393. Day of travel

Since 18.04. I’m working on a farm. My work is simple, but physical hard. I’m picking mandarins and lemons. From 7:30 am to 5:30 pm I’m on the field and working with other travellers. They are around 15 backpackers on this farm. My workmate Hannes is from Germany. He showed me how to drive a tractor. We become good friends. Later we’ve got a French girl and an Englishman in our team. We encourage and help eachother, it’s a good fellowship. There is no pressure when we work. Our supervisor is easygoing and very helpfull.

We’ve got paid per bin, 100 $ for one bin of mandarins and 80 $ for one bin of lemon, I do one and a half bin per day. The mandarins have to be cut at the stem with a clippers and the lemons can be pulled from the tree. I’ve got my first payment after two weeks. I can safe good money, because my accommodation is free. Hannes and me camp in the bush. Most of the other workers stay in a hostel, they pay nearly 200 $ for accommodation per week. At the beginning I eat only canned meals, because I didn’t had a stove. Till the French worker gave Hannes and me a stove. Then we cooked often together in the shed with the French. The shower is outside with cold water from a river. After sunset it’s often cold. Winter is coming to Australia (that means about 10° C at night). But during the day it’s a comfortable temperature for picking, mostly 25 ° C.

After we picked all the mandarins, it was end of May, the work became easier. We starting work at 8:30 am and finished mostly at 5 pm. We are picking only the lemon. The fruits got bigger and I made several times 210 $ on a day by picking 3 bins of lemon. The price for one bin is 70 $ now and the fastest bin I picked took me two hours, in my best week I made 1000 $. It’s not only picking, it’s also an adventure for me and I’m learning useful things for my life. After I learned how to drive a tractor, Hannes teached me how to drive a car. It was my first time ever that I drove a car, it was one with automatic gearshift. Then I drove the van of Xavier and Cecile, that was funny, like a little bus. The highlight was the ute, a four wheel pickup with manual gearshift. One night I stucked with my car on the field by collecting firewood. I walked back to shed, took the ute and a towlink, fixed the tow at the bottom of the car and pulled it out of the hole. I did this on my own, I was so proud. During the day we stuck sometimes with the tractor in a mud hole, it’s always exciting to release the tractor.

I’m very happy to found this farm and meet such nice people here. As longer I’m staying here, that more comfortable I’ve got it. I camped two month next to the dump place on the farm, there was nothing, only the rubbish and the bush. We called it “Mumbai”. Now I’m staying next to the pump station with electricity and running water. I’ve got a bigger tent (from Xavier), a second sleeping bag (from Orane), a gas cooker (from Cecile), a 22″ LCD (from Andy), video and audio cable (from Rick), movies (from Remco), new shirt and pullover (from Andy) and even a car to use it on the farm (from Andy and Ranji). After work I light a fire, cooking with the French and watching movies outside, I love it.

By staying longer one a place you made good friendships, but it come always the time to say goodbye. Hannes left the farm end of May and went back to Germany. Orane left in the middle of June and went back to France, the brothers and sisters Xavier and Cecile left on 27th June. As Xavier and Cecile left, Pierre and Elodie arrived. They are from France as well and they want to stay with me till the end of the season on the farm. So I can still enjoy the French society and continue to learn french.

In July we did pruning and got paid per hour (20 $). It was an easy job, we had a little handsaw and cut the water sprouts in the seedless lemons. In August we stripped the lemons, I worked with Fay and Remco in a group, we did a good harvest together. As spring started we spotted often snakes on the farm. At the beginning it was exciting, but then we got used to see snakes. A carpet python was living next to my tent and when I cleaned my camp I found the skin of a king brown snake (over 8 ft long). In the end of August only me and Jimmy worked on the farm, the other backpackers left, also Pierre and Elodie. So I stayed three weeks alone in my camp before I left. I cut weed between the orange trees with a hoe. This was very exhausting. But the hardest job I did in the end. I cut dead branches for more then a week with a chainsaw in the lemon trees. The chainsaw is noisy, heavy and stinky and you have to work careful to keep all you fingers.

When I left the farm the orchard looks much better as when I arrived. The block of seedless lemons is now straight cut, it was a jungle before. The ways for the tractor between the rows were repaired by Alan with a bobcat. In the lemon block we took all the dead wood out. Also the trees had heaps of flowers. Andy told me often I should make sure that I come next year again, then the season will be better then this year.

[Update 30.06.]
New text and pictures added

[Update 26.09.]
A couple of new pictures added. I left the farm on 22th September and cycled back to Brisbane.