The countdown begins!

3 months from today, only 3 months, and my time here in Australia comes to an end and I must return home.  It will have been nearly 3 years since I last saw the majority of my family and friends!  Albeit being very excited to get home and see everyone, what to do with the remainder of my time over here.  Well I am still truck driving, with the roster typically being 10 on 4 off, it does give me long weekends to go away and have fun to do what I want.

Lightning in Mungindi

Not much to report on work really, still going really well doing the same old stuff.  But we have changed towns now, so thankful to be away from the glorious town of Mungindi, with all of its friendly locals, clean streets and low crime....... Much.  Mind you though, there was an amazing lightning storm not long a go, you've not experienced lightning until you've seen it in the outback!  So we've moved to a much nicer town further north, which I expect we will be here for the remainder of my time in Australia.  Just got to keep trucking!

Katie and Dan's House

So recently on my time off I have been going to the sunshine coast, now that is a great place to live.  Some friends of mine that I worked with in Cairns moved to the Sunshine Coast and manage a dive centre there, and are so great, they let me stay in their river side palace.  The best part of the sunny coast is the diving, especially the ex-HMAS Brisbane wreck, that is mad!  At 28M deep, this 133M long battleship is an amazing dive, as it was intended to become a dive site the inners of the ship is freely accessible, and it is brilliant to explore the inside of a battleship filled with many species of fish and corals in warm clear water.  Trust me, I will be spending as much time as I can visiting this amazing place!

Another good day on Koh Tao

My plan now is to return at the end of July, probably on or around the 25th, and I really can not wait, its going to be amazing.  Now I know in the past I have given plans to return home and they never came true, but this time is different.  My best mate Tom is getting married and wants me there as his best man, and my grandparents anniversary, plus I am mega home sick now.  The big question is how long I will be back for, thats the biggest question in my mind.  Whether I am home for a month or two or forever is something that will have to be played by ear, but I do want to return to Thailand for a few months again soon.  Koh Tao thailand is one my most favourite places ever, and with friends still over there, I want to go back and dive.  So maybe this time home will just be a break from the madness of travelling, a time to rest and prepare for my next journey, who knows!

Doing a bit of shooting

Kenwork 904 with 2x40ft grain trailers 

Katie and Dan before they bought this puppie's little sister

Looking up on the ex-HMAS Brisbane

Turret gun on the ex-HMAS Brisbane

You mother trucker!

Swear there was a road here

Last time I left you, wow, it was christmas.  I had forgotten when my last blog was published, and after having a quick look through it, it has been a while.  So where is Ryan now, sitting in a donga which is smaller than most peoples bathrooms with all my stuff packed in to a corner.  The house I normally live in, is currently cut off from the rest of the world by flood water.  Infact, most of the town I am in at the moment is either currently under water or inaccessible.  But enough of the scene setting, lets get in to the meat of the blog.

My Kenworth truck with
the single water trailer

Now that my work at the feed lot is finished, me and Tim took the truck south to a very small town on the New South Wales border.  A town so small, that its claim to fame is of an excessively heaving fencing post, no lie, oh and two police stations, both of which are in houses older and more worn down than Baloos.  So initially the job was meant to be driving the truck as a road train (2+ trailers) carting water around, but soon that was changed to one trailer which was more suited to the job.  And now, we work with a construction crew building roads.  Now not like the tarmac roads that your used too, dirt roads, but extremely well built dirt roads.  My job is to fill up with water, then spread my water over the road that is being made.  Simple? Yes at times, complicated other times, and a down right nightmare the rest.  Driving a road truck across unmade dirt roads and banks will always end in tears, and although the thing hasnt rolled over yet, it hash't been a walk in the park.  A simple yet repetitive and frustrating task is tire changing, not fun in 45*c+ heat. 

In Gilligans after a long day with
Matt (far left) then Jeremy (Next
to Matt) , and a few other mates

But I'm happy and things are going real well.  The house I normally live in is great, especially seeing as all the food and accommodation is included free.  Signal is a bit sparse, but hey, can't have everything.  So after 2 weeks of work, was time for a bit of a break.  Back to Cairns I go :D  Start work at 3am, finish work at noon, arrive in Brisbane at 6, fly to Cairns at 7, in Gilligans by 10, Project Jeremy (obvious code for those in the know) ready to finish back at Matt's (mate who I was staying with) by 2am.  I was in Cairns for 6 days, in which I spent a whole lot of my savings and having one hell of a time.  Jet skiing, go karting, drinking, shopping, scuba diving and of course, and whole lot of Call of Duty on the xBox.  I had my Go Pro's with me the whole way and my new underwater camera system, took some amazing photos and videos, which i'll stick together over the next few weeks.  

An old photo of me n Matt

As I had all my stuff in Cairns, it was time to take it with me down south.  Now, I knew I had a lots of stuff, but 58kgs of baggage was a lot more than I expected, oops.  I have a large suitcase which only has dive gear and cameras in, not including my PADI manuals, which have their own backpack, and not even thinking about my casual clothes and electronics and laptops and just general Sh?t !!!  So anyway, after a week of fun, back to work I go, back to the desert and its heat, and 3am starts :(

I love Jet skiing!!

The roster for this job is 2 weeks on 1 week off.  Not great for the man who wants to save save save and leave, but thankfully theres always work to be done somewhere else.  Just today, the man I worked for at the feedlot has asked me to come back for better money and more hours.  Although a fun job, truck driving is a whole lot better.  But as of Sunday I will have a week off, so going back to Roma to work the feedlot for 5 or 6 days, got to find something to keep me busy.  Saving money, my biggest priority in life, something that changed dramatically in my life since I have been in Australia.  I have a target, a target which will pay any outstanding loans (sigh, I still have a UK loan to pay), pay for a diving holiday/working holiday in Thailand, and have a substantial amount of money saved for my return to the UK, and I mean substantial.  A target I aim to achieve my May, so I can be in Thailand when Matt gets there.  

So I leave you here, although I am hoping to put together a video of stuff that i've been up to over the past fest weeks, so WATCH THIS SPACE :D

Some photos take on my last trip to the Great Barrier Reef with my new camera :D

Pineapple Sea Cucumber 

Baby cuttlefish, or torpedo fish, or something

Nudibranch

Gotta have a Nemo shot

Flat worm! My fav!

Jellyfish at night time

Me and Jezza

White tip reef shark @ 24m with a real slow shutter speed

Fish

Nudibranch

Ball of bait fish

Merry Christmas!!!!

With the end of 2012 in sight and surviving the end of the world, as predicted by the Mayans, I write to you full of Christmas turkey after my 3rd Christmas away from friends and family.  Sure I love the 40*c heat, BBQ and clay pigeon shooting as per the typical Australian Christmas tradition, but I sure do miss the cold festive homeliness you experience in Guernsey.  I do hope to enjoy the next festive season at home with the ones I love and miss every day.  Please don't be mislead though, I have had an amazing time here with friends and their family here in Central Queensland, enjoying their amazing albeit different traditions.  But as always, with the food neatly stored away for turkey sandwiches and the old wrapping paper thrown in the bin, its time to go back to work, to which my daily routine of 4:30am alarms and hard work starts again tomorrow, sigh.....

Whilst on the subject of work, I now have another new job to go to, so as of the 7th of January I will be in the much larger town of Dalby utilizing my new drivers license, I am now a Road Train driver.  Australian Road Trains are the longest trucks in the entire world, with some as long as 85M+ and can weigh over 130 metric tons.  With a short visit to Brisbane, I undertook a driving course which brings me up to speed on driving these immense vehicles, and after taking a 2 hour test, I was granted my new license.  This new job requires me to deliver clean drinking water to different mining sites around small towns, which if someone like me wasn't able to deliver their water, there wouldn't be any to drink.  Unfortunately I was unable to take any photos of my course, so I just pulled this one off the internet, by the truck I will be driving will be very similar to this. 

Currently my job is at a feedlot, where my purpose is to prepare the ground and sow seed using various tractors and implements, a task which I have done many times here in Australia, this time though it is on the largest feedlot in Queensland.  Feedlots are farms which raise tens of thousands of cattle in smalls paddocks, to which the cattle are grain feed by delivery trucks.  There are huge arguments against this practice, but you will find that the majority of meat products you eat come from feedlots such as the one I work on.  Infact, Coles (one of Australias largest supermarket chains), buy's over 80% of its beef products from the farm I work on, 80% of Coles meats in the entire of Australia.  Don't be fooled though, these cattle are treated extremely well with the utmost respect and dignity.  Unlike other farms, you are not allowed to poke/prod/whack a cattle, they are fed the tastiest and cleanest cattle feed, kept in shaded and well maintained pens and supplied with clean food and water continuously through the day, these are the happiest cows you will ever see.

Lucky 13, its nearly 2013 and whether you believe in the lucky or unlucky 13, its a new year for all, with a chance to celebrate what we have achieved and to commiserate what we have lost.  But with a new year ahead, who knows where I will end up, and what I will be doing.  All I know is that soon, whether for good or for just a short break, I want to return home to see my family and friends, and look forward to my next adventure, what ever and where ever that may be.

Merry Christmas everyone :D

Love Ryan xx

My favorite rifle to go hunting with

 New Holland CR970 header, usually used for harvest but have used it a little bit recently

Job done, back to Roma I go

My work here in Clermont is done, been here for 3 weeks and already off to my next job.  So my time here has been great, busy but not too busy.  Like I previously said I have been harvesting and also truck driving.  Mostly driving the Mack road train in between paddocks loading and un-loading wheat, as I don't have a MC (road train) license, only can drive these things on the farms.  I have a Heavy Rigid license, so can only drive large trucks with trailers up to 15t.  Now as the harvesting is done, I can stay here for another 3 weeks and work, but only part time and probably up to 40 hours a week at the most, which is not enough to make the money I want, so off I go to my next job.

Roma is a great town, big but not too much so, and lots of work available.  Now Tim was the guy I worked for last year, and although he has some work for me to do, he also gave me another contact for work.  Dick runs the local feed lot, and needs someone to feed cattle, do a lot of ground work in tractors and other general jobs.  Not I got a free lift there with one of the other drivers that works here, going through Roma to Toowomba for holiday, so will drop me off sunday, and work start monday :D

Now I'm about half way to my target amount of money I need, which is great, wasn't expecting to get this much together so quick, so hoping to get to Thailand earlier.  Aparently it gets really bust in Koh Tao end of December, so best to be there mid December in order to find a job easily (which is key).  So once I have enough money together so that I know for sure I am going, will book my tickets, exciting.

Anyway, speak again soon :D

  My Mack road train 53M long and weighs as much as 84 Land Rover Discoveries when loaded

 

Recently my car had broken down, so had to walk to work through some paddocks.  This awesome horse, has been stalking me.  Each morning it follows me, sometimes hiding behind trees or right up behind me as I walk through its paddock. 

Work work work

With the weather being great these past 10 days, I've finally been getting some harvest work done.  Hooray, long hours.  When ever I log on to Facebook, I like to check on whats happening in the fast paced world we live in (albeit I only ever learn what people had for their breakfast), and what people are doing.  One thing though that always stands out and makes me chuckle, is when people complain about being tired or over worked after a 40-50 hour week.  Granted that when I was back in Guernsey living the life of the average office worker, the sound of working more than my contracted 9-5 made my skin crawl.  But after 2 years in Australia, 50 hours a week doesn't sound that bad at all.  Let me explain the kind of hours I have been working over these 2 years:
Cattle work : 6am-6pm = 12hours a day = 6days a week = 72hours a week
Divemaster Taka : 6am-8pm = 14hours a day = 5 days a week = 70hours a week
Harvest work : 7am - 11pm = 16hours a day = 7 days a week = 112hours a week
OK, so harvest work being the hardest of all, it does only last for 3-4 weeks at a time, so its not too hard.  Some of you may think this is an over exaggeration, whilst others that I have worked with may say that is less than what we actually do per week.  I vow never to complain about a 50 hour week ever again.

Now as today is wet and rainy, only had a half day today (lol, 7 hours), which gives me plenty of time to update my blog and do my washing.  The exciting life I lead.  Being in harvest puts me back in the controls of a combine harvester, although this year she is a lot smaller and older than I'm used to, but still fun.  One funny thing is that when harvesting, constantly surrounded by hawks watching as field mice and crickets run out of the path of the harvester, to which they quickly dive bomb and collect for themselves.  Clever animals using out machinery to hunt with.  And another thing which is very common out here in central Queensland, and also any outback kind of land, is whirlwinds (picture below).  They happen everyday, sometimes big and sometimes small, where the wind will suddenly form a mini twister and move for hundreds of meters.  Not really dangerous, as winds don't get too strong, just really cool to see.  I watched as a whirlwind went over my ute last week, sucking up all the rubbish out the back and spreading it over vast distances, awesome!

So this job I am on finishes in a week or two, and after that, will move on to another job.  Tim, who I worked for last harvest, has called me repeatedly asking for me to come back and take his harvester south as a solo contractor.  Just like last time, moving around the country on my own with a harvester going from job to job, really really fun.  As Tim took a long time to pay me my final wages, I set him some 'requirements' for him if I was to work for him.  How funny is this, an employee setting his employer requirements.  So I'll let you know how that turns out.

Speak soon :D

Mud, Sweat and Ideas

Whats this? 2 blog posts in less than a week, there must be something wrong.  Yes, I'm bored!

Sitting in my room in my lovely new house, frustrated at the poor weather, it gives me time to think about what I want to do.  I dont think I am ready to come home yet, now I have my PADI instructor cert, I want to use it.  In Thailand there are opportunities and I have friends there, people I want to see again.  As long as I can afford to get there and have backup money, it's where I want to go.  But the question is, for how long and what next?

Here in Clermont, my job was to do harvesting, but at the moment its raining and way too wet.  So at the moment, just hauling out hay bales and delivering them around.  Its alright, fun to be back behind the wheel of some trucks again, but not working that many hours, still 60 hours a week, but not the same amount as a full on harvest.  But we'll see, hopefully it will pick up.


Visa wise, mine expires on the 4th, but I have had meetings with immigration and as long as I get in contact with them on the 5th, I will be transferred on to a bridging visa until I leave end of December. 

Now as I continue my travels to another country, my blog title although being initially unimaginative but accurate, will now be obsolete.  So what shall my new blog title be? Leave your answer in the comments section below.