Little Van on The Prairie!
Hello folks!
This is Craig’s second go at writing a blog (and Sam is watching me like a hawk!). What’s been happening? Urm! Well we left Townsville and headed north to Cairns to start looking for some work, cause we’re all out of spendies. We were in Cains for Sunday and we had a job by Wednesday. We phoned a hotline for travellers and backpacking folk wanting to work in agriculture and stuff and they were useless. However they did give us a labour service address. They were called GRUNT! what a nice name don’t you think? Anyway we went down to their office and spoke with a lady who is Shirl’s (sams mum) twin sister. Very scary to think there are two around! I can get away with that being on the other side of the planet. You can’t threaten me with mushrooms now! We signed on with them and the next day phoned us and offered us a job on a Mango Plantation. We agreed and drove an hour to an office in Mareeba for directions to the farm and then another hour to the farm which is in a quaint little (I emphasise the little) place called Dimbulah!
We went up to meet our new boss and find out what we will actually be doing because they were abit vague when it came to that part. We met the plantation manager whose name is Mark. Mark is a really nice bloke who comes from Zimbabwe, where the government kicked him off his farm, which is why he came to Australia. We started work on the Thursday and were greeted by Jeff. Jeff drives the tractor, Jeff has never shaved in his life, Jeff is missing his two front teeth and Jeff laughs like a hyena. Jeff is ace! He is the funniest guy ever. He is our mentor. He showed us what we were going to be doing.
We were given a 4×4 golf cart each which has a mechanical arm on the front to spray the weeds with. They are great. They are called Gators and have a 20hp engine so they are pretty quick. I have already been asked to stop driving it like its an F1 car but I can’t help it. Boys and their toys eh! However Sam on the other hand is not so good with machinery. In one week she has manged to 1 lose the filter on her Gator that filters the crap out of the chemical we are using 2 rip the hose that supplies the arm with water clean off the Gator and then run over it, and 3 when she took it to the shed where they repair stuff on the Gators she crashed her Gator in the shed door. IN ONE WEEK! Other than that we just drive up and down the rows all day spraying the weeds, so we get to enjoy the sun and listen to our Ipods but get paid for it.
Talking of getting paid, we got paid for two days work from last week and so when we went shopping we splashed out. We bought pillows, a bed sheet and a fan. Living it up in luxury. Penny has been pimped!
Dimbulah………Dimbulah, Dimbulah, Dimbulah!!! The place of ones. One caravan park, one pub, one phone box, one post office, one food shop, one butcher, one baker, one candlestick maker! Geeze, no wonder everyone is always in the pub there is nothing else to do. Unless you like looking at rock. There’s plenty of rock about oh and termite mounds plenty of them too. Even though there ain’t much going on the people here are great. They are dead friendly and it really has an ozzy feel about it. Our first night at the pub. We walked in and all six heads in the bar turned, a tumbleweed drifted by outside. I approached the bar and took a seat. The barmaid asked what we wanted “A VB please” the three men at the end of the bar, who couldn’t have made a full set of teeth between them began to snarl and growl at the words VB! One man pipes up “You do know where you are don’t you?” my reply “The pub?”. No laughter. “You’re in Queensland and here we drink xxxx” whoops my mistake. I had even been prepped on this before we left. “I will make that my next drink” says I. The bloke sitting next to us says ” You drink what you want, mate”. We got chatting to this bloke and it turns out that he is the owner of the bar! He asks our story and then tells us his and then introduces us to all the cleatuses at the bar. They decide to educate me in my naivety and dont let me pay for another drink all night. We spent six dollars (about three quid) and drank all night. Next time you are in a bar in the Australian outback try it you will either get your teeth kicked in or a free night’s drinking.
Sorry there has been a shortage of blogs we haven’t had much to write home about plus we didn’t think that there was any internet access in Dimbulah. The woman who owns the campsite has kindly let us use her pc! The campsite we are staying on is nice and really cheap due to its location. The first night we were here we saw wild roo’s bouncing through the woods at the edge of the site. The second night I went for a pee in the middle of the night and noticed the sky and how there were loads of stars out, so many it looked like there was a light nearby cause it was so bright. The residents on the caravan park are great. Watched Great Britain vs New Zealand in rugby leauge this morning. We trounced them 36-8. So me and an Oz resident are giving John the Kiwi loads of grief. Still upsets a few characters when the England cricket jersey comes out, which is always fun!
Well thats about it. If you like my blogs I want loads of support in the comments, that way I might be able to write more!!!!!!
Hello to everyone missing you loads.
Lots of love
Craig and The Wrecking Ball
Tags: Travel
Sam
November 13th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
Now listen here Craigy-ma-boy…… you may be ½ way round the world, but I can still get at ya you know….. that nice lady in the Grunt office….. I cloned her, you’ll find one everywhere you go….. and they all have a mission to get you with mushrooms. Interesting fact….. did you know that the hops they use to brew Aussie XXXX Bitter is grown in recycled mushroom compost?? No… thought not…. Haaaaah – Mr Mushroom Beer Supper!
K – that’s out of my system now!
Lovely to see more of your memories and experiences in print, what with the mad caw-cawing of some beastie bird in the background and the occasional truck trundling by when you call it’s really hard to remember every detail of your phone calls; still it’s always so lovely to hear from you.
The bar you mention sounds a bit like most village pubs over here actually, they’re usually full of dodgy geezers, most of them probably aren’t as nice as the onces you’ve met though, UK ones are more likely to nick your wallet and sup your ale while you look for it – just before knocking your lights out when you ask who drank the beer!
Is it any wonder Sam trashed the Gator? the hose was obviously defective, the filter was the size of a contact lens and the shed doorway a foot too narrow – strewth! If the Gator had survived she’d probably have pimped that (like Penny) within a month too!!
(If Dimbulah is really the place of ones, why did you say it 4 times? and do they know there’s 2 Limeys in it?)
England were majestic in the footie against Argentina – top match! coming from me that’s some statement – you know how much I ‘love’ foortball (not!) – anyway, we went 1 down then pulled 1 back, then 2-1 then the mighty midget (owen) scored 2 in the last 10 mins – I was in the kitched doing a curry and watching on the portable so I was 3 seconds in front of the men in the other room and yelled before they even saw the goal – it was like being in a time warp!
What a day – England beat the Argy-bargies 3-2 at footy, the Aussies at Rugby Union (26-16), and the New Zealandies (or what ever you call them) in Rugby League (News of the World said 36-12)! all we need now is the cricketers to bring it home from Pakistan!!
Fianlly, can you please say a huge thank you to the lovely lady who owns your campsite for letting you use her PC – she has no idea how much it means to us to hear from you! I could hug her!
Right, I’m off now, you guys take care and call again soon.
Love you both loads and miss you more than you know!
Hugs n hugs n snugs mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx +x
PS: Dad bathed the dogs yesterday (with a little help) – how funny was that!!
PPS: Maxine is in the showroom – pick up any day now….. YAY!!!!