Life in Dalbeg was...interesting. When Amy and I pulled up at the Dalbeg Inn, I immediately thought I had landed in my own personal version of hell. My phone had stopped picking up signal about 5 minutes before we reached the farm which meant no calls, texts or, worst of all, internet.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I thought of the 'Dalbeg Inn'. I was used to outback pubs looking a little run down, even by English standards. That said, I was still expecting the Inn to at least be an Inn. What greeted us was a house with a shop/ common room tacked on to the side of it and a shed in which we were to pay $140 a week to sleep in. One look at Amy's face and I knew she was wondering whether we had made a mistake going there.
That said, we soon settled in. The '1st generation' only had a couple more days left at work before getting their 2nd year visas signed off and everyone was in a really good mood.They all told us they had loved working on the farm and that their three months had gone so fast. They warned us that the boss was very strict and that at least half of the group they had started with had either quit or been fired. Luckily, the first week was pretty easy, especially for me (I had something like 5 days off out of 7) and we were still getting signed off for the days we didn't work. We were drinking every other night for various leaving parties and the days we worked we were usually finished by about 2 so we spent the rest of the day lazing about or heading into town.
After the old group left, the work started picking up and some days could be really tough. We were working from 7.30am to 6.30pm at night and everyone was exhausted. The only thing getting us all through was the thought of our second year visas and everyone else on the farm. In a short time we had become a family, eating and socialising together.
Unfortunately, 7 weeks into our stay, there was a crash in the market and our boss was failing to make a profit. We all went out one morning and when we came in for lunch she called a meeting and told us that she was closing the farm effective immediately. I was ok, I had another 7 months to do another 6 weeks worth of regional work and it meant that I could leave with Dean, the guy I had been seeing on the farm. He had already got his visa and was due to leave a month before me so in some ways it worked out well for me. It wasn't such good news for some of my friends who didnt have a lot of time to complete their regional work. We all had one last party that night to say goodbye before a group of us headed back up to Cairns the next morning.
As you all know, I had visited Cairns twice previously but I was happy to go back as I really love the place. I wanted to show it off as most of the people we were travelling with had never been and I wanted them to love it as much as I did.
While on the farm I had promised Dean that I would do a skydive once we got to Cairns so when we got there that was one of the first things we looked into. There was also a number of things we wanted to do as we travelled down the East Coast so myself, Dean and our friends Caroline and Richard all went into the travel agent and booked a reef trip, a 14,000ft skydive, a trip to fraser island, a trip around the Whitsundays and a castaway experience.
I had already been scuba diving on the great barrier reef but I didn't mind doing it again. I think I actually preferred it this time as I was more used to the feeling of breathing underwater so I could relax and enjoy it.
The thing I was most scared about was the skydive. We rang up on the Monday and booked it for the following Saturday. At the time, it felt like it would never happen but all too soon it was upon us. Saturday morning my stomach was in knots and by the time we were in the bus on the way to the airport my nerves had really kicked in. My instructor was great. He was a dick and kept winding me up, but in a way it made me relax. I think just having someone reassuring me would've just made me over think it all, he kept me distracted. The worst part was watching two girls jumping at 11,000ft.in what felt like no time at all we had climed the other 3,000ft and it was my turn. Happily, my friend Rich had to go first and watching him look so scared kept me from thinking about how scared I was. It turned out I didn't really have time to be scared anyway. Before I knew it I was out of the plane and trying to remember how to breathe, not easy when you are falling 200km an hour.
It was the most incredible experience of my life and by the time I reached the bottom I just wanted to go up and do it again, I can see how people get addicted. The one thing I was disappointed about was that I couldn't afford the video and if I do it again I will definitely get one.
I am now in Airlie beach for 2 days before going sailing around the Whitsunday's on Friday. The place is absolutely beautiful and the hostel is the most chilled out place I've stayed since I came to Oz. I've been here five months now and I am excited I am finally getting to travel as I haven't been able to since I arrived.
Once we finish our trips I am going straight back to work so I am treating this as a mini holiday.
Thinking back, I have done so much other stuff but this is turning into one mammoth entry so I will make the conscious effort to update more in future.
Hope everyone is well at home.
Much love to you all,
Luce xx
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