Bundaberg: Over and Out
Trip Start
May 06, 2006
1
76
81
Trip End
Mar 23, 2009
Bundaberg,
Australia
Monday, June 23, 2008
For those who didn't already know I got moved to picking capsicums (peppers to us normal folk!) which is better pay ($1 a bucket before tax), has better farmers/supervisors and I soon discovered, a much better team of people. It was still 5:30am wake ups which is so tough for me but it was getting easier! My first few days were a little tough, not only due to the extreme pain in my lower back from bending to pick the capsicums, bruises and arm ache from hefting the more than 10 kilo bucket onto my shoulder and taking it to the truck but also because it had been raining for about 5 days straight meaning the field was near impossible to stand in without sinking. However, it was a great group of people and along with pretending to work hard we managed to have plenty of mud fights and laugh a lot at eachother as we sank knee deep into the mud with a full bucket on our shoulders! While making lots of new friends over the past few weeks I spent the most time with 2 of the guys on team caps, Konnie from Germany and Nils from Holland. They both became very good friends over the past few weeks and when Nils left last weekend I was very sad to see him go. Once the mud dried up we managed to have rotten capsicum fights (they STINK by the way!) which was fine for them 'cos they were on hourly pay but not so good for me 'cos messing around meant I was earning less money! The group of 20 of us was split into two with team Europe (the slow group) and team Asia (the insanely fast group).... I was probably one of the slowest on team Europe but the supervisors decided that when they no longer needed team Europe for a while they'd put me onto team Asia... I literally laughed out loud when Lonnie told me it was because the 4 of us he'd picked were the fastest. It turned out to be a good thing though 'cos it's been one of the few farms that has worked every day the past week or so. I've also been earning almost double what I was on team Europe 'cos my competitive streak has come out and I don't want to be last every day... that and the fact I wasn't getting the chance to play around any more!
While it's been the most physically exhausting job I've ever done in my life it hasn't all been work. We've taken some nice side trips to the beach which has made me appreciate my car even more - I wouldn't have been able to get out of the town without it and might possibly have gone crazy or worse, blended with the locals! Starting at 7am usually means finishing by around 11 and having earnt over $100 so we've got the afternoon free to do what we want. Great if it's a nice day but crap if not 'cos there really isn't much in this town at all! The money hasn't really been reason for this work though, it's keeping the option open for a 2nd visa for me so you can imagine how happy I was when Lonnie signed my 'proof of work' form and left the dates blank for me to fill in! I won't exaggerate too much 'cos they check out 1 in 10 forms but it's nice to know I can get more days down without having to slog them out on another farm!
Tomorrow Kon and I are heading off. We actually don't really know where we're going yet as we're both useless at planning but we'll get in the car and drive and see where we end up. I still need to do more seasonal work (about 6 or 7 weeks more... euch) and he doesn't have as long here as me so we'll prob go different ways quite soon but it'll be nice to have someone to drive with for a while and split the costs with! Otherwise not much news... a fairly boring update I realise but I thought I should let you all know I'm okay and add some pictures for you to laugh at the appalling conditions I'm dealing with! Hope all is well with everyone.
