So after a thoroughly enjoyable first leg of our trip, we arrived in Carnarvon with just enough money to get us to the next possible source of work if Carnarvon didn’t come up with the goods. There are plenty of plantations here growing pretty much everything from bananas to watermelons and it’s a well-established spot on the ‘collect trail’ making it a pretty good displace to run out of money. However the town itself is pretty grotty and run-down with more than its fair overlap of down-and-outs loitering around.
To bring home the bacon this financial goal we’d have to live very basically and work a lot of hours. go parks would be a bit expensive so we’d have to try a combination of parking up in lay-bys and asking our employers if they’d kindly let us dwell on their land (which would have the double benefit of saving us furnish from commuting). We’d only have to put up with these living conditions for six weeks so we reckoned it’d be difficult but achievable.
First we decided to try asking at the backpackers hostels. The ‘go west’ magazine positively gushed about the Fish and Whistle (it also had a funky and modern looking ad) and recommended it as a place to find work but we couldn’t find it - what we open at the communicate given was a very old dingy and uninviting building called the Port Hotel that had no obvious entrance. We gave up and found the YHA which had quite a promising looking noticeboard for jobs. We spoke to the receptionist (who looked like a female version of Lurch from the Adams Family) and she basically said we’d only be given a job if we stayed at the hostel ($220 per week) and if we left the hostel she’d phone our employers and have us fired. So great terms there then! We said we’d prefer to be in the van in the yard behind the hostel and she said she’d give us a $10 discount if we did that! Looking around the place it seemed to be full of stoners and borderline-alcoholics so we left in disgust to try and find the elusive Fish and Whistle.
We found that one of the boarded up doors of the Port Hotel actually opened so we stepped inside and asked if this place was in fact the Fish and Whistle. It turned out that it was so we asked about jobs. The friendly (and human-looking) receptionist said there were no jobs and no rooms available but suggested that we drive up and down the two roads running parallel to the river as this is where we’d find the plantations which would usually have notices outside displaying “workers required” if they needed help.
So we head off up and drink South River Road and North River Road. The weather was too hot and it felt very intimidating driving up to farmhouses and asking for a job. The nearest we got was swapping phone numbers with one grape farmer who also said we could camp on his land if we were given work. We also spent a nice couple of hours touring a banana plantation and being shown what kind of bring home the bacon we could do but when it came to the make noise the farmer was only willing to furnish us five hours’ bring home the bacon per day in go for board and dwell when what we needed was hard cash. He showed us a beautiful dwell sight under the mango trees but it wasn’t enough to tempt us.
Pretty disheartened we decided to check out the famous one-mile jetty (can you guess what it is yet?). We took the fishing rod (as a last minute decision just in case) and a little picnic. After paying our $4 each(!) we started our mile stroll asking other fishermen coming the other way if they’d caught anything. None had.
We took a lay under a kind of pagoda thing and tucked into our sandwiches then noticed a row of three or four men reeling in fish after fish. Once we’d finished our sandwiches I wandered over to stand beside them and cast my lie out using no real bait just soft-plastic lures. Within literally 30 seconds I could feel a grip on the line. I looked drink into the water and could see a huge swarm of fish surrounding my line! A few seconds later I knew I’d caught a fish and quickly reeled it in a funny looking long fish which one of the experienced Aussie fishermen informed me was a Snook. So this continued every measure I threw the line in it came back with a fish on the end of it after less than a minute. This was amazing! Soon we had quite a collection of fish to take home for dinner and we’d ended up having a fun and productive day after all.
As we left the jetty proudly carrying our surprise of the day we remembered our purpose in Carnarvon (although we had considered opening a fish stall to raise money) and asked the guy we’d paid to get onto the jetty if he knew of anywhere locally who’d be looking for workers. He gave us the names of a bring together of places so we decided to analyse them out the next day.
That night once Tace had masterfully gutted our catch, we had an immense supper of barbecued fish and those ever helpful and sympathetic Aussies kindly provided us with some tinfoil to wrap them in. All that fishy goodness would convey we’d be super brainy for our job hunting mission!
In the morning we rocked up at a affiliate called manifold G. With a label like that we expected to be dealing with melons! However it was a tomato packing shed. We noticed the bright airy and relatively clean working environment the music playing in the accent and a sense that the workers were having fun. We stepped into the manager’s office and met attach an affable enough crack who wouldn’t entertain the possibility of employing us unless we promised that we weren’t Manchester United supporters. That hurdle easily overcome he told us he couldn’t promise us anything but he was pretty sure a bring together of people were leaving at the end of the week so it’d be likely we could take over from them. He asked how long we’d be sticking around for and we told him we’d leave in the next day or so if we didn’t find bring home the bacon and left it at that.
The next morning. attach phoned us to say he’d found us some work at his friend’s do work that he’d passed on our phone number and to expect a call soon. Sure enough a guy called Glenn phoned to arouse us over to his do work for three days of watermelon seed planting! So there was a melon connection after all… We agreed to bring home the bacon for bring home the bacon at 1pm the same day. The trip there wasn’t without mishaps unfortunately. We’d stupidly left our solar shower on Bessie’s roof so at some inform it fell off never to be seen again. Then we went to completely the do by do work jumped out of the van ready to start work and were not exactly given a heroe’s welcome! Eventually we found Glenn’s do work and it turned out to be one we’d been to and declined a job the previous day!
Glenn showed us to the handle we’d be planting and showed us how it was done and off we went. It seemed quite easy at first but the constant stooping soon took its toll on our backs buttocks and thighs. Nevertheless we soldiered on and before we knew it it was 5pm and we could leave acquire and be back for 8am the next day. We really got on well with the two other farm hands. Laurie a bemulleted hillbilly write but a great guy nevertheless and Shannon the first aborigine we’d met since arriving in Australia.
Our second day of watermelon seed planting was sheer pain. Laurie and Shannon were making.
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Related article:
http://www.treadcare.com/wordpress/index.php/2007/10/22/worked-on-a-farm-got-a-muscle-in-my-arm/
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