Friday, 23 October 2009

Renmark and the Riverland

Getting off the bus in Renmark I was pleasantly surprised. Here to do the same work as I’d done in hillbilly Gin Gin, I imagined the town to be the same. But, driving through at about 4.30pm, it seemed semi-normal. They actually had a few clothes shops, cafes and restaurants, overlooking the Murray River.
I called the hostel I was booked into so they could come and pick me up from the bus stop. When Collin arrived in the battered old camper van, any sense of normality I’d felt two minutes earlier completely vanished! He pulled up and helped me load all my bags into the van. He was a guy in his mid to late sixties, with the trademark no-toothed grin that I’d come across so many times in these small towns.
We drove to the Renmark and Paringa Backpackers, a small non-hostel looking building down a quiet residential street. I later found out the hostel used to be a Sunday school, which they’d converted, and then managed to cram two sets of bunk beds into seven small and basic rooms.
When I got to my room I met my three roommates, a brother and sister, Gun & Jai, and Stella, all three from South Korea, and none of them with any conversational English. My nightmare had begun….
Of the 28 backpackers, only six of us were Western. Even with the six of us, only four were English speaking. The other two were German with only a limited grasp of the language. The other 22 came from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
I was dreading the next three months or so that I would be spending in this town. That night, sitting on the sofa watching some crappy Ozzy reality TV show, (one good thing was that I’d rarely have to fight over the remote)! I was starving because I hadn’t managed to do any food shopping before the supermarket shut. Then, as though they could read my mind, two of the Japanese girls, Haru and Mai, brought me over a plate of sushi they’d made and a slice of cake. I instantly thought things wouldn’t be as bad as I’d feared.
The next day, being a Saturday, I wasn’t able to start my hunt for work. Luckily the sun was shining, so after walking around in circles exploring the place for about an hour, it was an acceptable time to start drinking. So I poured a glass of wine, and enjoyed the rays whilst sitting outside and reading my book.
By Monday I was bored; there was only so much sitting around and doing nothing I could do. At least I could get started with the jobhunt. After taking the Koreans to work, Collin drove me to a few places to apply for the usual picking/ packing jobs.
That day, I also met the other English-speaking people who were staying at the hostel, who had been in Adelaide for the weekend. They were an 18-year-old couple from New South Wales, on an adventure from the boredom of everyday life (Bless them – not much of an adventure)! Still, it now meant that I had people to talk to.
Within a few days I’d got work at nearby packing sheds, so at least I wouldn’t be climbing up and down trees picking fruit all day. Of the six of us at the hostel, one left to head back to Sydney. The other five of us all ended up working together at the sheds. The boys lifted boxes of tangelos, mandarins, oranges and the dreaded lemons.
Us girls were basically putting the fruit in boxes…all day! It was awful, back breaking and mind numbing!
We stood infront of huge conveyor belts, and went the fruit flew down we had to pack them according to size and quality (good fruit went to UK/ US, bad fruit went to Japan)!! All the really bad fruit we had to put in a giant bin, which then becomes orange juice. The stories I’ve heard about what goes into the juicers…. Besides manky oranges, people claim to have seen birds, rats and even snakes. It’s enough to put you off fruit juice for life.
We started work at 7am each day, had three short breaks, and finished at 5.30pm. Days were long and hard. Throughout that whole time, we didn’t get to talk to each other except on breaks. Also, ipods weren’t allowed, so we were along with our thoughts all day! One advantage was that I had time to think about what I was going to do once I left Renmark, and plan my trip. On almost a daily basis my plans changed… a result of having too much time to think about it! Other than that, I’d sing in my head, or sometimes as loud as I could because no one could hear me anyway, to keep me occupied.

Evenings were spent mainly at the hostel. The communal area was based around the kitchen, so we’d all cook together most nights. We also had some friends who were camping nearby. Occasionally we’d get a big group of us together and go to the campsite, take some beers, and have a BBQ, then sit around the campfire the boys had so proudly made! Two of the boys had guitars and were great singers, so they’d provide the entertainment for the night.

At the weekend we’d all go to the pub, which was as exciting as it got. Still, it wasn’t a bad life, but only because I knew it was temporary. It could’ve been worse, I could’ve been back in a tent in Gin Gin.
After a few weeks, work started to quieten down, going from six days a week to five, then four, til eventually we were only working three days some weeks. By now, the money I was earning barely covered the cost of living, which meant I couldn’t afford to put anything in savings.
One good thing with the lack of work was that it affected all of us staying at the hostel, so on our days off, in the glorious 35-degree heat, we could spend time together. We had BBQs aplenty, or spent the day sitting by the river with an esky full of beers eating fish and chips.
Sometimes, if the weather was crap and I was stuck in the hostel, all day, the Koreans would make me food. It’s tradition in their country to eat soup when it rains, so that’s exactly what we’d do! Spicy, Korean soup, it was lovely! And we weren’t allowed to wash up after either (even though we always offered), because they were the hosts. Instead, they’d all play rock, paper, scissors to decide who did the dishes!
Even better was when one of the Asians left. Not for that reason, but because they made the best food for the leaving parties! (Once I offered to pay them money to cook me all my meals instead of buy food myself, I loved it so much)! Anyway, everyone would come together for these parties; the Koreans, Taiwanese and Japanese, and all make dishes from their country. I didn’t…. I told them what I eat is boring –pasta/ rice/ noodles – so instead I’d buy a cake and nibbles, and a cask of wine. What a disappointment I am to the food of my country! But still, my contribution was always popular!
One afternoon, at work, after spending the morning outside due to an acid spill in the warehouse, the roster went up for the following day. I saw that again, I wasn’t rostered on the next day. It meant that three days into the week I had only worked once. Getting my 88 days done was going to take forever, and on top of that, I’d have no money saved by the end of it, in order to carry on with my trip (which was all planned by now)! An example of how unpredictable backpacking is, that you can never make definite plans because things never work out the way you expect.
You have to wonder how the locals in these towns survive, never knowing when their next day at work would be. Somehow they cope, despite having mortgages and mouths to feed etc. I’m lucky that I only need to look after myself!
So anyway on this day I’d just had enough and decided that I’d move on to yet another hillbilly town in search of more work. On that afternoon’s break, mind made up, I checked my phone, and as if I’d had a sign from above, I had missed calls and a voicemail from my old employers back in Melbourne asking me to come back. They’d called a couple of times before in the two months since I’d left, but as my priority was always to get my 88 days done, I’d not even considered it. In fact, I’d never planned to go back to Melbourne for long, just long enough to see my mates in Frankston and to pick up all the clothes I’d left at Beau’s house! But, because of my current work situation I didn’t even need to think twice about it. The moment I left work that day I called my old Manager at David Jones and told her I’d be back to start in my old job in two weeks, giving me enough time to finish work in Renmark and make my way back to normality.
My last week in Renmark, everyone decided to leave at pretty much the same time, but to go off in different directions. We’d all had enough. The 18year old couple had split up since we’d been there (the pressures of travelling get to everyone)! Tom was heading back to New South Wales and Renee was coming on the bus with me to Adelaide, to the nearest airport, so she could continue with her adventure. She’d grown into a really confident girl in the time that I’d known her and was happy to travel alone after her break up! Brummy Kev and two guys from Tazzy were going on a road trip to Western Australia. We were leaving just two people from our group of friends, and that’s only because they had no money at all so weren’t in a position to leave.
It was sad, as we’d all grown so close over the last 8 or so weeks, living and working together. But as always with travelling, you meet people, have fun, and at some point have to say goodbye. We were all going on to better things, and more importantly, leaving Renmark behind us!

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Do you want to go to the seaside....

I landed in Adelaide having only had 3 hours sleep. Feeling grumpy but excited at the same time, I waited outside the airport for my mate James to pick me up.
I met James and his brother, and a load of their friends, when I lived in Portugal and they were travelling around Europe.
I’d been in touch with him since I’d been in Oz, and he had offered me a place to stay in Adelaide. We drove to his lovely house in the beautiful seaside suburb Glenelg. I fell in love with the place the moment I arrived.
After we’d had breakfast and a much needed coffee I went with James’s girlfriend Alice on the short tram ride into the city.
Adelaide itself isn’t a very impressive city. It’s very small in comparison to Melbourne, with only about a quarter of the population. One nice thing about it though is the architecture, lots of old buildings and churches…. Melbourne is full of modern skyrises.
So Alice showed me around, which took all of about an hour, and then we went shopping. By lunchtime I was ready to collapse in bed.
Back at James’s I slept for most of the day, then got up, got dressed, and went to his local pub for a few beers, which then led on to a few glasses of wine…and so on!
On the Sunday James and Alice had planned to take me to McLaren Vale which is a winery about an hour away. South Australia is known for making wine and they have loads of vineyards all over the state. In fact, my friend Justine’s family own one of the most successful wineries in Australia – it even gets a mention in the Lonely Planet guide! (I met Justine in Portugal too).
So anyway, the plan was to go to McLaren Vale for some wine tasting, but, feeling a bit fragile, we decided against it. Instead, we walked along the beach and the marina, as it was such a beautiful winters day, and ended up stopping in a nice bar at the marina pier for a hair of the dog – what a surprise! The rest of the day was a write-off; we crashed out on the sofa watching movies til it was time for bed.

When I woke up on Monday everyone was at work. Being yet another lovely day (I was really lucky with the weather the whole time I was in Adelaide) I walked the dog, Alfie, along the beach, a nice start to the day. Then I went to the Bay Discovery Centre in the Glenelg Town Hall. I actually went because I’d read in the Lonely Planet guide that there was an exhibit about sharks and shark attacks, which are really common in that area. But when I got there I found out that the exhibit had moved about a year ago! Still, I stayed and read about the history of Glenelg. When James was home from work I told him what I’d learnt, none of which he knew. It’s typical that when you live somewhere you don’t take the time to learn about it.
The next day, on my own again, I got the tram into the city to have a wander around the well-known Central Market, stopping in Chinatown for lunch in a budget (but very nice) Asian restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet.
After lunch, as always with cities that I visit, was the South Australia Museum and then the Art Gallery. Neither was particularly interesting, but what can I expect from a country that doesn’t really have any history. Apart from a load of information on the Aboriginals, the museums over here don’t seem to have anything else to offer.
Back at James’s it was time to start looking for more ‘agricultural’ work somewhere in South Australia, so I could complete my 88 days. There was a fair bit I wanted to do in and around the city, but I didn’t want to carry on going out during the day and spending money without knowing when I’d next be earning again.
Looking for this sort of work is difficult, because once you have a job you still need to find a working hostel to live in. This is the hard part, as there are more backpackers than there are beds in hostels. I called 4 different ones everyday, always told they were full.
Finally, on about my fifth day of trying, I found a hostel that had one bed available, which the lady told me she could only keep for 24 hours for me. I immediately booked the first bus out of Adelaide the next morning the minute I hung up the phone.
With today being my last day by the beach, I headed down to the pier to watch the sunset. The whole time I’d been in Oz I’d been on the east coast, so this was the first time I’d get to watch the sun set over the sea (we all know I love a sunset)!
Later, was a night out at the Maid and Magpie bar in the city. It was a friend’s birthday (another person I met in Portugal), so luckily I was able to go out and catch up with everyone I knew in Adelaide before leaving so suddenly.
I was only in Adelaide/ Glenelg for a week but that was long enough. As cities go, Adelaide’s not the greatest, especially having come from Melbourne. Glenelg however, was just beautiful. But being winter, it wasn’t like I could make the most of the beach, sea etc.

The place I was heading to for work was Renmark, a small riverland town about 4 hours from Adelaide, close to the Victoria border.
I was disappointed that I hadn’t done a great deal here, but I knew that in a few months I’d be coming back via Adelaide, hopefully by the time it warms up for some quality beach-time!