Well! What the hell has happened in the last 24 hours? Or should I say, a lot can happen in 24 hours...
So we were in Orange, enjoying the laid back vibe and culture but no work there unfortunately. Wine job fell through and we are there too late for cherries and too early for apples and grapes. So we had to make a decision to move on quickly and chase the work that is available.
We both liked it there and feel that maybe we could return for more work down the track but at the moment....we have done 'Sam & Frodos Journey' to middle of nowhere :) An onion picking job down in Hay. Where the f%$^ is Hay? Just around 5 hours that way (south west), one winemaker pointed out to us. Vipassana Meditation prepared us for 'everything is subject to change'. So we were off...
Pretty little town signs on the 5 hour journey through middle of nowhere to somewhere? What?
Middle of nowhere, driving for ages without seeing anyone, and wondering what kind of crazy, disturbed people are living in small houses in middle of nowhere, and what do we see....a BLOODY ECHIDNA going to cross the road. We told him to look to the left, look to the right, then look to the left again..then we decided to tell him to go back (to avoid being echidna pancake). He was a withdrawn quiet chap, who sort of went into his shell a bit. So cute though...their feet are very strange, like a cross between a miniature elephant and an orang-utan foot (Leonie thinks so anyway).
Amazing sky across the NSW outback, we drove all afternoon and all night from Orange and as we did, we watched the sun slowly go down across middle NSW. Beautiful. The horses weren't very co-operative for Leonie's silhouette photo shoot though. Stunning pics all round (We just loves the third one there...it captures everything the outback is).
Started seeing heaps of these signs on the way into the Riverina Area (Griffith). Fruit fly pests aren't wanted anywhere. We dumped our cherry pips at a bin that was set up just for this, on the way in. Leonie started panicking about the tomatoes and mango we had in our fridge. I assured her that at 9:30pm on Thursday night in middle of nowhere, we probably wouldn't be pulled up by highway patrol to search for hidden fruit. Then again, you never know who is watching. Griffith is/was Mafia capital in NSW....
As we drove well into the night, we couldn't believe the amount of bugs (perhaps fruit flies or something) flying into our headlights.....going towards to light, seeing the light...that's the last light they see. If we were buddhists (who believe each living thing has a soul and we can come back as anything), we would be repenting and paying back this Karma for at least the 1 000 000 deaths we created last night. Luckily we aren't and we just were kind of...wow'd out by the fact that they were going for mass suicide on our time. This pic is the aftermath this morning when we took a look in Griffith.
This is Willow Park in Griffith where we stayed overnight. It's a nice little rest stop for RV's. It was ridiculously hot though and the first time we have slept in the van. We laughed at ourselves as we tossed and turned in the sweltering heat of the van, turning on the car every 30 mins for a good 10mins of aircon (we burnt about 1/8 tank of fuel on it). Very frustrating night but one we are sure we'll look back on in the future and have a giggle about. Two grown adults navigating their way around the back of the van looking for window mozzie nets, torches, etc. All the time I was seething thinking about how I could have put a small split system aircon in the back or had the car aircon connected up to the second battery.....aaaahhhhhhh!
This morning, we went and got 2 bacon and egg rolls which took 35mins to come out......yes seriously. Leonie was going to punch them (so buddhist like of her). We rocked up to the employment agency we had spoken to the day before who said get down here for the onion picking job...but no guarantees it will still be here.
She didn't know what we were talking about, saying there wasn't any work. I politely said 'we drove all night to get here so get the agent on the phone who we spoke to'. She finds out that he is at the Hay office not Griffith. Dom nearly punched her!
The agent's response to Leonie was get here asap and I'll send you straight to the farm. So off again we went on 'Sam and Frodos' journey to middle of earth to find this F&^*ing job. Hay was another little 150km (2 hours) from Griffith.
On the way to Hay, temps reached 42 degrees outside (we saw how hot it was in Sydney and we felt bad for you all too). Aircon was going in and out of a seizure and what did we come across....A MUSTER! A REAL LIFE MUSTER. It was just amazing to see on the highway, and the work that the couple were doing and their trusty dogs. Eventually we got passed the cows. Third pick shows cow number 42563-78 wondering what kind of cow our black delica is.
We arrived in middle earth....I mean Hay, went straight to employment office, got all details, bought some gloves and dodgy cheap hats from the local discount store, and went off to the farm. Cause it was so hot they stop work around midday and maybe go back later on. We settled in at local caravan park (ohhhh they have a pool), and checked out the town. Small, supermarket...shit. It will have to do for a bit while we are here.
If we are still here next week, I am going to treat Leonie to country chinese all you can eat at the local servicemans club. Very excited...just like Murriels Wedding (country spring rolls....yummy!)
We eventually went over to the onion farm to start work. They quickly showed us how, with the cool sheers we were given (gee these could do some damage), and off we went. Leonie is like a fish in water. She was already at third bucket while my mind was at the pub and just starting my second. As you can see in above pics, we got into the spirit of it...the gorgeous Leonie reminds me of that starlet from 'Footloose'. Not that crap 2012 version but the original 1984...oooooooo yeeeaaahhhhhh.
Doing this work makes you feel really great (well at first anyway, I'm sure there will be times when we can't stand the sight of another onion), and really makes you feel that you are contributing back to what the earth has helped grow. It's a great feeling.
A storm came in as you can see in the background of the third pic, but we decided to work through it. All in all 2 hours, 15 buckets of onions and we are on the way. Flies were a bit of an issue for us (not really...for Dom) and they insisted on staying around even in the rain. So tomorrow Dom has decided to have a Aeroguard bath before we start work at 5am.
This work will go for a while as you can see in pic behind Dom there are still heaps of rows. Doesn't look like much but it's amazing how many onions you get out of a small condensed area.
We could still be around after this, we could not! Apparently next is rock melons to pick out here. Let's see where the wind blows us.
This is the aftermath of working in the soil/clay, picking onions in the rain. We have well and truly worked our boots in :)
Well done guys, you made it through Vipassana.
ReplyDeleteBigger photos so we can see them properly.
Harley