Having picked tomatos for a couple of weeks, I changed jobs on Tuesday. I am now working on a sweet potato farm further out from town. It's much smaller than the tomato farm,with a work force of just four backpackers plus the couple who own the farm and their friendly, crazy dog. There's some picking to be done but we've spent most of the week making vine cuttings and planting them, which is much more fun. However, when we're picking there's the added fun of taking turns to drive the tractor. Ooh arrrgh. Then there are kangaoos hopping around at the edge of the crop fields in the
mornings, except when it's going to be a windy day. They just Know,
apparently. There's also loads of birds although the only songs I
recognise are the kookaburras and the cuckoos.
The potato farm is a little further out from Bundaberg than the tomato farm was and is quite close to Moore Beach. The farmers took us out there one day in our lunch break and lent us a surf board. I've not been surfing since Byron Bay and it was so much fun! Incidently, 'breaks' on both farms are always referred to as 'smokos',
regardless of whether anyone taking the break smokes. Interesting bit
of language evolution there.
The most fun part, though, is the method of transport used to move us between the fields and the garden where we have our breaks: on top of a car. There's a beat up old car that the farmer drives and we - four backpackers and a dog - climb up and sit on the roof. We get taken back to the farm house garden and given lemon squash and ginger cake. I have a strange feeling that I might've ended up in a Milly Molly Mandy story...
So yes, life continues to pootle along. I get up at 4am every morning but I'm usually home and showered by about 3pm so I have plenty of Jos time. I'm continuing to pillage the library books and, from time to time, internet access. Oh yes, and I went to see a Fleetwood Mac tribute band last night.
