Driving to Greg's place somewhere in
the middle of nowhere in between forests near Wells Crossing, where
maps really didn't recognize and phone service was a bit hit and
miss, remided a little of Wolfs Creek. All kidding aside we really
didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a pretty awesome
experience. Planting garlic for some more or less decent cash. It
wasn't a typical backbacker well-organized random picking job but
closer to actual farm-work. We had a couple local folks and a bunch
of frenchies, most of them still backpackers but one
frenchie-turning-aussie as he was adopted by a very local
aussie-outback-farmer and was facinated by wild farmlife and had
already lived in those forests for months. Also, for one day we had a
lady from Australia and her husband from Russia. We referred to them
as bible people as their main mission in this job was to recruit new
members to church. In turns they managed to talk to everybody about
saving their souls and secretly put up some flyers.
The owner of the
farm, his sister and her husband were around and working on the land,
also the owners daughters. They had three absolutely adorable dogs:
Miss, Jules and Buster, four horses and a bunch of chickens and a
rooster, who was confused when to yell out good morning. He started
every morning around 4am and he was loud. The perks of camping on
farmlands... Besides domesticated animals there were heaps of roos
around, we were struggling to avoid them while driving and save them
from becoming a stew by some french cooks hand. Almost had a
cook-off, as one frenchie had worked as a chef somewhere in Aussie
outback by a huge coincidence, when never actually learned cooking,
and the other frenchie was just handed the chef title as a result of
joking around. The menu would have been grilled garlic, garnished with
garlic in garlic sauce.
Lovely daily visitors!
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Greg was a cool boss, paid every day straight
after work, also every day we had an eski full of beer waiting.
Apparently having beer is a mandatory old tradition in Australia
after each day on the farm. On the last day we were fed some
delicious lamb chops, plus needless to say, garlic was free.
Speaking
of garlic, it is a pretty great business. As it supposably grows
everywhere, I'm seriously considering growing some when I'm back
home. From one planted field, one earns quite a lot, and once planted
and covered with mulch (hay) it basically handles itself and grows
without further special needs. At first, to grow garlic from seeds
and then onions, it takes around 3 years, but as the business gets
going, planting gloves, one gets the garlic after seven months.
We were camping in an open shed and
they didn't have showers. After working 8 hours a day in sunshine
and totally covered with mud, one needs a bath!!! There was a service
station 10km away but a more fun option was a chilly creek couple
km's away in the woods. Bath like aboriginals once did. We visited a
nearby town and went to Golden Dog's pub. Power was out in the whole
town and they had lighted candles which made the little town really
cosy and memorable!
In the evenings apart from sharing
stories we had a “Toy Story” marathon, followed up by a couple of
snowboarding and surfing movies. The inspiring ”Art of flight”,
“Soul Surfer” and an old classic “Point Break” which I hadn't
seen and enjoyed a lot.
Matt's camping-neighbors at Bluesfest gave us
some free food and cooking supplies after the festival, including
dodgy home-made cookies. Because of mine and Keiu's little accident
of eating too many cookies after being warned, we earned a name
“cookie monsters”. The name seems to follow us around now as a
couple days later we visited the hippie town Nimbin and they were
just starting a festival called “Mardi Grass” which aim is to
legalize cannabis. The moment we got out of the car a lady walked up
to us and explained they are having a “cannabis cookie cup” the
next day and asked if we would like to judge the competition..
Nimbin
is a legendary little town, a completely different world. We got
there at a great time too, the festival made it really lively and
eventful.
I think we did a pretty great job at Greg's farm because he
recommended us to his friend Paul who lived nearby and was going to
plant his garlic soon as well. He had a smaller business but a couple
more days of work sounded good. Before start we had some days off.
Headed to Minnie Waters, campsite on the beach!! Cooked some Estonian
potato salad and aussie version of grilled donuts and went surfing
for the first time at Wooli beach!! Check!!!!! What an amazing
feeling. Matt has his own board and we were a bit too courageous and
went surfing without any lessons, just a few tips from Matt and into
way too big waves. After being beaten up and drowned by the waves the
feeling started to sink in a bit. Damn it looks so much easier than
it actually is. Our first experience ended with an idea of going to
find some calmer waters but discovering we had broken a fin under the
board, so before we get that fixed, surfing is off the agenda. I'm
definitely gonna go for some lessons and get into it someday!!!
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Minni Waters |
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Wooli beach |
While camping on free camp-sites, power
is usually hard to find. Once we tried to charge our stuff from a
plug outside of one service station at Halfway Creek. Suddenly a lady
runs out of the station and yells at us to disconnect all our “20
devices” right this moment! After a failed attempt to explain
ourselves and a short heated argument which concluded with her saying
that while charging our many devices we probably would have blown up
the whole building we disconnected our adapter. She went back inside,
we kept sitting outside to decide what to do next. Soon she ran out
again, accused us of being sneaky and devious and taped the plugs to
make sure we can't use them as her bosses from Coles Supermarkets,
just told us to do that. “Smartasses like you piss of people like
me!!” Entertainment for the day!
The last day off we visited Coffs
Harbour, one of the richest coastal resort towns. Played tourists at
the famous “Big Banana”, found a cheap steak special at a town
nearby, played pool, entertained kids at a bouncy castle and played
football at another playground.
While finally at Paul's place for the
second set of work, we were living in even more random shed, full of
old, awesome stuff. No reception or power or things you usually take
for granted. Paul gave us an old radio and we entertained ourselves
with card games. An old estonian classic “Jüri-Mari” got an
english version “Romeo-Juliet”. I haven't laughed like this for
ages. Not only just the card game.. we have developed inside jokes
that make us laugh in tears at random moments and other people think
we have escaped from somewhere. There was less days work at Paul's
but more manual labor. The traditions remained the same. Free bbq,
lunches and beer. No showers, but the creek was even closer – and
colder. Ice-cold even for us who we are supposed to be polar bears.
After a swim lighted a camp-fire and had a fun evening teaching
english for the frenchies, hanging out with our boss and his good
friend and our works manager Peter who turned into crazy Pedro
after a few beers.
Estonian language is still a hit. Of course
the infamous “Terviseks” and “Kaksteist kuud” but also,
according to our friends Estonian sounds like “a drunk french
pigeon trying to speak under water”. Thank you dearies!! I'll never
ask anybody how it sounds ever again. It's supposed to be one of the
most beautiful languages you know!
From Paul's we drove through
Nimbin, reached Koolangatta – a great surfers town where for
example Mick Fanning is from. Awesome surf spots and beautiful waves,
could watch the talented surfers there for ever! Made it to Surfers
Paradise soon, met Keiu's friend Carly and finally headed to “British
India” concert vol 5 at Brisbane.
We camped in the kombi at New
Farm park (it actually sleeps three!) for a couple of nights. The
concert was again amazing. The warm-up bands: Junior Arcade and Columbia buffet, were great and of course
the headliner! Was fun to catch up with the boys later and as it was
Declan's birthday soon, we headed to a nearby club for the after-party
with them and some of their friends. Australia's 3rd biggest town Brisbane is lovely but not a
city I desperately want to live in. Nothing too outstanding and not
exactly on the coast so our unanimous decision took us back to Gold
Coast.
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Columbia buffet |
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British India |
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Awesome and pretty cheap street-markets on sundays! |
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Buddha Birth Day festival. Cheap asian street food, live performers and music |
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Queensland Art Gallery: Gallery of Modern Art. Nothing beats Sydney modern art gallery, but it wasn't half bad either! Especially the music exhibition! |
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