First Job... The Place

Having spent days being told that every job we phoned about had already been given to someone else we became gumtree addicts and sat refreshing the page every few minutes. The one time I refreshed the page an advert came up saying a German guy had a job for someone that could give him a lift to the farm. I threw the phone at James and he gave this guy a ring straight away. The reply was one of surprise when we said we were phoning about the advert on gumtree... all he could say was I just put that ad up right now! Chatting later he claims everyone it was a mere 30 seconds from posting to recieving the call!! A couple of days later we hit the road for our first long trip in the caravan.

Max speed 80km/h unless attempting to go uphill in which case we would be lucky to get to 40km/h! The car and caravan both did well (except for a minor window flying open crisis fixed by being boppered up with fishing line ;) ) and a beautiful trek through the yarra valley later we arrived in Neerim South where we met up with Phillipp and Klara and headed to the farm. They seemed great and we were just relieved that we had made it onto a farm and had a source on income.

So where is it and what is it like... It is east of melbourne on a farm owned by the Pike's near Neerim Junction. We work in the paddocks of potatoes but the travelling workers take residence aroudn the sorting shed which is in the middle of the farm. We were a bit anxious to find out that we could not attach power and water to our caravan and that to get those we would need to go into the shed. It is still frustrating to know a bit of the potential of living in a caravan and not be able to make the most of it. It is however much better than we thought it would be because we socialise with the others and it is a great vibe in the shed at night. The down sides are the really small space that we all share and the toilet in the tin shed, but most difficult aspect goes to the very average shower that is only sometimes hot is also half way across the farm :( Shopping is done mostly at Neerim South which is a small town about 10km away. Big shopping days take us about 35km away to Warragul.

Anyway turns out it's a really beautiful area with enough to do to keep us busy and happy when we have time off :)