Craig & Sam Down Under

Hi guys! We’ve come a very long way since our last blog and had a huge adventure in the outback. Last weekend we said sad goodbyes to our friends in Dimbulah and then started a very very long drive to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. It took us 4 days to get to Alice Springs, mostly driving from about 8am until 4pm each day and stopping in some unusual and frankly quite scary places along the way. We saw on average about 15 other motorists on the road each day, which isn’t a lot when you think how long we were driving and how far we’ve come! I think we actually saw more cows than people and the road signs over here are hilarious, all proclaiming BEWARE loose stock, with a funny picture of an enormous cow crashing into a tiny little car, we’ve assigned it a catch phrase ‘Beware, cows may eat your car!!’ complete with silly voice and many giggles. We’ve been travelling with Sven and Marie our German friends who have also provided many a laugh. On the first day we stopped at lunchtime for a roadside picnic and when we got back on the road, they drove off with the back door of their van wide open. We’ve got 2-Way radios in each van so we can talk to them as we travel and we had to tell them that their door was open – they hadn’t realised it was unusually windy. Funnier still, the next day we made another breif stop at the side of the road and when we set off again, we’d only been going for about 2 minutes when Sven came over the 2-way saying “please stop for a mintue, we must go back for our clothes”. ???? Confused? We were too. They’d only gone and left the sliding door at the side of their van wide open this time and with their clothes hooked over the windows to dry, there were t-shirts and boxer shorts all over the highway! Amazingly they found every item and they were all dry too! Eventually we made it to Alice Springs and after an early night and a good rest from all the driving, we set out once more for Ayers Rock. We wanted to visit both Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon but weren’t sure what the quality of some of the roads would be like on the way. The longest route was a safe bet, but with the price of fuel and the massive distance we’d already covered we were willing to consider alternative routes. And Sven, being a bit of a mad German thought it would be a great adventure to go off-roading. “only 100kms!” he said, “no problem!” So we ventured down what the Aussies call an ‘unsealed’ road, but which actually felt like driving along the bottom of a fish bowl. A corrugated fish bowl. I was getting really stressed out about all the bumping, pot holes, dust, rocks and general life-threatening road conditions when I spotted not one, but about a dozen….. WILD CAMELS! And from then on I didn’t really care about the state of the road, I was in raptures about the camels and just when Craig thought I was beginning to calm down and get over it…. BABY WILD CAMELS! The 100kms was the greatest adventure, even if it was a bit hairy at times. We passed through areas that were aboriginal freehold lands, over dried out creeks and generally through the bush. It was fantastic. And on the other end we came to a place called Kings Creek. This was the nearest accomodation/food/fuel place to Kings Canyon and as it was almost 12o’clock and the hottest part of the day we decided to check into the camping ground, have a snooze and then go to the Canyon later in the day. Kings Creek is a converted station where they do all kinds of fun stuff from camel tours to Harley Davidson adventure rides to Helicopter trips over the Canyon. We met a very nice Aussie guy working there who advised us to go to the Canyon the next morning ‘a sparrow-fart from sun rise’ to get the best conditions for climbing the canyon and also suggested a nearby lookout point that we could visit that evening. We had a nice relaxing afternoon in the pool, saw the lookout at sunset and did what he suggested, getting up at 4.30am the next day to get to Kings Canyon at sunrise. It was well worth it and we did a fantastic walk all around the Canyon, taking lots of pictures from the top. The first part of the walk was a steep climb to the top but we did it without dying and the rest was plain sailing and we had lots of fun taking the mickey out of all the tourist groups who stopped to photograph every rock and discuss its origin. We finished the walk after 2 hours (an hour short of the recommended time -get us, super fit) and so it was still only about 8am. We started the drive to Ayers Rock, which was going to be a couple of hours. At midday we stopped at a roadhouse to re-fuel and have some dinner, it’s been getting hotter and hotter out here every day, I think the hottest we’ve seen is about 42degrees and that’s too hot even to drive in. You’d think with the windows open at 100km/h there’d be a nice breeze but it’s more like having an industrial hair drier pointed at you the whole time. We decided that after an hour or so it was too unbearable sitting in the heat and we made a break for the visitor centre at Ayers Rock where we could sit in the air conditioning. We read every scrap of information and watched all the informative DVDs they had going while we basked in the coolness. It was actually really interesting and I’m glad we went there before we drove up to the rock itself. Learning about the aboriginal people and their culture, specifically how the rock relates to their history and their lives, made us appreciate what we were seeing so much more. The rock is phenomenal but the stories behind it make it more intertesting. It also taught us the reasons why the aboriginal people ask visitors not to climb the rock and so out of respect for them and everything we’d learned about their culture, we chose not to climb. On the first day we visited Ayers Rock it was quite cloudy and we couldn’t get the really great photos we wanted so we decided to stay at the camp ground at the Ayers Rock resort and make another early start the next day to see the rock at sunrise. It was ridiculously overpriced at the campground but we had fun knowing that we hadn’t paid nearly as much as all the silly Japs running around who’d paid $1800 per night to stay in the resorts fanciest accomodation – Longitude 131, glorified tents. We got up again ‘a sparrow-fart from sunrise’ (new favourite saying) and had our breakfast over looking Ayers Rock at sunrise. How many people can say they’ve done that in their lifetime? Not many. After that we made a brief visit to the Olgas (more rocks like Ayers Rock only a different shape – google it) and took some photies from a lookout point. Sven and Marie wanted to do a walk around the Olgas but Craig and I have had a few small hitches with the van and decided to drive back to Alice Springs that day to try and get stuff sorted. They joined us on the caravan park later that day (Saturday) but as most places were closed and we weren’t able to get all our stuff sorted, Craig and I have stayed in Alice Springs for a couple of days and Sven & Marie have carried on to Katherine, our next stop. It’s Monday now and we’re still here. The fridge is having a bit of a dicky-fit and isn’t getting as cold as it should be and we think we have a leak somewhere on the engine as we sometimes lose a lot of oil and other times none at all. Not major problems but things that we really need to get fixed before we venture on any more massive driving days. So here we are in Alice, at the mercy of mechanics and fridge-menders, hoping to be back on the road in a couple of days.

I think that’s all for now, can’t remember any more stuff so I’ll say ta-ra duck! Hope everyone at home is fit and well. I know I said good luck to Donna last time, but news has it she’s still hoarding that bloody baby – hurry up woman! Hope all goes well for you, we’ll have a huff and puff for you on the 8th if he/she doesn’t appear before then.

Much love to all

Craig & Sam

Helloo peeps!

I’ll try to keep this one short, as I realise that some of you only get a half hour lunch break in which to read my blogs!

Since we ran out of work up at the Oolloo farm with the baby Mango trees, our good friend Jeff stepped in to introduce us to some more local farmers so that we could find some more work. Although we’ve been here in Dimbulah since 3rd November 2005 and that’s quite a long time to spend in one place when we have the whole of Australia to visit, since we decided to go to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock with Sven and Marie, we agreed to stay a little while longer as they need to earn some more spendies to get some repairs done on their van (unless we wanna go breaking down in the middle of nowhere I-don’t-think-so!). As it is, we’ve managed to save quite a bit of cash over the last couple of months but every penny counts and the more the better so Jeff hooked us up with some work on another mango farm. This time with full size trees and actual mangoes!

Last Saturday we went out to Mutchilba which is a tiny little place between here and Mareeba, it’s even smaller than Dimbulah but with lots of farms and only about 10 minutes drive away from the caravan park. We met Aldo and Carmel De’Zen and their son Luigi, an Italian family in case you hadn’t guessed and they set us on at their Mango farm, picking and packing the fruit. As luck would have it the farm next door also had work for Sven and Marie and we all started work on Monday last week at 6am! The first day we found out that they work from 6am til 6pm everyday. They have a tea break or ‘smoko’ as it’s known out here at 8am and at 3pm with an hour and a half for lunch from12-1.30pm each day. A long 12 hour day and you might think it’s not so bad with so many breaks but in reality, it meant we were at work for all the daylight hours in the day and in the hottest part from 12-1.30pm, while the family scuttles off to their nice air conditioned house for a big cooked dinner and a snooze, we have to sit in the boiling heat in our little van with a couple of ham sandwiches.

Out in the field we weren’t so much ‘picking’ the fruit as what’s called ‘de-sapping’. They have a motorised machine with a trampoline and a conveyor belt that moves alongside all the trees. Aldo, the boss, stands on a platform above the trampoline and picks the fruit from the top of the tree while a group of pickers with clippers on long poles pick everything else from underneath. Craig had to stand on the back of the machine at the end of the conveyor belt and pick out any mangoes that came through with a bit of stem still attached, pull off the stem and throw them back into the machine for rinsing. I had to take fruit from the pickers and remove the stems from as many as I could before throwing them onto the machine. They casually informed us that when you break the stems from the fruit, the sap that spurts out (“like a cat pissing” is the phrase they use, sorry nan) can burn you so be careful. It didn’t take long for us to realise just how badly the stuff burns, but the bosses didn’t take much time to explain to us how to do it properly and avoid getting burned. And when Aldo is flinging mangoes left right and centre from the top of his platform, me and Craig were getting sprayed all over with the stuff. After only one day we both looked like we’d been in a terrible accident. There were spray burns on our faces and hands, necks, arms, legs – anywhere with uncovered flesh.

On the second day we only had to go picking until 10am and then spent the rest of the day packing the fruit that we’d picked since monday, ready for market. Packing is a much nicer job inside the shed. I was given 6 bins to pack from, all the 2nd grade fruit with scratches on and they showed me how to use different plastic templates for the layout of the fruit to fit all the mangoes nicely in the boxes. Craig was making up box lids, sticking stickers on all the mangoes when I’d packed them and then stacking the boxes onto palettes and putting them in cold storage (just like being back at Mozzers!).

We battled through the week getting increasingly tired and narky with each other. Each afternoon there was a massive rainstorm which carried on through most of the evening, ripping a big hole in our little tarp with the weight of the water collected in it and the force of the wind. The camp kitchen was constantly inhabited by a very arrogant French couple who’re living in a sopping wet tent and do their best to get in our way when we try to cook tea. The shop closes at 6pm every evening so we have to drive back from work during lunch hour in the day to get bread and milk etc. costing us petrol and mileage on the van. We couldn’t do any washing cuz that would mean leaving it out to dry all day and risk getting soaked in the afternoon rain and everything was just one big stink. By Thursday we were barely talking to one another and then we found out that the I-tI’s intended for us to work these crappy 12 hour days every day until every last mango was picked and packed – could be up to another 14 days! After much griping on Thursday night we decided to ask for our wages on Friday as we still didn’t know how much we were getting paid and they weren’t planning on dishing out any money until all the picking was done. On Friday lunchtime Carmel paid us for the 4 full days we had worked from Monday to Thursday and we decided that the Friday morning that we had worked without pay would do to settle our consciences as we high-tailed it from the farm and never went back. It earned us a pretty sum of just over $1000 and we were happy with that. With sore fingers, aching feet and big hugs to each other in forgiveness for the all the snapping and bickering of the previous few days we looked forward to food shopping, clean knickers and a big snooze! Ahhh! In the mean time Sven and Marie, a much tougher pair of cookies than us (or maybe just stupider?) carried on working at their farm until Tuesday this week, 9 days straight! Although they didn’t have the sap burns that we had as Marie was packing all day and Sven was given one of those clipper-poles so they never came into contact with the demon stuff.

So, a happy ending you might think? Think again! By Saturday night I had started to develop a nasty red itchy rash around where the sap burns were, which spread and got worse over the weekend until I woke up on Monday morning with big swollen eyes and a swolled top lip. Having had experience of nasty allergies when I was little, we decided I’d better go to the hospital. We looked them up in the phone booked and rang before we set off, the receptionist told me I would be seen by a triage nurse and then have to wait for a doctor. The address said Lloyd street, so when we got to Mareeba (40 mins away) and found Lloyd street, the first thing we saw was a medical centre. This must be it! We went inside and waited ages while all the receptionists and nurses flapped about all denying having taken a phone call from me. For God’s Sake! We eventually figured out that we were in the wrong place and that the hospital was around the corner. By the time we got there and I’d filled in a shed load of forms I was so stressed out that the first nurse who came to me had to deal with me bursting into tears and explaining what a long way from home I am and how scared I was that I was gonna choke on my own tongue! She was very sympathetic, apart from the moment when she shoved a massive great needle in my hand and sucked a load of my blood out! Within 15 minutes of finding the hospital I was lying on a bed, telling my sorry story and the nurse decided I must be allergic to the mangoes or the sap or some chemical used on the farm and was just having a bit of a delayed reaction. The doctor came very briefly and told the nurse to give me an injection of Phenergan. It made me dozy and I slept a couple of hours in the hospital while they kept an eye on me but the swelling started to come down very quickly. I was happy with the results and so with a prescription for some more Phenergan tablets and a cream for my rash in hand we buggered off back to the caravan park.

Happy ending? No, sorry not this time. By Tuesday morning I was all swollen up again, worse than before and not a happy bunny. A quick read over the phenergan tablets showed me that they were nothing but glorified anti-histamines, a drug I’ve taken every day for most of my life. I knew exactly what I needed to put me right, a steroid called Prednisolone (unfortunately one that can only be prescribed by a doctor), so back to the hospital we go. The nurse we met on this occasion was much less sympathetic and as I was a lot calmer this time and clearly not about to drop dead as I had thought I was the previous day, she told me to go sit down and wait. So wait we did. . . . . For 3 and a half hours. By this time I’d taken so many anti-histamines that the swelling had started to subside a bit, at least it wasn’t getting any worse. So I said we might as well go home and wait and see what would happen next. Poor hungry, sleepy Craig obliged and then put up with me drifting in and out of doziness with the tablets for the next 24 hours. By the middle of Wednesday, 5 days after the symptoms had started I was still no better and our neighbour Bruce suggested that I go to Dimbulah hospital. It’s more of a clinic really, with only a nurse and no doctor, but she has been known to dish out medication where she sees fit and might just be able to help me out. She was a very lovely lady and although she couldn’t bend the rules quite so far as to give me the steroids I needed, she did manage to get me an appointment with a local doctor the same day who would be happy to prescribe it to me after a breif consultation. Back to Mareeba we go. The appointment itself cost me $51.50, as well as the $28 for the previous days’ medication and another $14.50 for the steroids but I got what I wanted, the wonder drug that I had used so many times when I was younger and now (Thursday) I seem to be on the mend. Thew swelling began to go down yesterday and although I’m a bit puffy and bruised around the eyelids, it’s mostly all gone now. The rash is still with me but hopefully another couple of days will see the end of that! And the great thing is that with all this medication I’ve paid for, I’ve got a plentiful supply for in case it happens again – not that I’ll be going near anymore mangoes for a long long time! So there you go, first and hopefully last visits to an Aussie hospital, sorry, no photos this time! Craig’s burns are also starting to heal now, he managed to avoid any kind of allergy, the little splashes on his arms and face are mostly gone but his hands are still a bit messed up – he’s got photographic evidence of that for when we get home! Dont worry about us, we’re tough bunnies and doing our very best to take care of one another.

In the meantime we went back to our old farm with the baby mango trees as they had said we could go back around 18th Jan if we still wanted to work, helping them with the pruning. Unfortunately their bosses have told them to hold off the pruning for another month. We’ve been discussing things with Sven and Marie and they’re spending the next few days getting everything hunky dory in their van, so all being well we should be off to Alice Springs very soon! Yay! We’re not deciding on an actual departure date yet, as sods law every time we make a plan something comes along and buggers it up, so it’ll be a spur of the moment decision I’m sure, such is the exciting life we’re living! You can breathe a sigh of relief that there won’t be any mammoth blogs for a while, it’s gonna take us about 5 days straight to drive to Alice so there won’t be much opportunity to get on the net or much to say probably, but we’ll be back in touch soon.

Hope everyone at home is well, Donna we’re thinking of you lots and hope all the huffing and puffing goes well (and fast!)!
Love to everybody, missing you all lots

Itchy & Scratchy xoxox

Hi Guys! Prepare yourselves for a long read - so much stuff has happened and Sam is back in the driving seat! Since you last heard from us on the 17th December, I'll start from there! It started out ... [Continue reading this entry]