Australia's Hottest Town

Ok, so I have left the job I was i.n.  The work was awesome, massive ranch with angus cattle (very tasty), mustering with 4x4 buggies and exploring the outback a lot.  Bad points, well, one bad point, the manager.  I'm not going to go in to too much detail. but it was a job in which there was no way I was able to stay any longer, just not possible.  Also the heat didn’t help, but wasn’t stopping me from working.  The job was 4km from a town called Marble Bar, Australia’s hottest town!  It was 47*c when I left on Saturday

Well the guys at http://www.outbackpackers.org/, who did my training course and are responsible for finding me a job are fantastic!  I phoned them up, and by the next morning, they had a list of 3 jobs available to me that weren't too far away.  Just so you know, I am now in Western Australia, when I went to my last job I flew from Brisbane(QLD) to Port Hedland(WA).  I moved from Marble Bar to Perth for the weekend, and wow, I felt as though I moved to Asia.  It was strange, every other shop was either an Asian food shop, massage parlour or a Asian restaurant, and the area I was in was filled with Asians, was strange.  Also, the hostels in Perth are no where near as good as Brisbane, I stayed in 2 and both were so run down. 

Tuesday, travelled via bus to a town called Esperence, and here it’s so cold, but a nice change.  My new job is harvesting, running combine harvesters and general bits and bobs.  The cattle season has finished for the year but will start again in April, which I’m looking forward to.  Good money here though, I earn $600 a week for the first 40 hours then $22 per hour after.  We seem for work 10-12hrs a day 6 days a week, so for the next 5 weeks I work here, look to make a good bit of money :D Everyone here is so nice and friendly, Kevin is my boss and there are 3 other backpackers, all Estonian, Ova, Karel and Mart.  Reception is not good out here, so my internet is very slow, so I will try to upload photos when I can.

Me in Perth city

In the Yute in Marble Bar, its all desert out there

The homestead in Marble Bar

Me in my 4x4 buggy 

Roadsign on way in to Marble Bar

Me n the manager from Marble Bar

Camels in Australia, I did not realise Camels were in Australia.

Its going to get hot hot hot

So I got a job!! Leave tomorrow morning (Tuesday), catching a flight to NW Australia, to an airport called port hedland.  Its mid 30's right now entering the 40's later this week, and peaks around 50*c during the next few months, will be hot!  Only got the job 5 hours a go, and flying out tomorrow, fun fun.  Change time zone again, currently in +10hrs and changing to +8hrs, so a little closer to home.  The job it on a 750,000 acre ranch, mustering cattle and general station duties.  Will post more info when I got it.  Need to make sure I drink lots of water and take it slow the first week or so, but this will definately help me lost weight, thats for sure.

Well, I lost my Guernsey bank card.  Doh!!! What would I do without Claire! Not only didnt she mind me waking her up at like 4am to and keeping her up for an hour trying to send money via Western Union online, even though it didnt work, Claire's going to pop to local post office to do it there, what a star!  Me love you very much for that.

Had someone setting off the fire alarms at 6:30 this morning, not fun, nightmare actually, I did go straight back to sleep afterwards though.

Will update you when I can, but no Wifi where Im going, so we'll see.

Once again, thanks Claire for all your help, star girlfriend xxxx

Some photos of my trip

In the back of the yute

Quadbiking, Lucy has crashed in to a tree and is stuck

Matt and Jules

Me and one of the 6 week old puppies

Meg dirtbiking, check out the silly face!

Hand Job on his moto

Just chilling out

Our tractor we learnt to use

Some of us on quads during a muster

Our cattle

The fence we had to fix, hard work!

Matt cooking our lunch

Me holding a baby owl we found that had fallen out of a tree

Quad biking, someone had stalled near the top

Me covered in s**t on my quad

This is where we went for lunch

Us all passed out on a lunch break

The horses we worked with, apparently one wanted a nap

Our dorm where we slept each night

Me digging a hole

Learning to ride a tractor

I am putting a name/number tag in a calf's ear

Moo

Best week ever!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Dam you Telstra!!

So we did go to Australia Zoo in the end, and wow, what an awesome place.  Although I think they named it wrong, it needs to be called “Steve Irwin land +Some Animals”.  Don’t get me wrong, he rocked and was gutted when he died, but wow! The highway to the zoo is called Steve Irwin way, your greeted by statues of him everywhere, posters and pictures of him everywhere, and before each show they salute him and speak of all the things he did.  The actual Zoo was pretty amazing also, the elephants were great and getting up close and stroking kangaroos and koalas was just fantastic.  I had so much fun that I plan to volunteer there for a week or two at the start of next year, be great to work with the animals and experience the zoo for a short while.  Side note about my trip to the Zoo, on the way back to the hostel, the coach driver stopped off at a roadside fruit stall for us all to grab some food for the bus trip.  I have never had such tasty strawberries and bananas in my life, mmm nom nom.

After the Zoo, got back to the hostel, had a quick bite to eat, and grabbed a beer.  The hostel has a TV room, so I went in there with Emanuele (one of the group im with for the outback training), and sat watching some rubbish TV drinking a beer.  It didn’t even take 2 mins for me to pass out and spill beer all over me, and this being only 7:30pm….. Think I am still suffering from jet lag.

OK, so Telstra = Bunch Of Idiots.  Trying to connect to the internet on my laptop using my mobile, which is something very common and I have been doing in Guernsey and England with no problems.  Diagram below:

[Laptop] ~~Bluetooth~~ [Mobile] ~~Mobile Signal~~ [Internet]

Long story short, 3 different people at Telstra fobbed me off with stupid excuses as to why it wouldn’t work, remember that I worked at Airtel and wasn’t the average idiot they deal with.  “Please use a different USB plug on your laptop” even though I told them I was using Bluetooth which doesn’t involve wires.  “Due to you using Windows 7 we can not help you” not sure what problems my laptop have that means my mobile cant connect to the internet…..etc..etc… This took 2 visits to their shop and a phone call lasting over 80 mins, to not get the problem fixed. Rant over, for now.

Tomorrow I am off to the training ranch to start learning how to be a cowboy.  Really excited, wait sorry, totally stoked dude!! Note to self, remember to speak Australian.  Not got a lot done today, in the reception area/computer room of the hostel is a couch that is so comfy, you just kind of sink in to it.  So today I have managed to sit here for majority of the afternoon watching films on my laptop. Nice.  I get my cowboy hat and boots tomorrow, will upload a photo or two of me wearing the gear.

FYI, I have realised that I may need to work on my camera skills, don’t worry, I’ll eventually learn how to hold a camera straight and still :P

I have been visiting the city centre a lot these past couple of days, and it is so modern, such a beautiful place.  All the buildings are brand new, with all the streets so clean and lots of live music in the streets. 

Anyhoo, check out my pics below, no video this time.  I’ll post again after my training at the ranch

Yee-haw

Ryan x

City Centre

City Centre 

Me posing in-front of giant silver balls

The elephants at the Zoo were massive, this one was called Sion

Koala!!

The Kangaroo is camera shy

I am not a otter

Guess where I am going..... Anyone?? No??

Day 2 in Oz land

Right, so just got up on day 2 of being in Oz, I got up at 6AM. So not quite working the right time zone but I'm getting close.

Last night was fun, and interesting. Drink were about $8 a pint!! which is about £5-6, far too much for the local lager if you ask me, and the bar here is one of the cheapest around.  A couple of people I met with snuck in and brought a six-pack of lager (VB) for $30.  Not only alcohol, I got my new mobile number yesterday +61458934750, the sim cost me $30 and had to call them up (Telstra) and give them my details like passport number and personal details before they even activated it, night mare.  A text to a Gsy number is about 30cents and a call is nearly $1 per min.

FYI I dont have a postage address at the moment, and will most likely not have one until I get a full time job which wont be next week but the week after.

Today we may be going to Australia Zoo, which is the late Steve Irwin's zoo, would love love love to go, although it is about $58 to get in and an hour worth of buses each way, but we'll see.  Or,we may be going to learn to surf, either way, want to do something with my day.

Its starting to sink in where I am, it's been a bit strange as it just feels like a small UK city but with a few minor changes, it wont be until I get to the outback that'll make me go "Whoa, i'm in Australia".

Spoke to few people last night who have been working on ranches all over Oz, and they all say it was the most amazing thing they have ever done.  After all the horror stories of how I'll have to castrate bulls and shoot wild camels (yes, camels), learnt that I can expect to earn about $100-$150 per day including food and accomodation, which is not bad at all :D

I made a quick video for the blog, ok, not quick its about 8 mins long, but shh!!

My VIDEO :D

Will post again either before I go or when I get to the training centre.

Ryan x

Me at Brisbane Airport

 About to land in Oz

My last meal on the plane, noodles, tea and Baileys nom nom

Im drinking Baileys at over 600mph :D

Me at singapore airport

The giant plane that ive been flying on

My last meal in Europe, a bacon burger chips and a pint for £10, not bad!

Me at Heathrow airpot, eventually outside the correct terminal

The tiny plane that took me to england

Bye bye Guernsey