road trip of hill billies, birds, board games, beer and beaches...

My appologies for my lack of enthusiasm for my blog recently i know its been shocking and ill try updates you on the more exciting of our adventures so far. One reason i didnt post this one earlier was because i have lost all the photos for it except the ones at the bottom and i know some people dont like big chucks of reading but this should be an amusing post anyway!

We  had a short holiday when the cherry trees were not ready for us and you can't rush nature in all things, so we headed on a new adventure! We had heard that Wilson's Promontory National Park was a highlight of Victoria so that was high on the places to go. We convinced 2 other back packers to join us and the 4 of us headed off in our car to the coast. I was excited because I wanted to tick off my list having been to the lowest point on the Australian mainland.

Lesson one on this trip: never trust the GPS and shortest distance is a bad setting to have it on. We found ourselves taking what could be considered a scenic route but on a day where the mist prevented any good views. Nervous comments from the backseat became progressively more frequent and the hills have eyes joke at the start of our forest drive started to feel more real the deeper we got. We couldn't have chosen a route with a more bends and fewer settlements which made us uneasy due to our recent tyre issues but that is what memories are made of right.

All is well that ends well and we arrived safely at our destination if not as early as we had hoped. James and I were sleeping in the car again and the 2 boys had decided to share the world's smallest tent. It was humour watching them fit the larger than tent blow up mattress in complete with ooh and aahs when the seam looked like it was going to rip. With camp set up we decided a short walk was in order before dark and we set off on a lovely boardwalk with carefully concealed beers. We were rather glad for previously mentioned beers when half way around the boardwalk the skies opened and we almost had to swim through the mangroves to get back to camp (please keep in mind at this stage that we are heading into winter). On the very high upside the showers there were amazing and though I should be able to say it didn't take me long to get clean and warm, I ignored all save the planet signs in the bathroom and had the longest shower in recorded history.

Dinner was another story since it took about an hour to cook courtesy of the wind that made our little gas cooker fairly useless but as always my husband produced us a lovely meal and we decided to retreat to the only wind free zone we had access to... the car. Now set up for James and I to sleep in the seats were down and by some miracle we squeezed 4 people into the back all in the name of playing Settlers of Catan (potentially the most fragile board game set up) and secretly hoping someone won really quick so we could get out and stretch our legs. Some cheap plonk later and with a winner of our game we called it a night.

Claiming that we deserved a sleep in we didn't start at the crack of dawn the next day. The last thing I thought I would have to deal with first thing in the morning was a parrot attack! I was peacefully eating my raisin toast when this beautiful parrot reckoned it looked good and jumped on me to get a piece. At this point I shouted and proclaimed loudly that the stupid parrot could have my breakfast which was by now half way across the park on the floor and my sulks were greeted as humour to the others who were trying to get the flocks of parrots to land on their arms and eat out their hands! It is because of people like my friends that innocent bystanders get attacked by savage birds!

The main plan for the day was to climb mount Oberon and though I doubted whether it was worth it at points the view from the top was incredible and we spent ages up there with a mini picnic. We met some ex south Africans on the hike and spent a long time talking to them that night back at the camp which was nice. It's great to hear people talk in an accent even if it had to be an Afrikaans one!

The afternoon was dedicated to "Squeaky beach" where I read a book and the boys took turns playing chess which was really nice and relaxing. There was no sign of rain and we were once again blessed with fantastic weather.

The boys cooked a good diner that night and we played the Jumanji board game which was fairly entertaining especially since I am fairly sure it is aimed at 10 year olds but we shouted and threw the dice, got eaten by crocodiles and poisoned by mythical plants while warming our insides with some cheap port :)

A short mission to a lookout on our way out was the only thing we did the next day when we took the shortest possible route back to the farm to start back at work :)

A Day in the Life of a Cherry Tree Worker:

 Taking the root cuttings out the paddock on our way to lunch :)

 If you look close you may recognise the tractor driver ;)
 Down below: our friend charlie with his awesome "wheelbarrow" and us working in the field on the trees!

Big black "cow" and a cherry tree?!?!

Once the potatoes were finished we were lucky to be offered a place working in the cherry tree nursery on the same farm. We had been told that the work was going to be harder and it was getting cold so I wasn't keen but James wanted to give it a go so we decided to stay. Turned out I loved it! First day out was freezing though and there was more frost on the ground than I had seen before. The others just laughed at me and said if we stay another 2 months we would see what real frost was. If I were to summarise the job in one sentence it would be... dig trees out to put on tractor, knock soil off the roots, rebury trees in loose soil to be retaken out again and put on truck! I thought it was nuts but the longer we did it the more I learnt and one thing I appreciate it is that if I ever teach a bare rooting technique as part of farming I will be a better teacher for the experience.
Ok so more detail! Because we finished the spuds a few weeks early the leaves hadn't fully fallen off the trees so the first thing was to strip the leaves off so that the trees didn't dry out once dug up by the tractor and moved. Then with these rubber mallets we knocked the trees till all the soil was off the roots. This was fairly tough work when the trees were large but fairly easy when they were small. It was at the point when the tractor had finished digging up the trees that James made a point of singing.. stop... hammer time!! And in case you hadn't picked it up it was not lost on us that we spent most of our days stripping followed by banging. We did consider telling the boss that others with the same job description earned a lot more ;)
Possibly the hardest work was re burying the trees which meant shovelling dirt over the roots. The  song for this part of the job was "everybody's shovelling". I was convinced that I was growing a muscle! No really I was sure of it but regardless of my hours in the fields I fear that I have come out with as feeble looking arms as before regardless of the increase in my strength. James on the other hand.. well ;)
I got to learn how to drive a tractor making all the backpackers so jealous and I loved it and would have done it all day!
I have learnt that there are hundreds of types of cherry trees and people will buy ones that don't even have fruit just for decoration!!! I preferred this work to the potatoes because it was far more social and less back breaking mostly, but most of all I loved the variety. There was lots of different tasks some i haven't mentioned but we were kept busy for sure and the pay was much better. It was 9 hours everyday come rain or shine but that meant we knew what to expect with our time and budget.
We could move our caravan to the shed and got power which made more than a world of difference and my electric blanket kept me going in the freezingness at night. All in all the work was hard but good and really good experience! All the photos I have of it are on my phone and the cable has been chewed to pieces by the puppy where we are staying haha but ill get them up. Here are some: the cheery trees on the ground on a misty morning, the sunset from our new caravan spot and last but not least the crew after a cold and rainy day up to our eyelids in mud.

Iconic Victoria

We had heard about this thing called free camping but wasnt sure it sounded safe or legit since it is illegal to stop and sleep in certain places like carparks hehe. Having had our night of luxury we headed off to find a free camp in the National Parks of Lorne. We were so lucky to find one that only had 8 sites and was high up a path in the middle of nowhere. It was fantastic (no electricity or toilets there but some a few kms down the road) so beautiful, so we set up for our first night sleeping in the back of our car. Seats down matresses placed car light on we realised we could not fully stretch our legs but we would be warm enough and it was an experience. Drank some wine watched a movie and slept ok considering the small conditions :) This is James reluctant to get up the following morning and the view from the car!







 First car camping experience taught us some seroius lessons! Buy a camp stove and take your own food, long drops are worse than going for the room with a view and park before sunset if you want a spot!

The next day we had the most fantastic variation in things to do we went to a waterfall, a light house, on a forest walk and a hike down onto a beach. This didnt even including the time spent parked on the side of the road watching koalas in the wild which was really awesome! Here some photos:

We spent that night in another free camp in Cape Otway National Park with that view down to the beach we walked to just meters from our car.
The next day was the big one when we were off to see the most photographed landscape in Victoria the 12 apostles. Turns out 12 is a bit ambitious and there are really only a few, the debate is whether there were ever 12 but we know at least one has been claimed back by the sea in recent years. So we added to the millions and took our photos oohed and aahed and fought through the long weekend crowds but it was worth it :)

I love having the blog as a reference to look back on our travels which was a bonus to its main cause of keeping family and friends up to date with the stuff we up to. Unfortunately it doesnt quite work as well as an email in making people reply with their news and we have no idea what you all are up to :( Please post comments on my blog if  you reading it so I know if its worth carrying on :) We miss you!

all aboard

It has been waaay too long since my last post so I will try get some of the important bits summed up this week :)

If you google things to do or places to go in Victoria the one place that will always be there is The Great Ocean Road. It is a two hundred and fifty something kilometer ocean drive. It is the world's largest world war memorial with a great history story. It was built by 3000 ex-servicemen after WW1 to commemorate those that were lost in battle.

We started out late in the day to get us from Neerim to the Mornington peninsula to start early the next day. On arriving in the peninsula we still had no place to stay and had worked out it was not the cheapest area to spend time in. We spoilt ourselves to a night in a motel. Now my idea of a motel is from American movies where it's dingy and someone inevitably gets murdered. So I was really surprised in my last minute research to see how expensive these places were! We found a reasonably priced one and in moving in suddenly realised why you pay more. It was a lovely self contained room with a dining room table, a fully equipped kitchen, huge comfy bed and an immaculate bathroom. Coming from potato dust covered permanent camping I thought we were in heaven. Best night sleep ever and the most incredible shower. I think from this period in my life I will forever remember how much each good shower meant to me hahaha. It's not that we are dirty the rest of the time it's just that a luke warm pressureless shower each day is less than remarkable!

We decided to splash out and take a ferry trip across a short area of the bay that would allow us to cut Melbourne out of our journey and give us the experience of a boat ferry. I don't remember ever having been on one and I really enjoyed driving the car up onto a boat and whisking across the bay in so short a time. It had pretty views and a nice atmosphere onboard but it was over too

On the other side we set off on our drive just before the official start of the Great Ocean road driving through little towns that were full of markets and cute little shops. One of the first places we stopped was called Angelsea and ended up being on of my favourite places on the trip.

quickly.

We hired and pedal boat since James had never been on one and pedaled our way up and down the allowed area on the river. There were ducks and other peddlers and I couldn't help but feel like I was on that ride in Rollercoaster tycoon (for anyone that has played that game). We even amused ourselves by peddling after the ducks to see if they would quack if we clicked on them ;) I temporarily got off the boat to take a photo and my loving husband decided it would be funny to paddle off without me leaving me stranded on a random exposed part of the river looking very guilty and awkward! After the great boat trip we bought ourselves a little fishing rod and a liscence and complete with picnic went in search of a quiet place to fish on the river. I sat and made lunch while James failed dismally to provide us with fresh dinner, but it was lovely and peaceful. It was at this place that we stealed our nerves and decided to try the awfully red looking "Creaming soda" to establish its worth... it is disgusting! Dont try it EVER! Luckily some good cheese on crackers and a back up drink got us through the experienec relatively unharmed :)

That night we had driven as far as Lorne, the biggest town on the Great Ocean road famous for its hikes and waterfalls... sooo next time on the blog great ocean road continues!

Clowning Around

I would be a lie to say all we do is work because alhough it takes up most of the time, what is the point in earning money if you don't use it. It wasn't long after we got here that we found out that Gippsland (the area we are in) and the Yarra Valley (40mins away) are wine regions and we hit the road with Inza to check out the cheese and wine.
The first winery we went to was very commercial and busy and though we found it very pretty the vibe was somewhat lacking and we stuck to small cellar doors after it. Train track was my favourite and the boys seemed to enjoy the wine (I volunteered to be designated driver for this trip). The lady doing the tasting was really friendly and chatted to us telling us about the winery not excluding the story of the moose head mounted on the wall that had a name and a monalisa eye following thing going. At one winery we bumped into ex-South Africans which was so great. I think the best part was hearing people talk normally...accent free...ahhh :) We chatted to them for ages and tasted all the wine and when we left the wine maker mentioned tht next time we come to taste we should bring our dogs and a barbeque!! I thought this was great!! The other winning point on that winery was that I was given apple juice to sip at but this turned out to start a whole conversation on pasturising. See I have to explain that by this point Inza had decided it was necessary to spice up the story that I was not tasting because I was driving and change it to a case of pregnancy. Yip, he told every wine cellar door that I was pregnant with a huge smile and watched me try defend it. By the end of the week he had told everyone on the farm and I had the paddock manager telling everyone to be nice to me and not upset the baby to everyone's hilarity!
My favourite stop overall was the dairy and we got to delve into top notch goats cheese. James was hesistant since he has not liked goats cheese before but we all enjoyed it and we ended up buying a dill cheve. The dairy's famed cheese is one covered in ash and after initial hesitation we decided we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was!
Our last fun stop was a badly timed chocolateriere and icecreamery.... the weekend before easter! Crowds aside we ate free chocolate chips and stoked up on easter surprises and chocolate tea (which i do not recomend!!).

 The next big event was the circus. After bugging a person in a small newspaper type shop she eventually gave me a What's on in West Gippsland newspaper and I left thinking it was going to be useless. Fortuanately I read it through and found out that Australia's biggest circus was putting on shows just an hour from the farm. Trying to get the others excited and keen to join us we found out that Phillip had acually worked for Silvers Circus at the end of last year, we couldn't believe it!! He managed to get us free tickets and the whole crew of us set off to Morwell.

It was fantastic!! I loved every second and got more excited than most of the kids that were there! The drinks and snacks were sold to you by the performers and so you could meet them at the beggining and interval. I hate the magician that disappears girls and cuts people through with poles. I just dont see how its possible and its so annoying!!! My favourite was possibly the girl with the hoola hoops... probably the act I least expected to love. She was amazing and had the crowd all excited. The juggler was incredible and even though he dropped a few things nobody could help but be in awe! The clowns were entertaining and they even had a footy match done by dogs with balloons. The tightrope walker is scary and although she wasnt leagues above the ground I kept tensing. The most amazing part was when she stopped and put point shoes on and pottered back across the rope... these people are not normal and at the same time so incredible! I thought Debs would have loved seeing that! Their main act is a large ball (not large enough if you ask me) that motorbikers ride around each other in at high speed and by some miracle dont hit each other! We were allowed to take photos but I've tried to get a few off their facebook page for you :)

At the end we spoke to the main magician in charge who told us there were going to be looking for new people to join the set up team and I nearly joined right there and then. Leave potatoes behind and join the circus!!!

1 Potato, 2 Potato, 3 Potato. and so many more...

Ok so what you may have been waiting for is what exactly we do all day and claim to be such hard work. We are picking potatoes on the Pike farm where, unlike Africa where spud variety means washed or unwashed, there are several potato varieties with funny names like Harmony and Nadine.

The group is split into 2 groups: the shed workers and the pickers.

The pickers:

These are the people that pick the potatoes up off the floor in the paddocks and put them into buckets. The buckets are then emptied into bins which are each half a tonne like the one I am pouring potatoes into in the photo. Each bin is worth $30 to a picker so that makes $60 per tonne picked. The fastest pickers can get up to averaging a bin per hour or just under an hour. The starting time is sunrise (puke) and you finish when the potatoes are picked which can be any time from 1 - 5:30pm, Monday to Saturday. You work at your own pace and take breaks when you want to.

Like everything there are techniques to learn as you go along and methods to choose to suit you. So it is your lucky day as I will now give you some insight into the tricks of the trade ;) James is showing the main choice positions for picking in the photos below:

The fast pickers pick like this first photo but as you can imagine it is not easy on the back after a while and standing up becomes not an option. I try to pick like this mainly because the other options kill my obviously weak knees. I do have a tired position though... This position has it's fail points though, for instance it pulls your shirt up at the back and if you unaware of the strength of the aussie sun on your behind you end up looking like me.. :( It peeled twice and was sore for 2 weeks... hard lesson learnt and has not been repeated!

Kneel next to the bucket and chuck them in is option 2. It is very slow and you get really muddy but gets your off your feet for a few minutes and can relieve the back slightly! It does however mean that the bucket hits the side of your leg and if you bruise as easily as I do you leg ends up looking like the next photo haha ;/

The last main option is to sit on the bucket, this being James's choice position. It is moderately fast and doesn't hurt your back too much but it's rough on the knees and inside of your legs. I gave up on this position early and didn't take the bruise photo soon enough after it happened but if you look close you can see a pretty purple pattern. James doesn't seem to bruise at all and can mission quickly so :)

The paddock starts off looking like the first photo and ends looking like the second!

We start off looking all cheerful and cool in our new steel capped work boots and end up looking like James here...

Is it all bad? Nah this is our view on the way to work :)

The Shed workers:

This is quality and size sorting centre. They start at 7:30 roughly and work till 5. There are 2 15min breaks (usually about half an hour) and a half hour lunch break (at least 45mins ;) ). They earn $20/hr for their 9 hour days, 4 days a week and a half day Friday. The farm is mainly a seed potato producer and the larger potatoes that don't fit the seed regulations go to market. The big potatoes are put on the conveyor belt on top and frot (rotten) ones go done the shute between the workers on each side. They come out at a set pace you have to spot the bad ones and get rid of them fast. The boss comes around and checks on quality so it can be more pressured. It is very monotonous and would be deathly without music but it is good money. It works out the same as picking 6 bins in a day which is probably more than most pickers average. Sage and Leon earn loads more in the field than they would in the shed but it all depends on the person. This job seems easier but trust me it has its difficulties... It is very painful on the neck and you can't stop if you sore or tired. I like it cause it is right near the caravan so I can have tea in the breaks instead of water on the field and toasted sandwiches and 2 min noodles instead of jam sandwhiches ;) On the down side it is a bit soul destroying watching potatoes for 9 hours a day and you always finish after the pickers. I am the chief reserve for packing so if someone is sick or feels like a day in the sun I take their place in the shed!

So that is the sum of it, you can decide on the quality of job now that you have the full specs. We are getting fitter and starting to enjoy it more (other than the early starts which James and I will never appreciate ;) ). Who wants to come join??