Just re-read my last entry and there’s quite a lot to update
everyone on. After spending 2 weeks and
far too much money in Cairns, me and Amy had been ringing farms around
Queensland trying to get a job on a farm. Everyone we spoke to told us to ring
back in two/three weeks. We were just about to give up when we got a break, a
pub in a small town near Townsville badly needed workers and they’d agreed to
sign off our paperwork to enable to get us our second year. This was risky
because bar work doesn’t qualify you for a second year, no matter how remote
the town is that you work at. In order to get around this, the owner said he
would claim we were doing maintenance work. So, a few days later Amy, Alex and
I headed off down the coast in awesome paul (Alex’s car) and came down to
Townsville. We had been out the night before for the final state of origin,
which was a really good night but we all felt slightly delicate the next day so
the drive took a little longer than it normally would. We got to Townsville
around 4pm and after a quick nap we headed out for some food and to explore. Amy
and I were getting picked up early the next morning so we didn’t get to spend
as much time in Townsville as we’d have liked but we both said we will go back
there for a few days once we finish work.
The town we got a job in is called Ravenswood. It is another
old mining town but it is even smaller than either of us had thought. The
population here is a mere 150, compared to Karumba’s 500 and minus the tourist
trade. It is so quiet here. We can go a whole day without serving any customers
and the hours are long. We start at 9am most days and won’t get finished till
around 10pm. Me and Amy usually relieve each other for a couple of hours each
afternoon but we are still doing a lot of hours for hardly any money. It
quickly became clear to us that we wouldn’t be able to complete three months
here and we kept up the search for regional/farming work.
There have been some good bits to working here. The owners,
Jill and Charlie are great. They look after us like we are their own kids and
they do so much for us. We have ended up buying one of their old cars from them
and they dropped the price to $800 for us. It needed a bit of work but we are
hoping that after parts and registration it will still come to around $2000 so
its cost us less than a $1000 each all in all. We also ended up getting a new
job on a farm through some people who came in to the bar. We are starting there
on Saturday, the money is better and it will enable us to legitimately get our
second year visa signed off so we are happy about that. It is only an hour and
a half drive from where we are now so we are hoping the car is up and running
by Friday.
Last Wednesday was my 23rd
birthday and although it was sad that I wasn’t around my friends and family at
home I still had a great day. We went into Townsville on Tuesday night and my
girls treated me to an indian which was lovely. We then got ready to hit the
town for the first time. That night reminded me why I love backpacking. While
me and amy had been working, Alex had stayed in Townsville and had made friends
with some people at the hostel so we got introduced to them and they got
dressed up for my birthday as well and we all started playing drinking games.
As we sat there more people came over and got involved and by the time we were
ready to head out there was a good group of us. They all sang happy birthday to
me at midnight and the night out was good. Townsville nightlife isn’t as good
as Cairns but the people I was with made up for it. I didn’t get my cards from
my mum and everyone until Friday and my parcel only arrived yesterday (Monday)
but that just made it feel like my birthday lasted longer. My present from my
unorganised sister is still to come too so that’s something else to look
forward to J
Although we are looking forward
to starting our farm work and meeting the people we are going to be working
with, both Amy and I have spoken about how we are starting to miss travelling
and we are hoping to get out and about on our days off now that we have the
car. We have a plan to road trip up to Darwin then down to Alice springs and
Ayers rock once we finish working so we will see how that works out.
Think that’s all for now. Thanks
again to everyone for my birthday wishes, I miss you all lots!
Big love xxxxx
