Farm, beach and rides

Well I'm starting to get kinda used to the Australian way of driving after a day of doing over 640 km's. When I tell this to backpackers they are all amazed and think I'm crazy, but when I tell this to Australians they tell me they do almost twice that in one day... Interesting culture difference I guess.

But first things first; I went to the farm near Lismore. Very beautiful area; very green, spacious and very sweet people. I stayed there with an older farmer from New Zealand, Al, and his wife, Oam, from Tailand. The first week there were 2 young belgium guys as well, so I had a chance to speak a lot of dutch again. They were nice, but they also smoked quiet a lot of weed. Therefore they were a bit lazy as well during the work that we had to do (or at least one of them) and I also fell a bit back into old bad habbits, though it made me realize as well that I don't like those habits anymore and I guess I grew over it.

The farm work was interesting; we did some weeding (devil figgs and certain vines), shoveling cow poo for fertilizing, harvesting bananas for personal use and we even deconstructed a small appartment like shed into reusable screws, wood and glass. We worked like 5 hours a day. In exchange there was an abundance food and Oam could cook really nice (and spicy) asian food. I had my own room which was really spacious and a few nights a week Al and Oam would organize a trip to go sightseeing something in the region. Sometimes it almost made me feel like doing a trip with my parents. Going back to that "being taken care of" state was actually quiet nice, but also made me desire independance at some point.

So the second week I usually went out to work on my own; Take the quad for a spin around the property and cut down lots and lots of devil figgs with a (farmer) machete. I loved it; good exercise, being out in nature and of course driving a quad! It was unbelievable to see how big the property was! In the mean time I definitely got a deeper and more equal connection with Al and Oam as well and I enjoyed their company and they definitely enjoyed mine as well. The last day I didn't have to work and I just used that time to drive around with the quad to all the boundaries of the property. It was really nice and also really bizar to have such a big property all to yourself. I found it very peaceful, but Al admitted that he could sometimes still be a bit annoyed by the noise his "neighbour" made, eventhough that was probably almost a mile away. He knew it was ridiculous, but I guess you can get used anything after a while.

My time had come to leave and I went back to my DJ friend with his sweet German wife in Byron Bay. They were busy for applying to a permanent visa for her, which apparantly costs $7000 AUD! They had to fill in a whole lot of paper work with a lot repetitive, vague and preposterous questions. I guess they really want you to work for it if you want your permanent visa here!

I managed to get a job delivering food in Byron Bay. It was only 3 hours for a few days a week, but because I got $10 per hour it was just enough to financially survive of. I actually really liked the job; delivering food on the motor bike. I needed to call in backup myself if it got to busy, so it also had quiet some responsibily with it. It did make it more stressful, but during my last few shifts I managed to make that stress work for me; The "stress" adrenaline just kept me sharper! My last shift was a bit of 3 hours and earned me $142 dollars. It was an exciting rushy evening and it was very satisfying, but if you only have 2 of those days a week you can't live off of it in Australia.

During this time I was looking around for a full time job, preferably construction or farming for my second visa, but it's on a low tide at the moment. So when after sending my resume and lots of motivation letters I finally got a response from something I was excited. It was a mechanic job for electric bicycle cabs in Cairns. So about 1850 km north. They needed someone ASAP.

So yeah, I did it in 4 days and now I'm in Cairns. It was really tiring and also a bit lonely on the bike, but I made it! It was interesting to see how the climate, plantation and the time of sunrise and sunset changes just by driving north, a lot! I got into contact with someone I met at the Moto Guzzi rally and I am at his place right now. It's a beautiful home in Cairns and they gave me a nice bed for the night and his wife cooked and amazing dinner for us. They also offered me to use the computer, so here I am. Tomorrow I have a interview about the bicycle mechanic job and we'll just see where it goes from there.

Yes I am up to date again with my story, now I'll just have to try to stay up to date again haha. Safe travels everyone!