Off to the land down under :D: 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