Echuca

Helloooo

The last week we've been in a town called Echuca. It's a town along the Murray river about 60 km from Shepp. Someone we spoke to before we left for Echuca said it was "a richman's playground"... So we thought we'd feel completely at home there :) Anyway, the town itself was nice. It used to be an important port on the Murray around the 1900's. The portarrea and it's main street were still standing the way it would have been a 100 years ago (not counting a lick of paint and stuff here and there). Some old paddlesteamers (steamboats that use big spinning paddlewheels to propell themselves) were still in working condition as touristattractions. All in all the old area of Echuca had a nice authentic feel to it and was worth wondering around in for a day. After that we looked for things to do in the area and after some searching we found something. We went on a cannoeing trip on the Murrayriver. It was a 2 day trip, paddeling 60 km's downstream. We were dropped of at Lake Barmah, which is surrounded by Australia's largest Redgum forest. During our first canoeingday the Murray meandered through the forest which gave us some nice views. I even spotted four kangaroos :) Camping out at night was great, although a bit windy. Beeing in the middle of nowhere in a huge forest does have a humbeling effect... certainly when you meet an australian cowboy at midday telling you to look out for some particular dangerous spiders and snakes... We survived the night though, and went on our way to Echuca stopping now and then for a swim in the Murray (a well needed cooling down in the 40 - 45 degree weather).

Back in Echuca we found a great bakery. It sold loads of sugar and chocolate goodness, but the one thing that stood out for me (being a chocoholic and all) was a small darkblack squareshaped cake called "Death By Chocolate"... All i can say is I'm still alive, but the rest tastes as good and as unhealthy as it sounds.

We spent some more time in Echuca, mainly cooling down in the pool and the Murray. Since 2 days we've been back in Shepp, and work is picking up. By the latest we'll have work (picking pears) next friday, thanks to a great australian guy called Phill. I'll tell you all about that another time, 'cause my time on the library internetpc's in running out, and i'm getting kicked off...

Bye bye

Quick update...

Hi, just a quick update.

We arrived in Shepparton almost 2 weeks ago to find out that the harvestingseason was later than usual. Normally it starts 1st of january, but because of the weather (not enough sunshine) the season is late. The harvestoffice said it would pick up in the next few days... but it didn't... hundreds of backpackers are in the area now waiting for work. Because of this we decided to make some phonecalls and found a job picking tomatoes near a small town (pop 490) called Merrigum. We picked tomatoes for 3 days. Tomatoes are known to be the hardest fruit to pick (no shelter from the sun, lot of stress to the back, hardly any money to be made in the beginning), and we found that out ourselves too :) After 3 days of picking there was a scheduled brake in the tomatoepicking of about a week to let the rest of the tomatoes ripe. We decided to try our luck again in Shepparton, and that's were i am now. Latest news is that by next week tuesday there should be plenty of work... although we've learnt not to take such news as the truth... so we're still keeping our eyes open for other opportunities. We have some contacts with big farms in the area, but they don't start work for another week or 2. Yesterday we went to a tempingoffice where we wrote ourselves up for some upcomming factorywork in the Sheppartonarea. Chances are we'll be able to work in a fruitprocessing factory for about a month.

In short: harvestseason is late. plenty of work available in a week or 2. done some work. looking for new work. fingers crossed :)

Euhm... Plan C :)

Hello. For starters, happy newyear to you all and thanks for all the sms's/mails/blogcomments for the holidays and my birthday :)

Yes, we've had a change of plan again. Tomorrow we're leaving for Shepparton and not Mildura to do our fruitpicking. Main reason being that we expect to make more money there. The workinghostell in Mildura would cost us a lot of money for our accommodation (120$ /week) and we'd have to pay some extra costs too (busservice to work, administrative cost). The big plus in Shepparton is that we'll have the opportunity to have a roof over our head for much less money. Farmers there often have accommodation available on their land and like to keep their workers in good condition by giving them good accommodation and in some cases even 3 meals per day. Seeing as their main concern is keeping their workers in good condition and not making money out of them by charging a lot for accommodation, they keep their prices very reasonable (anything from 10 - 50 $ per week). Taking that into account we'll hopefully be able to make more money in the same timeperiod. Another plus is that Shepparton is 'only' 180 km's from Melbourne instead of 500 (Mildura) (cheaper to get there and back), and hopefully the temperature will be more bareble (although that's all very relative here... hot is hot).

Anyway... The 3-day tour we did was excellent. The first day we spent driving down the Great Ocean Road stopping every half an hour or so to enjoy the views and go for a walk or a swim in the ocean. The coastline is very dramatic and we got to see some amazing views. The morning of the second day was by far the best... and not just because it was my birthday :) After enjoying the sunset we got up early so we'd have the oceanbeach to ourselves when we payed a visit to the Twelve Apostels (http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/portcampbell/apostles.asp). It was an awesome sight, by far more impressive than the views most tourists get from the clifftop lookouts we saw the day before. One of the apostels looked almost close enough that i thought i'd be able to reach out for it... but our tourguide and the ocean (i got myself and my clothes quite wet running into the waves... but hey, the weather here being what it is that was not much of a problem) made it clear that that would not have been a very good idea if I was still planning on telling the tale :) After roaming the beach we drove on to a secluded bay with a beautifull beach where we went for a swim. I did my best to 'ride the waves' (gliding with the big waves and letting them drag you back to the beach) with my body... sometimes succeeded and sometimes got a mouthfull of salty oceanwater... After that we drove inland to the Grampians were we got to see some wildlife (kangaroos, wallabies, emu's and koalla's) and some views that made us think we were somewhere in the middle of Kenia instead of Australia. All very impressive and the scorshing heat did it's best to underline the arid landscape. No wonder Australia get's hit by massive fires every year (speaking of which: we're not near any of the fires raging around New South Wales and Victoria, so no worries there).

We got back in time to celebrate new year in Melbourne. The fireworks were unlike anyting we'd seen before. 500.000 $ worth of pyrotechnics go a far way in alighting the sky at night. But it was no where as mad as in Sydney where they spent 4.000.000 $ on their firework display... makes you think, doesn't it... After the display we wondered around in Melbourne and got into a club in the Southbank area of town (known for it's nightlife). We sort of sneaked in as the doormen were occupied with some troublemakers. It wasn't untill we were in and having a drink that we realised that we were rather underdressed (Or should i just say 'I was rather underdressed'... I guess flipflops and shorts is pushing the dresscode a bit). The doormen were denying entry to a lot of people who weren't dressed at their best... No need to say I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable... But I decided to ignore that fact and went on to enjoy the atmosphere. The doormen did give us a weird look as we walked out of the club, as in "how did u get in here?", but aside from that we got out without harm :) After that it was on to Federation Square and about an hour later we were on the overloaded tram home.

That's it for now. Next time you hear of me I'll be in Shepparton, picking fruit :)

David.