! There was a pump which dragged water up from a waterhole next to the garden so that this water could be used by all the sprinklers they had set up in the garden. This pump was battered looking and temperamental and required tinkering often!
solar panels and a lot of dirt
Every few days someone would have to drive 10 minutes or so from the house to start the boar pump which provided the washing water. You started an engine and left it with the amount of fuel in it that corresponded to how long you wanted it to run. The water was pumped up into large tanks on a slight hill near the house so that gravity could provide water pressure.
Drinking water was rain water which was collected by a bit container on the side of the house. Many places in Australia seem to do this for drinking water.
The house and garden (yes that is a cow on the lawn, we found it there when we got home one day!)
The family also had a walk in Fridge as they need to be able to stock up and be stranded there for months at a time if needs be.
My work there was pretty easy, I go up with Olivia around 7 each morning so that mummy could have a lie in (if Eleanor permitted it) and helped with general care (playing nappy changing feeding Olivia and taking her outside to play in the garden! The good was good too (lots of steak and home baking!)
I was here for 5 weeks in all and in that time I also got taken to Doomadgee which was the nearby (ish) aboriginal mission, got to take a trip to mount Isa, got to go cattle mustering (where they round up all the cows and count and sort them and got to go up in a helicopter! The last two things were particularly awesome. The helicopter was on the station because it is used to find and also to help herd the cows. I got to go up in I one morning when it was being used close to the house. it was amazing but very strange, especially the take off, you are on the ground and then suddenly you aren't, you are hovering as if a giant hand just picked you up. I felt like I had just defied gravity!
helicopter!
Musterers come to the station to work during the muster and they ride horses or quad bikes or motorbikes and help to round up and then process the cattle. I went out with them one day, though I was just there to watch and rode in the truck at the back!
Mustering
So that was pretty much all for cattle station times, think I ad better leave it there for now. Next time: jess goes a road trippin'!!
I'm happy again now having given up the panicked must find a job and resorted to woofing with a lovely family in their garden centre and café business. There are other woofer's here too, Emily and Darrel from England, Mina from Japan, Kersten from Austria and Memona from France so it is all pretty sociable!
But that's enough about now, I can write about that later. I still have most of the last few months to bring you up to speed on. I am going to try and do this pretty quickly because it doesn't feel fair to be using the family's computer for long periods, but there is no wifi!
So the last think I remember writing about was getting to Mount Isa. I think I finished writing about that, but if I didn't then you haven't missed out on much.
From Isa I got on the post plane which would drop me off at Bowthorn Cattle Station. The Australian Government thinks that it is every Australians right to receive post so they put on these weekly flights out into the middle of nowhere so that people living in the middle of nowhere can receive bills and buy things off Ebay and stuff like that! The plane was small, but not so small as I had been expecting, with 8 or 10 seats I think and space for all the post at the back!
Post Plane
Inside of post plane
Pictures taken from Post plane
I think the pictures give a pretty good idea of the flight so I am going to move on. My stop was the 4th one of the day, so by 11.30ish I was meeting the family I would be working for. They were nice (luckily!) and the kids were gorgeous, a 3 week old named Eleanor and Olivia who was 19 months!
Olivia wearing my hat and trying to put my sandals on (she loved earing adult shoes and hats!
Eleanor and Olivia (Olivia loved her little sister and was v sweet with her, though sometimes also a little over enthusiastic!)
The house was all powered by solar panels (makes sense when you are somewhere that insanely hot). There was also a generator, the only problem was that sometimes it was so hot the generator and panels overheated and the power cut out! we were left in the dark a few times! There was a pump which dragged water up from a waterhole next to the garden so that this water could be used by all the sprinklers they had set up in the garden. This pump was battered looking and temperamental and required tinkering often!
solar panels and a lot of dirt
Every few days someone would have to drive 10 minutes or so from the house to start the boar pump which provided the washing water. You started an engine and left it with the amount of fuel in it that corresponded to how long you wanted it to run. The water was pumped up into large tanks on a slight hill near the house so that gravity could provide water pressure.
Drinking water was rain water which was collected by a bit container on the side of the house. Many places in Australia seem to do this for drinking water.
The house and garden (yes that is a cow on the lawn, we found it there when we got home one day!)
The family also had a walk in Fridge as they need to be able to stock up and be stranded there for months at a time if needs be.
My work there was pretty easy, I go up with Olivia around 7 each morning so that mummy could have a lie in (if Eleanor permitted it) and helped with general care (playing nappy changing feeding Olivia and taking her outside to play in the garden! The good was good too (lots of steak and home baking!)
I was here for 5 weeks in all and in that time I also got taken to Doomadgee which was the nearby (ish) aboriginal mission, got to take a trip to mount Isa, got to go cattle mustering (where they round up all the cows and count and sort them and got to go up in a helicopter! The last two things were particularly awesome. The helicopter was on the station because it is used to find and also to help herd the cows. I got to go up in I one morning when it was being used close to the house. it was amazing but very strange, especially the take off, you are on the ground and then suddenly you aren't, you are hovering as if a giant hand just picked you up. I felt like I had just defied gravity!
helicopter!
Musterers come to the station to work during the muster and they ride horses or quad bikes or motorbikes and help to round up and then process the cattle. I went out with them one day, though I was just there to watch and rode in the truck at the back!
Mustering
So that was pretty much all for cattle station times, think I ad better leave it there for now. Next time: jess goes a road trippin'!!
Friday 15 November 2013
A Very Long Bus Ride That Felt Quite Short
7am seems to be the standard time for the greyhound bus to leave in a morning (and sometimes a bit earlier)! Anyone who knows me will be well aware of my general aversion to any time of day before 10am. So you can imagine the look on my face when my alarm went off at half 5 without too much difficulty!
But up I got for the next leg of the journey. This time from Townsville to Mount Isa. I had no idea where either of those places were either so let me provide you with a little map.
A Little Map!
It takes 12 hours to get from A to B but thankfully it seemed to take less. I am not sure whether I attribute this to the fact that I had a good book, a good travel pillow, there were no train creeps (it being a bus and all) or that they stopped more often than they used to on those godforsaken 30 hour tips to Spain and Italy I had to sit through for school trips. Whatever it was I was thankful for it!
I cant quite remmeber at this distance of time how many places we stopped at, to drop off people or for rest breaks, what I can remmeber was watching the sun set over the outback and it was absolutely beautiful! For some reason I didnt think to take a photo at the time but I have others which I took later in my travels. I do wish that I had got a picture from that night, but even if I had it would not have done it justice because my camera isn't very good and anyway most of my outback pics were taken from a moving vehicle and so, like the one below, are slightly blurry!
The Outback!
This isn't at sunset but you get the idea. All those mounds you see are termite mounds and they were literally everywhere, sometimes (as here) strenching almost as far as the eye can see!
I will talk more about the outback later, driving though it that day was an awesome experience though, not least because it is so so different to anything we have at home. What also made a huge impression on me that first day was THE HEAT! It was fine when you were on the coach because of the air conditioning which, if anything, usually makes it slightly chilly on Australian busses. But once you leave the artifical cool and step outside it is a different story.
I cant remmeber which stop along the route it was, I only remmeber stepping of the coach and feeling like i was choking as the hot air carried by quite a strong breeze forced its way into my lungs. It felt unatural, too warm, wrong, as if I had just developed the ability to breathe water or something. The sun pressing down on my head made me feel dizzy too! This should probably have been the point at which I thought bloody hell what am I getting myself into coming out here for a month. It wasnt. That particular thought didnt surface until weeks later!
I did get used to the heat. In fact, I am sitting in Melbourne, its 19 degrees, I'm wearing a jumper because it feels cold. I am not sure whether I am pleased or ashamed of this fact. But that first day I had yet to properly aclimatise either to the cold of the a/c or the warmth outside and so I was very glad to make it to Mount Isa and to the comfort of a hostel there which while run down felt really homely.
There I met a French lady in her 40's with two boyfriends (neither of whom knew about the other!) and a man who was recovering from a heart attack. What followed was an entertaining 36 hours chatting about all kinds of things and eating chocolate croissants which i am becoming slightly addficted to even if the French lady turned her nose up at the Australian version. This lady helped me a bit with my French (which is still terrible) and I helped her a bit with her English (which was really good!)
----------------------
IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT:
Jess is post
Jess goes to an aboriginal mission
Jess rides in a helicopter
Jess changes a lot of nappies
Friday 1 November 2013
Blog the Second
As promised, more blog rant...
So where was I, oh yes on a train! I have been on lots of train journeys in my time and so this shouldn't have amused me as much as it did, but Australian trains have some features which British ones don't, that I think they should adopt fast! Firstly, unlike British trains they occasionally show up on time. Secondly they have triple decker trains which are just an awesome idea and made me feel like a big over excited kid! Some trains have seats where you can alter which direction you are facing by pulling the back of the seat one way or another, which is pretty cool. But best of all, Australian Trains have proper dining carriages with tables and a TV and everything so you have somewhere to escape from your seat and any associated creepy men!
I made good use of said dining carriage and contemplated also making use of the fact it was licensed. Then I realized it was 9am! I almost wish this hadn't stopped me but it did!
After a while my disappointingly sober self and my huge red suitcase arrived in Townsville.
What to say about Townsville, it is not really the most exciting place and I didn't really end up seeing that much of it. I did however bump into someone I knew from Digger Street who I went out for lunch with and had the glass of wine I had refused myself earlier in the day and then a few more, good times! :)
I spent another 2 days in Townsville, there was a nice market and a town to potter round, which felt oddly dead the entire time I was there. I killed some time chilling out in the local library on the first day (I'm that cool!) but the best thing I saw was the aquarium and turtle hospital on the second.
The Aquarium was pretty much like any other but it focused on creatures of the great barrier reef and Australia which is something I know little about. I was glad to learn, sometimes in this country I feel very much like a child who knows nothing. Especially since some of the creatures here can be dangerous. something bites you or you see a bug or a snake and think, is this harmless or should I be running for my life?! Not that an aquarium tells you anything about land living bugs but it was still really interesting!
The turtle hospital which was attached to the aquarium seemed to be pretty busy. Apparently lots of turtles get hit by boats and things like that. I know this cos they allowed members of the public to go on tours of the turtle hospital which was basically lots of blue circular vats with turtles of various types in varying states of ill and injured. It was good to see them being cared for though and the awareness that was brought to them by the hospital tours and associated talk has got to be a good thing. I saw a turtle when I went out to the Barrier Reef, swimming along in its own little world paying almost no attention to us. As it should be. It made me feel kind of like a small and irrelevant newcomer. Which is what humans would be on earth if we weren't so good at destroying everything.
That was pretty much it for my stay in Townsville so I will leave this post here and write another tomorrow!
So where was I, oh yes on a train! I have been on lots of train journeys in my time and so this shouldn't have amused me as much as it did, but Australian trains have some features which British ones don't, that I think they should adopt fast! Firstly, unlike British trains they occasionally show up on time. Secondly they have triple decker trains which are just an awesome idea and made me feel like a big over excited kid! Some trains have seats where you can alter which direction you are facing by pulling the back of the seat one way or another, which is pretty cool. But best of all, Australian Trains have proper dining carriages with tables and a TV and everything so you have somewhere to escape from your seat and any associated creepy men!
I made good use of said dining carriage and contemplated also making use of the fact it was licensed. Then I realized it was 9am! I almost wish this hadn't stopped me but it did!
After a while my disappointingly sober self and my huge red suitcase arrived in Townsville.
What to say about Townsville, it is not really the most exciting place and I didn't really end up seeing that much of it. I did however bump into someone I knew from Digger Street who I went out for lunch with and had the glass of wine I had refused myself earlier in the day and then a few more, good times! :)
I spent another 2 days in Townsville, there was a nice market and a town to potter round, which felt oddly dead the entire time I was there. I killed some time chilling out in the local library on the first day (I'm that cool!) but the best thing I saw was the aquarium and turtle hospital on the second.
The Aquarium was pretty much like any other but it focused on creatures of the great barrier reef and Australia which is something I know little about. I was glad to learn, sometimes in this country I feel very much like a child who knows nothing. Especially since some of the creatures here can be dangerous. something bites you or you see a bug or a snake and think, is this harmless or should I be running for my life?! Not that an aquarium tells you anything about land living bugs but it was still really interesting!
The turtle hospital which was attached to the aquarium seemed to be pretty busy. Apparently lots of turtles get hit by boats and things like that. I know this cos they allowed members of the public to go on tours of the turtle hospital which was basically lots of blue circular vats with turtles of various types in varying states of ill and injured. It was good to see them being cared for though and the awareness that was brought to them by the hospital tours and associated talk has got to be a good thing. I saw a turtle when I went out to the Barrier Reef, swimming along in its own little world paying almost no attention to us. As it should be. It made me feel kind of like a small and irrelevant newcomer. Which is what humans would be on earth if we weren't so good at destroying everything.
That was pretty much it for my stay in Townsville so I will leave this post here and write another tomorrow!
Thursday 31 October 2013
Blog the First (in about 5 weeks)
Hey all, Happy Halloween!
It must be at least 5 weeks it is since I last updated this! Sorry everyone, I have just not got round to it! I will try to catch up with myself over the next few days. This will probably take a few posts, most of which I hope to write when I am less tired than I am tonight!
Last time I posted I was not enjoying being a tasty snack for local creepy crawlies! Well I did survive my run in with the bugs at Digger Street and did eventually really enjoy it there! It was good to be involved with a slightly more fixed community of people and do some academic(ish) work. As part of my wwoofing I helped out with a project they have there called 'the way out now'. This project involves putting a 1970's alternative living hippy type book up on the internet. To this original text will be added the views of people from today who are into their alternative living and also, hopefully, further contributions from the original authors which will show if their views have changed in the last 40 years. Its interesting, you should give it a look! (www.thewayoutnow.com)
A few days after I got to Digger and still in the going crazy from all the bug bites and not sleeping cos of the possibly-fleas/possibly-bedbugs I was sharing a bed with I got an offer to spend a month as an au pair out on a cattle station in the middle of nowhere! This offer contained 4 major bonuses:
1) I wanted to see middle of nowhere outback Australia
2) I like children much much more than I like the alternative job I was offered (as a charity mugger) 3) If the placement worked out well I could go on doing more au pairing and therefore avoid chugging indefinitely
4) I would no longer be sharing a bed with things that bit me
However, there was also one fairly epic downside. It looked like it was going to cost me close to $1000 (over 600 quid) to travel to the new job!!! I thought about it, but not drastically hard, I reasoned being able to say id worked as an au pair would be another string to my bow and it was the only way I was going to get paid to come and see a side of Australia I wanted to see anyway!
So I accepted the job and rang my parents to cheerily inform them that I was about to commit financial suicide ($1000 being roughly the size of my then bank balance)! I doubt they were surprised, it would be the first time that I have done something outwardly daft because I believed that it was the best course of action. I have done this sort of thing several times over the years. One day when I was about 8 I informed my slightly shocked mother that I was leaving my private school - I did and it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made!
My parents gave me a bit of a loan which I hate, I really really try not to take money off them but I will pay it back so its no big deal to anything but my pride!
The thing about Australia is that obviously its huge! I was in Cairns and needed to get to Bowthorn Station which while still in the same state (Queensland) was going to take me 5 days to reach! Partly this was because of the distance but it was also because in the more remote areas public transport doesn't run every day. I had to be in Mount Isa by Thursday morning to catch the mail plane out to the station, I left cairns on a train at 7.15am on the Saturday beforehand.
Australian trains do not cover anywhere as near as much of the country as British trains do, most of the interior of the country just isn't populated enough and if you want to go anywhere there you drive for a very long time or take a very expensive flight. Luckily for me there was a train part way to my destination. I managed to get as far as Townsville before I was forced to resort to a bus.
It is somewhat traditional for me to be hit on by creepy men on trains. I have no idea why but it just always seems to happen. This time was no exception. A slightly inebriated, unkept looking, middle aged man happened to be in the seat next to me. I spent some time trying to look as disinterested as possible while he chatted to me about his last week and swore loudly and repeatedly in his anger at not being able to smoke on the train. He was going to be on the train for 30 hours (that's how long it takes to get from Cairns to Brisbane) I luckily was only going to be on the train for about 6!
After a while train creep went in search of food and I was left in peace to read my book and watch small towns with names I cant remember move past the window.
I think I will leave it there for tonight
to be continued...
It must be at least 5 weeks it is since I last updated this! Sorry everyone, I have just not got round to it! I will try to catch up with myself over the next few days. This will probably take a few posts, most of which I hope to write when I am less tired than I am tonight!
Last time I posted I was not enjoying being a tasty snack for local creepy crawlies! Well I did survive my run in with the bugs at Digger Street and did eventually really enjoy it there! It was good to be involved with a slightly more fixed community of people and do some academic(ish) work. As part of my wwoofing I helped out with a project they have there called 'the way out now'. This project involves putting a 1970's alternative living hippy type book up on the internet. To this original text will be added the views of people from today who are into their alternative living and also, hopefully, further contributions from the original authors which will show if their views have changed in the last 40 years. Its interesting, you should give it a look! (www.thewayoutnow.com)
A few days after I got to Digger and still in the going crazy from all the bug bites and not sleeping cos of the possibly-fleas/possibly-bedbugs I was sharing a bed with I got an offer to spend a month as an au pair out on a cattle station in the middle of nowhere! This offer contained 4 major bonuses:
1) I wanted to see middle of nowhere outback Australia
2) I like children much much more than I like the alternative job I was offered (as a charity mugger) 3) If the placement worked out well I could go on doing more au pairing and therefore avoid chugging indefinitely
4) I would no longer be sharing a bed with things that bit me
However, there was also one fairly epic downside. It looked like it was going to cost me close to $1000 (over 600 quid) to travel to the new job!!! I thought about it, but not drastically hard, I reasoned being able to say id worked as an au pair would be another string to my bow and it was the only way I was going to get paid to come and see a side of Australia I wanted to see anyway!
So I accepted the job and rang my parents to cheerily inform them that I was about to commit financial suicide ($1000 being roughly the size of my then bank balance)! I doubt they were surprised, it would be the first time that I have done something outwardly daft because I believed that it was the best course of action. I have done this sort of thing several times over the years. One day when I was about 8 I informed my slightly shocked mother that I was leaving my private school - I did and it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made!
My parents gave me a bit of a loan which I hate, I really really try not to take money off them but I will pay it back so its no big deal to anything but my pride!
The thing about Australia is that obviously its huge! I was in Cairns and needed to get to Bowthorn Station which while still in the same state (Queensland) was going to take me 5 days to reach! Partly this was because of the distance but it was also because in the more remote areas public transport doesn't run every day. I had to be in Mount Isa by Thursday morning to catch the mail plane out to the station, I left cairns on a train at 7.15am on the Saturday beforehand.
Australian trains do not cover anywhere as near as much of the country as British trains do, most of the interior of the country just isn't populated enough and if you want to go anywhere there you drive for a very long time or take a very expensive flight. Luckily for me there was a train part way to my destination. I managed to get as far as Townsville before I was forced to resort to a bus.
It is somewhat traditional for me to be hit on by creepy men on trains. I have no idea why but it just always seems to happen. This time was no exception. A slightly inebriated, unkept looking, middle aged man happened to be in the seat next to me. I spent some time trying to look as disinterested as possible while he chatted to me about his last week and swore loudly and repeatedly in his anger at not being able to smoke on the train. He was going to be on the train for 30 hours (that's how long it takes to get from Cairns to Brisbane) I luckily was only going to be on the train for about 6!
After a while train creep went in search of food and I was left in peace to read my book and watch small towns with names I cant remember move past the window.
I think I will leave it there for tonight
to be continued...
Tuesday 17 September 2013
Today I Found a Pound Coin in My Bag and it Looked Foreign!
A commune
Bedbugs
Hiding in the upstairs computer room from the midges and the bedbugs...
Well, its an experience I guess
!!
Tuesday 10 September 2013
[Insert Some Useful Comment Here]
Where to start?? So much seems to be happening at the moment I hardly know whether I am coming or going!! :)
I am still staying with Vanilda because she asked me to stay an extra week to help further with the work that needs to be done for her granddaughters treatment and fundraising. I have had a lovely time learning about Brazilian cooking and helping her to gain confidence with the computer! She was also kind enough to give me last Friday off (though she still fed me) to go and meet up with a friend from university! It was great to catch up with a friend from home and our day involved coffee, wine, a swimming pool, a water fight, lots of laughter and a reasonably large quantity of drunkenness so I very much enjoyed it!
Now the question is what to do next? I have decided to try and participate in a language swap because I have always wanted to learn French. I know I am in Australia but there are so many backpackers around speaking all sorts of languages that it is quite easy to find someone who will exchange their knowledge of whatever language you like in exchange for help with English or whatever language you speak which they want to learn! I meet up with someone for the first time in Cairns in the next few days so we shall have to see how that goes.
Vanilda has offered to keep me here longer if I want, so that I can keep helping her and suggested that I get people to pay me to teach them basic computer skills! I tried to explain that I have no formal teaching qualifications and my computer know-how really is not that great, but she seems to think I am a good teacher and that several of her friends at least would be interested in me teaching them what I have taught her. If that were the case then it could be a good source of money (at least for a short time). I could still stay here and only pay $10 a day for my accommodation and food, which is like 6 or 7 pounds (basically nothing) and a hell of a lot less than i would be spending to live in a hostel and feed myself!
I could also move to Sydney, where I could earn more money and there is another girl willing to help me with french if am willing to help her with English. Though that said other people in a range of places have shown interest including someone in Darwin and somebody else on the Gold Coast.
Earlier today I was offered yet another option, to go and help out on a farm in the middle of nowhere taking care of 3 children (8, 11 and 10 months) and doing some farm work. This would also include supervising the oldest 2 through their workbooks for distance school (some kids live so far away from the nearest school here that they just do distance schooling from home!) I would love to do this! It is also a position that counts towards my second year visa (I need to work 88 days in qualifying jobs). The lady who approached me to come and work with her family was unaware about my limp and food allergies though, so now I have told her I will have to wait and see if she still wants me!
Lots of options, no idea which to go with! I will let you all know what happens! Apologies for the number of errors that are probably in this post, I have not got time to read it over and check it! I am busy busy busy arguing with the computer!
Much Love :)
Also, I found this and couldn't help it, this made me laugh a lot (if you are granny then sorry for the swears):
I am still staying with Vanilda because she asked me to stay an extra week to help further with the work that needs to be done for her granddaughters treatment and fundraising. I have had a lovely time learning about Brazilian cooking and helping her to gain confidence with the computer! She was also kind enough to give me last Friday off (though she still fed me) to go and meet up with a friend from university! It was great to catch up with a friend from home and our day involved coffee, wine, a swimming pool, a water fight, lots of laughter and a reasonably large quantity of drunkenness so I very much enjoyed it!
Now the question is what to do next? I have decided to try and participate in a language swap because I have always wanted to learn French. I know I am in Australia but there are so many backpackers around speaking all sorts of languages that it is quite easy to find someone who will exchange their knowledge of whatever language you like in exchange for help with English or whatever language you speak which they want to learn! I meet up with someone for the first time in Cairns in the next few days so we shall have to see how that goes.
Vanilda has offered to keep me here longer if I want, so that I can keep helping her and suggested that I get people to pay me to teach them basic computer skills! I tried to explain that I have no formal teaching qualifications and my computer know-how really is not that great, but she seems to think I am a good teacher and that several of her friends at least would be interested in me teaching them what I have taught her. If that were the case then it could be a good source of money (at least for a short time). I could still stay here and only pay $10 a day for my accommodation and food, which is like 6 or 7 pounds (basically nothing) and a hell of a lot less than i would be spending to live in a hostel and feed myself!
I could also move to Sydney, where I could earn more money and there is another girl willing to help me with french if am willing to help her with English. Though that said other people in a range of places have shown interest including someone in Darwin and somebody else on the Gold Coast.
Earlier today I was offered yet another option, to go and help out on a farm in the middle of nowhere taking care of 3 children (8, 11 and 10 months) and doing some farm work. This would also include supervising the oldest 2 through their workbooks for distance school (some kids live so far away from the nearest school here that they just do distance schooling from home!) I would love to do this! It is also a position that counts towards my second year visa (I need to work 88 days in qualifying jobs). The lady who approached me to come and work with her family was unaware about my limp and food allergies though, so now I have told her I will have to wait and see if she still wants me!
Lots of options, no idea which to go with! I will let you all know what happens! Apologies for the number of errors that are probably in this post, I have not got time to read it over and check it! I am busy busy busy arguing with the computer!
Much Love :)
Also, I found this and couldn't help it, this made me laugh a lot (if you are granny then sorry for the swears):
A good summary!
Monday 2 September 2013
Wwoofing with a Computer!
I am spending this week wwoofing just outside of Cairns (well kind of in one of the suburbs). I am living with a nice lady called Vanilda, originally from Brazil, and we have spent quite a lot of time talking about cultural differences between Australia, Brazil and Britain so that has been cool.
I was supposed to come here and help in the garden and such, but I have so far spent most of my time showing this lady how to use the internet for research and fundraising. Despite using the computer and email often, she only has a basic grasp of the internet it would seem.
The current need to use the internet more effectively came about because one of Vanilda's grandchildren, a little girl aged 3, has recently been diagnosed with Autism. As any family would, hers want to research the condition and its treatments as thoroughly as possible. Vanilda has the most free time (with no full time job and other children to care for) and so seems to have taken a lot of this research upon herself.
The family want to implement a form of early intervention called Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), but because there is no NHS here, the way they need to go about organising the treatment and funding and such is more complicated than at home (and it seems it can be pretty complicated even there). There is some assistance with funding but the family will need to fundraise on top of this allowance in order that the little girl receives adequate treatment.
There is so much information out there and it must be really overwhelming when the diagnosis has been made. We got talking about this and Vanilda is saying to me well how are we supposed to know which therapists are best? who to chose? I have no idea but I have an interest in disability and know that there are help groups and information online for just about every condition under the sun so I asked if the family had managed to find any online resources or forums or anything like that? No.
I know almost nothing about Autism and nothing whatsoever about healthcare in Australia but when I mentioned that the information is online and that websites and social media and giving sites and such can be used to raise awareness and funding, understandably, Vanilda wanted to know how! So I have spent today trying to explain use of the internet and forums and blogs and YouTube and stuff. Undoubtedly I am going to spend tomorrow relaying the same information to the little girls mother, who is coming round in the morning for the purpose and is, apparently, not much more tech savy than Vanilda.
I am very happy to help and I suppose any information which builds on that which they already have is good, but helping out in the garden would definitely be a lot simpler and less emotionally charged!
Its just the sort of thing I would manage really isn't it, go to a place to do some weeding and somehow find myself wading through the extra complicated parts of the Australian medical system!
I was supposed to come here and help in the garden and such, but I have so far spent most of my time showing this lady how to use the internet for research and fundraising. Despite using the computer and email often, she only has a basic grasp of the internet it would seem.
The current need to use the internet more effectively came about because one of Vanilda's grandchildren, a little girl aged 3, has recently been diagnosed with Autism. As any family would, hers want to research the condition and its treatments as thoroughly as possible. Vanilda has the most free time (with no full time job and other children to care for) and so seems to have taken a lot of this research upon herself.
The family want to implement a form of early intervention called Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), but because there is no NHS here, the way they need to go about organising the treatment and funding and such is more complicated than at home (and it seems it can be pretty complicated even there). There is some assistance with funding but the family will need to fundraise on top of this allowance in order that the little girl receives adequate treatment.
There is so much information out there and it must be really overwhelming when the diagnosis has been made. We got talking about this and Vanilda is saying to me well how are we supposed to know which therapists are best? who to chose? I have no idea but I have an interest in disability and know that there are help groups and information online for just about every condition under the sun so I asked if the family had managed to find any online resources or forums or anything like that? No.
I know almost nothing about Autism and nothing whatsoever about healthcare in Australia but when I mentioned that the information is online and that websites and social media and giving sites and such can be used to raise awareness and funding, understandably, Vanilda wanted to know how! So I have spent today trying to explain use of the internet and forums and blogs and YouTube and stuff. Undoubtedly I am going to spend tomorrow relaying the same information to the little girls mother, who is coming round in the morning for the purpose and is, apparently, not much more tech savy than Vanilda.
I am very happy to help and I suppose any information which builds on that which they already have is good, but helping out in the garden would definitely be a lot simpler and less emotionally charged!
Its just the sort of thing I would manage really isn't it, go to a place to do some weeding and somehow find myself wading through the extra complicated parts of the Australian medical system!
Saturday 31 August 2013
Things I Have Learned in My First Month
So I have been in Australia almost a month now and I thought it might be fun to share a few of the things I have learned:
1. I brought far too much stuff!! I would be great to have a tiny case with just a few changes of clothes in right now. Most of what I packed is useful though and I will need it (eventually), its just that dragging it about from place to place is a real pain! I would just get a smaller case and chuck most of it out, but I don't really want to get rid of stuff that I like and I will just have to buy it back over time anyway.
2. Everything is far more expensive than I thought it would be, it would be easy to spend $100 a day without even really buying much
3. No matter how many times I see one, I am still confused by the drive through off-licence (why Australia, just why...?!)
4. The world is both bigger and smaller than you think it is
5. German backpackers are everywhere
6. You get blase really quickly about the number of things here that can kill you!
7. Great ideas about what to write in blog posts arrive in my brain about 4am and then have completely disappeared by the time I sit down to write a blog the next day
8. When travelling bring a book you do not like to be the first one you leave at a book exchange so you don't have to lose a book you actually like
9. The best way to have an adventure is to get as far away from other backpackers as possible
10. I can never ever adequately describe anything you are doing for people back home
11. When this far away, Europe itself feels like home and any talk of it makes me smile.
12. Muggy heat is the worst type of heat
13. Tim Tam sucks are just awesome (thank you Shauna)
13. I am oddly intrigued by what the stuff people sell to each other says about a place, for example what names appear on the named bookmarks and what types of food show up again and again in cafes and shops
14. The fact that the background birdsong and animal noises here are different to home was pone of the hardest things to get used to
15. A year is going to go very quickly
16. I wish I had someone to travel with
17. Travelling is awesome, it makes you look at the world in a whole new way
18. Things that matter, matter no matter how far away they are
19. Possums look even stranger close up
20. I had forgotten how much I like quadbikes
1. I brought far too much stuff!! I would be great to have a tiny case with just a few changes of clothes in right now. Most of what I packed is useful though and I will need it (eventually), its just that dragging it about from place to place is a real pain! I would just get a smaller case and chuck most of it out, but I don't really want to get rid of stuff that I like and I will just have to buy it back over time anyway.
2. Everything is far more expensive than I thought it would be, it would be easy to spend $100 a day without even really buying much
3. No matter how many times I see one, I am still confused by the drive through off-licence (why Australia, just why...?!)
4. The world is both bigger and smaller than you think it is
5. German backpackers are everywhere
6. You get blase really quickly about the number of things here that can kill you!
7. Great ideas about what to write in blog posts arrive in my brain about 4am and then have completely disappeared by the time I sit down to write a blog the next day
8. When travelling bring a book you do not like to be the first one you leave at a book exchange so you don't have to lose a book you actually like
9. The best way to have an adventure is to get as far away from other backpackers as possible
10. I can never ever adequately describe anything you are doing for people back home
11. When this far away, Europe itself feels like home and any talk of it makes me smile.
12. Muggy heat is the worst type of heat
13. Tim Tam sucks are just awesome (thank you Shauna)
13. I am oddly intrigued by what the stuff people sell to each other says about a place, for example what names appear on the named bookmarks and what types of food show up again and again in cafes and shops
14. The fact that the background birdsong and animal noises here are different to home was pone of the hardest things to get used to
15. A year is going to go very quickly
16. I wish I had someone to travel with
17. Travelling is awesome, it makes you look at the world in a whole new way
18. Things that matter, matter no matter how far away they are
19. Possums look even stranger close up
20. I had forgotten how much I like quadbikes
Thursday 29 August 2013
I Can Eat Macdonald's 30c Ice Cream!
Ok so the Cooktown thing was great fun! I got to drive a quad bike and a tractor and learned to change a trailer wheel. I also saw tarantulas and lizards and ate passion fruit and oranges picked straight off a tree! I learned to plant pineapples too and got to eat home made ice cream and butter and bread all of which were yummy! Other goings on were were also cool but less novel, like feeding the pig and chickens and setting up a egg incubator which seemed to be perpetually sulking because the humidity wasn't right, I think the guy needs a new one!
But Jess, you said you would be away a month and this is not a month from your last post I hear you say! No, true...well the guy I was doing the farm work for was also an electrician working for the council and got called away to fix something-or-other! He was going to be a week in which time I would have had no work so I was given the option to leave, which I did.
Now I am back in Cairns! It looks like, to get work, my best bet is to fly back to Sydney. I have been in contact with a marketing company who said they will interview me for sales work whenever I make my way back there (they are always hiring apparently).
I will go back if nothing turns up here soon, but a friend from university gets to Cairns in just over a week so I really want to find a way to stay here and see him. I am thinking of doing some short term wwoofing because I cant afford to hang around for a week if I have to pay my way for food and accommodation! I tried to visit one place today and there was nobody in. The phone of a second place is always engaged, but I have somewhere else I will try this evening (fingers crossed)!
Tomorrow I have to go back to the doctors at stupidly-early-o-clock, because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I need a doctors note to say I can dive. I went today, but the doctor I saw seemed unsure about passing me, he wants to chat some things over with the company or something and was a little confused over some aspects of my medical history (I got confused about the specifics because he had a very very thick Indian accent). All I know is there is another doctor who knows more about the dive certificate I need that I can see tomorrow! The receptionist didn't seem to think that this second doctor will have a problem passing me so that's good. I hope he doesn't anyway because either way I owe the practice $60 for testing me. I miss the NHS!
Hopefully, everything will work out, I will find a woofing place and get to do my diving and such with my friend before I head back to Sydney! watch this space!
But Jess, you said you would be away a month and this is not a month from your last post I hear you say! No, true...well the guy I was doing the farm work for was also an electrician working for the council and got called away to fix something-or-other! He was going to be a week in which time I would have had no work so I was given the option to leave, which I did.
Now I am back in Cairns! It looks like, to get work, my best bet is to fly back to Sydney. I have been in contact with a marketing company who said they will interview me for sales work whenever I make my way back there (they are always hiring apparently).
I will go back if nothing turns up here soon, but a friend from university gets to Cairns in just over a week so I really want to find a way to stay here and see him. I am thinking of doing some short term wwoofing because I cant afford to hang around for a week if I have to pay my way for food and accommodation! I tried to visit one place today and there was nobody in. The phone of a second place is always engaged, but I have somewhere else I will try this evening (fingers crossed)!
Tomorrow I have to go back to the doctors at stupidly-early-o-clock, because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I need a doctors note to say I can dive. I went today, but the doctor I saw seemed unsure about passing me, he wants to chat some things over with the company or something and was a little confused over some aspects of my medical history (I got confused about the specifics because he had a very very thick Indian accent). All I know is there is another doctor who knows more about the dive certificate I need that I can see tomorrow! The receptionist didn't seem to think that this second doctor will have a problem passing me so that's good. I hope he doesn't anyway because either way I owe the practice $60 for testing me. I miss the NHS!
Hopefully, everything will work out, I will find a woofing place and get to do my diving and such with my friend before I head back to Sydney! watch this space!
Monday 19 August 2013
They Will Teach Me To Drive A Tractor!
I have found a farm work position in a small town called Cooktown, I leave Cairns tomorrow!
Another little map for you!
I work for my meals and accommodation and live with a family and their 9 month old little boy! There is a possibility that I will be able to get more paid work in the town! Even better, a girl I know from traveling has found work in the same town!
Its a small town, which is what I wanted to see so I am happy! There is no internet though apparently so I probably will fall off the technological world while there!
I will be back in a month (unless I extend my stay), update you all then!!
Let the Adventures begin!
Another little map for you!I work for my meals and accommodation and live with a family and their 9 month old little boy! There is a possibility that I will be able to get more paid work in the town! Even better, a girl I know from traveling has found work in the same town!
Its a small town, which is what I wanted to see so I am happy! There is no internet though apparently so I probably will fall off the technological world while there!
I will be back in a month (unless I extend my stay), update you all then!!
Let the Adventures begin!
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