Murchison

Well finally at last ive done my last days minial work in Australia (for now!) got to work for 7am this morning and was home by 10am, cus there really wasnt much else to do, I dropped 2 tractors at the shed, 1 which took me 45 mins to get there cus it was stuck in low ratio, i cudnt get any speed out of her, christ it was freezing!!!! But my last week has consisted mainly of working out in the paddocks, helping out were im needed, either rolling plastic, drivin tractors, pulling posts, removing sticks or just helping to generally tidy up, all of which are the worst jobs on the earth....but someones gotta do it or else no-one has tomatoes!!! In the morning its bin as low as minus 5, but t-shirt weather by mid morning and afternoon, although the last few days there has been an awful wind blowing, which has been picking up the dust, blowin it in ur face, eyes and any other oraface thats exposed! I have uploaded a pic of me (yes its me not a taliban fighter on his hols by the orange tree).

Home in 3/4 days now, am kind of sad to b leaving oz, but i know ill be back so its not that bad, im well looking 4ward to gettin home though, seein my mum, dad and bestest sister, plus all the lads, i know there's manya night out already planned...cant wait to get smashed in familiar surroundings and hed kandi had best watch out in july, im gonna b cuttin soe serious rug up in bambu, they aint seen nuthin!

FYI (sorry i hate TLA's) im leaving murch on thursday, by bus to melbourne, then ive got my medical thursday arvo (thats for my 2nd visa) fly out of melbourne to sydney thursday nite, then fly out of sydney friday arvo inbound for england WWAAAHHOOOO!!!!

see you all really soon, hope uve all missed me as much as ive missed u!!!

Murchison Working

Before I carry on its 16 days till im bk in the UK!!!!!!!

Last few days ive been working out in the paddocks helping clean them up from this years tomatoes, 1st day I was help to pick up irrigation pipes and stuff, ever since then ive bin driving the fork lift tractor aound picking up all these rolled up sheet off plastic off the rows that the tomatoes grown from under and tipping them into a tipper truck, even then, the guy who was driving the tipper did as much picking up as with the forks.

The other lunchtime, I saw (I called it a tornado but apparently torandos are born from the sky downwards and "whirlwinds" are born from the ground upwards) anyway it looked like a tornado although alot smaller, about 1.5 - 2meters wide and it started at about 7meter high, but as the vortex climbed skywards it lift off the ground and kept going for about 100ft up, was mint, never seen anything like that before, they supposed to be quite common in dry dusty flat fields.

Other than that all im doing is biding my time before returning home, which i cant wait for really, gonna be ace bein hoe, seein everyone, going out in familiar places, roll on good summer times :)

C u all very soon.

ps I tried uploadin some pics 2nite but the blogger site is bein dog slow 2nite, will try again 2moro :)

Road Trip Over :( Back to Murchison :)

On the 26th I had a chat with Jo and Laura and we decided that we were gonna call it quits on the work front in Port Lincoln as me and Jo really wernt getting that much work sent our way, and Laura was but she didnt really want to work by herself so she didnt mind dropping the work, so on saturday Jo and I went down to the travel shop and Jo booked him and Laura on a flight to Perth departing on Sunday 28th we got all packed up, loaded the van up and left Port Lincoln around 5:20pm'ish, I drove straight round to Snowtown, about 750k, arrived at 10:30pm, they didnt bother setting up there tent they just folded down the front seat and slept there.

28th May
Drove Jo and Laura to Adelaide Airport for there flight to Perth, we said our goodbyes, although ill meet up with them again wen i get bk to oz later in the year, hopefully they will still be in Perth with the lads or somewere in WA, (well meet up and read more Gos mags Jo, dnt worry son, and Laura im saving the Back To Front Lionel Special tape all for you...maybe a copy of it, dnt think i could part with the original :) and I headed east towards Melbourne (I was headed here to pick up my wetsuit and say hello to James Gardiner). Got down to Tailem Bend, filled up on Jungle Juice and followed the signs to Melbourne however after the sign the road split in 2 an it didnt say which way Melbourne was, so if in doubt swing a left, headed down the Ouyen Highway, via Lameroo, Pinaroo and Ouyen funninly enough, then I got on the Calder Highway towards Charlton, were I was running drastically low on fuel, with zero dolloars in my ozzy account to buy any petrol, how i got around this was withdrawing on my english debit card (this can only be done from ATM's only though) so I dropped in the local battle cruiser and asked if there were any ATM's "all broken" I was told, moments later they were tryin to rope me in to get smashed for the night, "forget drivin to Melbounre, come and get smashed, we'll syphon you some fuel later from the ute!" I passed up on this golden oppourtunity and got on my hunt for fuel, luckily 2 towns on I came across a service station in Wedderburn, like a pheonix rising from the flames, it saved me well and truely, there also was a big sign sayin pizza for sale, unluckily for me the lady said theyd just stopped serving and i was outta luck (this place woz in the middle of nowhere, I think i actually woke her up driving into the station and she tells me I just missed it....lyin bitch hahahaha fair play to her, i wud have probably done the same) anyway dealed with the hunger pains (it wasnt like i was gonna die, just got pulled in by the multicoloured writing on the chalk board, however now the pizza seed had been planted there was no stoppin it) headed to Bendigo and the van practially homed in on Dominoe's Pizza, had a Supreme Puffection Large (Im never havin a Puffection pizza ever again, its like eatin a giant flat pasty, did the usual burn roof of mouth trick with the first slice...why do we all do it??? we all know its just came out of a red hot oven but cant resist tryin to handle the heat???) anyhoo drove on to Gisbourne which is about 50k out of Melbourne, slept here cus I always have trouble findnig somewere free in Melbourne to park the van. Distance Travelled today 895k thats 560 miles.

29th May
Got up and out of Gisbourne for 10am with a cuppa tea from the local cafe, in Melbourne for 11am, drove straight through the city and out to St.Kilda were I met up with James and his missus at there hostel on Barclay Street, cant remember the name, but it was fairly nice, kind of felt ol english manner style in the front room, we all chatted an caught up on different gossip, there friend also joined us, we all went out to use the internet, I had to give James a copy of his photos (he had his bag stolen in NZ and luckily I took a copy of his camera b4 he left, so he didnt loos too many pics of Murch) We went for somet to eat and a beer and then by the time 3:30pm had come about I thought id best make a move to get bk to Murch, i didnt wana hit rush hour drivin through the city. Got out to Tullamarine an picked my wetsuit up, then got on the Hume Highway bk to Murch, rocked up about 6:30pm, dinner was waitin for me :) sorted the computer out here were im stayin so Wayne and Kath can access the internet. Hit the hay earlyish cus I had to be up for work at 7am.

Total round k's clocked on the road trip doorstep to doorstep 5500k thats 3437miles...God knows how many times longer than england that is???

Port Lincoln

Rite finally finished odd writing about the road trip. Been in port lincoln a week now, we've all got jobs at this place called PLTP Port Lincoln Tuna Processors working night shift in the factory, as i said in the previous post the job can be a little repetitive to say the least, but its not hard by any stretch of the imagination, I mean i started at 6pm the last couple of days and finished at 5am and 6am, its all in the mind really i think, get a couple of yamns out and then carry on. But ive bin driving the fork lift which adds abit of difference to my role, not so gud wen u smash the back end of the fork lift into a pallet of sauces though, funny though, was funny, they asked me if i could drive a forky and I said yes, but i dnt have a license, kind of knowing that ive only driven a fork lift a few times, and i thought whats the worst that cud happen, so anyway Tracey told me to move this pallet, so i wizzed over and then attempted to pick this pallet up of about 3000 or so pouches of sauce, and i forgot to lift the fork so that the pallet wouldnt slip off the fork, and it started slipped wen i picked it up, by this point, adrenilin was pumpin as i knew i was bein watched....meanwhile Laura is chattin to one of the other ladies and one of them said, "look the pommy bastard said he could drive a fork lift" hahaha we laughed about it over break, but im alot better now than then.

The three of us went out lastnite for a seafood meal, as were in the seafood capital of australia it wud be rude not to try the local cuisine. I hade a Devilled Prawns in a Cream Chilli sauce, with sweet chilli cheese bread, and then for a main i had Marinara, which was fish, scallops, prawns, calamari in a tomato'y kind of sauce with spaghetti, really nice, fillin as hell.

At the caravan Park there are alot of girly type mags floatin about everywere, so me and jo and laura have bin readin all up on the latest gossip on the stars and stuff as there's not to much else to do, well the other day Jo and Laura had been out and Laura was in fits of laughter tryin to tell me what had just happen, and she finally got it out that they were walking past a news stand and he saw Britney crying on the front of a mag, Jo quickly grabbed the mag and flicked through but to his shock he was moved from the que. They were later on a walk and she quotes:

Jo: "Laura, I wish I had never seen the cover of the mag with britney on, now I have to buy it."

Me: Silence

Jo: "I feel really sorry for her, I mean these celebrities live in a fantisy world, they will never find true love, look at J Lo..."

Me: Silence

Jo: "never speak of this again"

As you can see its started to effect, there is not a mag on the caravan park that we havnt filled in the crossword, suduko on and read 3 times over, as they dnt seem to be replenishing old mags with new ones.

Well even though weve only been here a week, the work is not really steady so we talked today and have said that we'll probably head off after weve all been paid on monday, cus its costs to live and doss about wen ur not working, so we mite cut our losses and hi ho silva outta here. This is a pic of a local restaurant the Ming Inn Chinese.

I'll keep u posted. and I promise to upload pics of me in the hair and beard net from work, as im ot gonna lie i look ridiculas, also i have to wear wellies, and trust me after 12 hours in wellies, your freet look like uve just jumped out of the bath ud bin in for 12 hours.

anyways, take it easy, speak soon.

ps im bk in 21 days :)

Road Trip: Lincoln Gap to Port Lincoln

Pretty much drove straight to Port Lincoln today from near Whyalla, only stopped for fuel and number 2's. Absolutley one of the most boring drives of my life, from port augusta for about 200k there is nuthin, that means, nuthin, occasionally ull pass a car comin in the other direction, but as for things to look at like scenary, its just scrub as far as the eye can see, same goes forthe roads, they just go on forever!!!

Port Lincoln info center really helpfull, telling us were we can go look for work and were the caravan park is, went and applied at 2 places, really wiered havin to fill in application forms and stuff, but we did it anyway, knowing we probably wudnt get called till monday at the earliest. We checked into Kirton Point Caravan Park, pretty nice places, althougb no communal room or tv anywere, but nice facilities and a stunning view of Boston Bay, Boston Island in the distance and Nation Park to the Right.

Since I left Murchison I clocked around 3600k which is around 2236 miles.

Road Trip: Snowtown to Lincoln Gap

Left Snowtown, filled up on fuel and headed to Port Pirie aka no-point-ville, as the lonely planets description of this place goes something like this "unless you have any desire in looking at huge smeltting plants the there is no need to stop here" how true they are, went to the local tourism place and shocking, what did they have for sale on the counter but a book called " Faces of the Smelter" i didnt spend too long in there, bk to the car park and I decided to cut Laura's Hair, she had asked me a couple of days before, but due to us always getting to places at nite, and then getting goonified, there was never a convienient time, so i set up the hair salon aka the stool in the cark park and got to work on my master peice!!!!! Finished product, pile of hair on the floor, client happy, everyones a winner :) As we were here we thought (I thought) I wouldnt mind seein what a smelter actaully looked like so we went over to this viewing place were the tourist people said we could see the plant from and so i drove to within about 20ft of the waters edge and the van all of a sudden became stuck in quicksand type shit!!!! i jumped out and started to sink abit myself...immediately i thought VERY BAD!!! I saw a chap over the way in a 4x4 and flagged him over, luckily he had a chain and he just hoisted the van striaght out, tooeyeze he said hahaha, after closer inspection of the quicksand it dawned on my that obviously this was a sort of esturey and the tide had gone down, thus a full day in the sun had dried the surface, immitating drivable ground, how wrong i was!!!! I soon as i was out of trouble i flipped Port Pirie the bird and vowed to never darken the area with my presence ever again!!!! Next stop Port Augusta! On the highway to Port Augusta we stopped at this fruit and veg shop and brought strangely some fruit..all Jo goes on and on about how much he likes apples and here they had a box of about a tonne, he was well happy :) i brought a big seedless watermelon to make vodka melon although it would later fall out of the van and smash to bits all over my feet. Got to Port Augusta and found out were the local internet was, free again at the local library, wicked, after prattin about on the net, sampled more local pies and went to woolies for dinner ingredients (Ive bin really lucky cus ever since its bin me, Jo and Laura I havnt cooked dinner once...well Jo's a chef and Laura likes to cook, not that i dnt but im the chauffer :) Went to the drive through bottle'o and brought yet again more goon, seems like im buyin a 4 litre box everyday, the guy gave us loads of boxs to start a fire with and we headed round onto the Eyre Peninsula, first major town from Port Augusta, didnt make it that far, pulled into a picnic area along the Lincoln gap were we made camp, had dinner, made a proper fire and got wrecked :)

Road Trip: Mannum to Snowtown via Adelaide

Today we decided to actually get to Adelaide, trouble is the map im using doesnt quite into the detail we need to drive round the small country roads we were drivin, but by accident we came across the Giant Rockinghorse (near Gumeracha) was by far the biggest giant thing ive seen in oz, so big infact you could climb the legs, body and neck of the horse to different viewing platforms, not that there was alot to see as it didnt breech the height of the tree's in the surrounding area. They also had 1 of the sign posts with all the distances labelled on it from around the world (London was 16687km away). Backon the road for Adelaide, finally got somewhere close and decided to ask some1 if we goin in the rite direction, i happen to pick the only Jordi in oz i reckon to ask, although he didnt seem happy wen i asked if he was from Sunderland hahaha he laughed about it. Finally got into the city center after some more driving about in different direction, parked up and went for a look and the shops, tried a city pie, best one soo ffar i mite add, got bord of lookin round the shops as non of us had any money, so we hit the Museum, free to get in, couldnt go wrong, was pretty good, loads of interestin stuff about australia and wildlife etc. Next stop Glenelg, this is Adelaides answer to St.Kilda in Melbourne although its alot more refined, really nice smart modern looking place, guess what we cudnt find the touist office, so i asked in the police station and they kindly gave me direction on how to get there, the lady wasnt overly helpful, but gave us some number of nearby caravan parks we could try, as they were all 40 bucks a head per nite we decided to skiddadle out of Adelaide, we did catch a glimpse of the sun setting over the Gulf of St.Vincent, shame we couldnt stay to watch it dissapear, i dont think ive ever seen the sunset over the ocean???

Left Adelaide on the wrong road, was heading for Port Wakefield but instead was heading bk to Mannum, quich stop at a petrol station and luckily there was a guy there who was going that way so he said we cud follow him, bk on the rite track, started to feel abit tiered of driving so I pulled in at a little place called snowtown and we camped there for the night (Ive only just found out that this quiet little country place is were 2 of Australias worst serial killers lived until around 6 years ago, they were locked up after confessing to the murders of 18 people and hiding them in barrels).

Road Trip: Kingston SE to Mannum

Left in direction of Adelaide, stopped at Tailem Bend, hit the tourist information center, the guys was abit strange but friendly all the same, told us were we can camp in places we shudnt, like football grounds, racecourses etc, sampled the local pies, curry this time, wasnt really impressed, it was no curry taste imparticular, just spicy...thumbs down tailem bend bakery!!! Grabbed a shower at the shell garage truck stop $2 bucks, then drove onto Murray Bridge to find somewhere to camp, this didnt go as planned, as everywhere we stopped it was clearly sign posted "no camping" so guess what, we paid the tourist center in Murray Bridge a visit, very helpful ladies, cheap internet and free tea and coffee, so we made use of the place whilst we were there, they told us there was a free camping ground in a place called Mannum which was about 30k's away, before leaving Murray Bridge we messed about in the reject shop and brought the ingredients for dinner from woolies, oh goon and petrol also but theyre almost necessities now!!! got to Mannum and had to take the free ferry ride over the river, was pretty cool, set up camp and me and Jo went to look for fire wood, and we bumped into the german guy form sawpitt who we'd met a few days ago, wood collecting was atrosious, and so after seeking advice from the german dude, we went bk into town to buy some fire wood from a petrol station (more ferry crossings later) we were back, got the fire stoked, tea was being cooked, all that was left to do now was consume goon :) another succesful nite.