And back again!

So yeah after my day off I didn't hear anything yet about when the next job would start, so I took another well deserved day off and I still didn't hear anything. Next day I went to work and I was replaced. Great.. I guess I had to much self respect to be slaved around as much as my tractor collegea would like. So picking tomatoes then I guess? Well being bent over in between the tomato plants all day for $1,80 a bucket wasn't what I hoped it would be. After one and a half days I was sick of it and quit. No slaving around for barely $10 an hour for me.

So after my few hours of working the second day I decided to drive to a national park nearby for a hike. Barmah national park to be exact. I didn't even realise it was in New South Wales until I crossed the border. After that I saw the sign with direction so just follow the signs, right?

After about 30 km of driving the road I saw a sign "24 km unsealed road ahead". Oh shit. Well I've driven some gravel road and it all went fine, just drive a bit slower. By the time I reached the gravel road I looked at the sky; "I don't trust those clouds. Should I do this?". Well a real man only admits his mistake when he's in really deep shit I guess, so I thought "Sure, just drive faster to get through the 24 km in time".

To give you an Idea, I saw one farm on the whole 24 km, for the rest it was totally abandoned. I drove the first 10 km like 70-80 km/h, which I guess was really stupid to begin with, but it went fine. I slowed down a lot though once I almost slipped by the gravel road turning into loose sand and my bike felt like a loose canon. To play a joke on me, this was also the moment it started to rain a bit. "Oh shit, I really screwed myself just now!" Same old question; go back or keep going?

I kept going. The area was absolutely beautiful, but I was way to focused on the road, or sand actually, and the clouds to really enjoy it. Luckily the rain didn't persist and after about 5 km of loose sand it became more sturdy gravel again. Once I made it to asphalt I felt so relieved! About half an hour later the sun came through and stayed for the rest of the day. Funny timing right; a lesson that needed to be learned maybe?

Well after about another half an hour of asphalt I finally arrived in Barham. So where is the national park. Tell me google maps: "Barmah national park: 134 km" WHAT?! Oh no, I drove to Barham, not Barmah. "HAHA, that's so funny!" I couldn't stop lauging at myself. I put myself through that stress to end up in the wrong town. After asking a local there apparantly wasn't even anything to do there, no nature walks at least. Figures! haha xD

Well still got a long ride home to go, so better take a break and start driving. The next few days I went a bit of sight seeing closer to Merrigum and spent my last nights drinking with the friends I made in the caravan park.

Before going back to Melbourne I decided to take a detour to Alexandra, which looked like a very green area on my map. On the way there I came across one road that was absolutely amazing with the bike; lots of turns and going up and down in the mountain area. I just didn't dare to push it too much with the steap on the right side of the road. I ended up in a free camp site, which was a nice spot, though there was one guy staying there which was a very nasty guy. Guess not everybody is camping for a nice experience.

The next day I drove multiple roads including Lake Eildon, where I arrived after an amazing lookout and then driving a lot of gravel road through a nature area with occasional houses here and there. After I drove between Marysville and Warburton. Wow! It was an absolutely amazing ride with the bike! I still want to go back there with less stuff on my bike, cause oh my, just no words for it.

After I went past the farm of friends in Seville for a bit to catch up and then back to the big city.I spent a few days in St Kilda and the CBD meeting up with people again and having a nice time. I had a festival planned for the weekend that I was really looking forward to. But you know what they say, when you look forward to something too much it can only disappoint. Well this was definitely NOT the case; It was absolutely amazing! It was a very small and intimate festival. The location was ridiculously beautiful and the vibes and the people were unbelievable! I had the best time!

The tuesday after I would start working at a tree nursery in Silvan, just outside of Melbourne. I couldn't find a affordable place nearby so I booked a hostel in St Kilda. It was about an hour drive from there if you know the way and we started at 7 pm. poeh, that wasn't easy. Luckily a colleague knew a shared house nearby where I'm staying now with 10 people and the atmosphere is just great and it's only 7 minutes drive from work.

:The first night in the hostel though I got attacked by bed bugs again. (I !"%^$F!F hate bed bugs!) Some of the spots on my legs got opened up from scratching and clothing and they got a bit infected. So I guess it's not all good. I did have a nice phone call with my dad yesterday because of it though and with good washing, no trousers, no shoes and some antibiotics cream I got from a roommate it's already starting to look better.

"Don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright" And I'm sure it will. I'm at the good place here now and the job is nice; moving around trees, potting them, staking them and some sweeping here and there. Making some money before I'll start moving more north, cause I notice the winter is slowly creeping in now. Better leave victoria before I start freezing on the bike, haha.