Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone!

Sydney

I noticed that it has been a very very long time since I've written any updates. Lately, things have been moving along alright. After leaving Cairns and heading South to Sydney, I couldn't find any work that allowed me to save up money like I would have liked. So instead of just floating on in Sydney, I decided to come back to Moree and work on a cotton farm again. It's almost poetic really. Starting and ending my Australian in the same town, doing the same work. It feels a lot different this time though, compared to last time. I can remember just getting here a year ago, and having that feeling like everything is new and exciting... because it was. This time however, it just feels like a anti-climactic end to an amazing story. A story that brought me half-way around the World, in contact with some very amazing people, and an experience that I will never be able to forget, only to end at a Cotton Farm in Moree.

Bondi Beach

I came out to Moree with an Australian friend named James, who I met in Sydney. We work on the same farm, and live in town. We rent a room at a boarding house full of Serbians, who for Christmas cooked up a really good feed. Other than that, for Christmas all I did was sit around and watch shit movies.

Sunset at a Cotton Farm

Christmas Dinner

If I'm coming across as depressing, then I apologize. It is not my intention to depress, it's just that I guess I expected a little bit more a crescendo. It's my own doing though, I was the one who chose to come back here and save the money. I could have easily stayed in Sydney and burned through my saving hoping for a better climax. And why did I choose this? well, I will tell you.

THAILAND!

I can see it in the horizon. Out in the vanishing distance, I can begin to make out the beginnings of a new epic journey. With rasta bars, full moon parties, ladyboys, cheap drinks and cheaper cigarettes. And rocks! That's right, rocks! Sam, my little brother, who hasn't updated his blog since last time he was in Thailand will be making a 2nd trip to the country and meeting me there. He has been working on a lobster boat in Southern California, and when his season finishes he will be meeting me in Thailand sometime in March. I will be there at the end of January. My flight leaves Sydney January 30th. I only have a one-way ticket to Thailand  so I don't really have any plans on how things will go or what will happen. All that I do know is that come March I will be heading down to Phuket, getting on a speed boat that will take me to Ton Sai, where I'll meet up with my little brother who I haven't seen in well over a year.

So there we have it. I might get one more posting here in Australia before heading to Asia, I might not. Only time will tell.

Sydney

Sailing Whitsunday Island, Australia

VIDEO OF WHITSUNDAY ISLAND

It's been a good couple months since I did this trip, but I finally sat down and put together a video about the Whitsunday Island trip. 

The boat is called Tongara and it is a catamaran. I think there were about 25 people or so on the boat, and we sailed around the island and reef, snorkled, drank lots of good, got naked, and had an amazing time. The trip was three days, two nights, and every night we slept on the deck of the boat. It was pretty epic. Definitely worth doing if you ever get around to Australia. 

The boat leaves from Airlie Beach, which is located in central Queensland. It's a pretty cool little town and a lot of tourists and backpackers go though it. 

We went to Airlie Beach after leaving 1770. At one point the road was closed, for whatever reason, and we ended up going on a detour that probably cost us about three hours. When we were about 40k from Airlie Beach, the Van blew a tire and we didn't have a jack. Luckily, within a few minutes a girl pulled over and let us use the jack in her car, but when I couldn't get my spare down because I didn't have any tools, she drove 20k to the next town and picked up a wrench and came back. Once I got the spare down I realized that it didn't have any air in it, so again, the girl drove back to town with the tire, filled it with air, and drove back to us. I was pretty shocked that she went that far out of her way to help us, but I was glad she did otherwise we would have been stranded on the road for a very long time. 

We ended up getting in to Airlie beach much later than expected, and all of the hostels were closed so we ended up sleeping in the van and in the morning we booked a hostel. 

It's been a few months since that happened and as I write this it feels like it was so long ago. So much has changed since being on the Tongara. So much.. 

 

Video: Gopro Hero 2 Backpacking Australia, Fraser Island Tour with Dingos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEzRCLodimY&feature=plcp

Fraser Island is a small, remote, island off the coast of Queensland Australia. The island contains one a large concentration of Dingo, which are a species of wild dog native to Australia. Comedic ads can be found all over the internet about how “a dingo ate my baby,” due to the fact that on several occasions throughout the years, families who have been camping on Fraser Island have had their small children taken and killed by packs of Dingos.

The tour I was on was through the hostel named “Dingo’s,” which is a hostile located in Rainbow Beach, Queensland. The tour consisted of three days and two nights on the island and camping was allowed on the Aboriginal land near the middle of the island.

Primarily the trip was rather basic, and consisted of driving around in four-wheel-drive vehicles through the sand, stopping at different points to see amazing lakes, view points, and other popular destinations. The nights mostly consisted of consuming large quantities of alcohol and marijuana, and running around naked with the other backpackers on the trip. Mornings usually involved a solid hangover, which was easily overcome by jumping into the ocean, or a lake.

Besides how amazing the trip was, the best part was easily the people that were involved. Making new friends and then getting entirely drunk with them was by far the best part.

Backpacking the East Coast of Australia - Town of 1770

I had no intention of visiting the town of 1770 when I initially embarked on my trip up the East Coast of Australia, but when I was booking my tickets for Fraser Island and Whitsunday I was convinced to come by the travel agent. He didn't get anything from it, so his motivation was purely out of love for the town that he "meant to visit for only a week and got stuck there for six months." He recommended the backpackers hostel called Cool Banana's, which as far as I'm concerned was the best recommendation I've ever had. The hostel is by far the best hostel I've been in since being in Australia. The town is small, and there is only an IGA grocery store and a gas station, or "servo," as it would be called by the locals. There are also quaint little restaurants random shops, but there are no commercial food chains, and no massive shopping chains like Wal-Mart or Home Depot. The beaches are amazing and it is in fact the last place that has surf on the way north (coastline north of here is blocked by the Great Barrier Reef).

From what I have been told, the town of 1770 in Queensland, Australia is the 2nd place where Captain Cook stopped after discovering Australia in the year 1770. Hence the name.


After arriving at Cool Banana's, I parked my van and was only charged $10 a night to use all the facilities, including the amazing kitchen, and sleep in my van. To get an 8 room dorm runs anywhere from $23 to $27 a night, which is still a great price.

At night there is a fire pit burning and all the residents sit around smoking cigarettes (or other things), and drinking while listening to music and chatting about the random things. Some people are heading south, some people are headed north, but everyone is usually amazing. Last night a Canadian guy drank half a bottle of Tequila without stopping. It was as though he was dying of thirst and needed water, though he was neither dying or needed water. About forty-five minutes later the alcohol bagan to work and he could hardly stand, which was expected. The whole ordeal was extremely impressive and I commended him for his ability.


Cool Banana's report  

Pros - Extremely Clean, Very Friendly staff, fun owner, very nice kitchen ($6 dollar nightly meals can be purchased, which are amazing homemade meals with fresh ingredients), walking distance to the beach and grocery store and bottle shop, bringing your own alcohol into the hostel is allowed and/or encouraged.

Cons - NONE!!!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

As my time here in Moree begins to get closer to an end, I wondered what this town really has that might be considered "interesting." Lo and Behold, I found something. At least something that I consider interesting. A connection to the author Charles Dickens who wrote Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities to name a couple.

Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens

Charles Dickens had quite a few children, the youngest being Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens and for some reason he was nicknamed "Plorn." From the brief research I did, Plorn was spoiled and wasn't really very good at anything and failed to impress his father, which was a concern to Charles as it was suspected that Plorn was his favorite child, hence the fact that he was so spoiled. "A shy boy with no idea of what he wanted to do in life, he had been taken out of school at fifteen and was sent to an agricultural college in Cirencester." As pointed out by Claire Tomalin, the author of Dickens: A Life(2011).

Around that time Plorn's older brother Alfred had been living in New South Wales Australia and owned or ran a sheep station. Charles decided to send Plorn here and wrote Alfred asking if he would take care of him, with hopes that maybe Plorn would become something impressive.

From the time Plorn arrived in Australia until his death, his life was filled with business failures and gambling losses. He did hold public office for a brief time as a member of the State Legislature, but was quickly overtaken by a member of the Labor Party. At one point, Plorn borrowed 800 pounds from his brother Harry and for eighteen years he never made any attempt at paying the debt. Just in case you were wondering, 800 Pounds in 1880 would have been worth roughly 40,000 pounds today, which is about 60,000 US Dollars. Some historians expect that Plorn gambled the money away with hopes of bolstering up his failing business dealings.

In the end, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens died with nothing, no money, no children, no property, and was buried right here in Moree, New South Wales.

Another Interesting thing about this town is the Natural Artisan Hot springs. Artisan means that the water from the ground comes to the surface naturally without needing to be manually pumped. Over the years Moree has been famous for these hot tubs, and people come from all over because they think the water will heal them from something. Usually when my roommate and I go it is early in the morning and the pool is filled with old, fat, deteriorating Serbians, but the pool is still hot and relaxing. 

Aisling and Me at the Moree Artisan Hot Pool

The inner workings of a cotton gin in Moree, NSW Australia

Greetings from New South Wales Australia. Lately, time has been scarce as work at the cotton gin continues. Whenever I tell anyone that I'm working at a cotton gin, they always ask what a cotton gin does. A simple explanation is that a cotton gin gins cotton. A more complex explanation is that is take cotton, which has dirt, seeds, sticks, and other contaminates in it, and cleans all those out leaving only the cotton. Invented by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin changed the course of American history and played a crucial rule in the industrial revolution. Ironically, I'm in Australia.  And that is where I have been working for the past couple months. I work night shift, 7pm to 7am, and after work I usually just got straight to sleep.

-->

Putting out a fire in one of the Gin Stands

Using the Moon Buggy to put cotton into the feeder bay

The good thing is that I have been able to save up a considerable amount of travel money. The bad is that I don't have time to participate is the extremely exciting events that the city of Moree has to offer. Due to the fact that most of you have no idea about Moree, I will tell you now... That last statement was a joke. There is nothing to do in Moree except drink, which is likely why the locals and aboriginals get along so well here.

A simple illustration of how a cotton gin works. 

-->
For all rights and purposes, Moree is located in the North-East region of New South Wales, however the locals consider Moree Western New South Wales. The reason for this is likely the fact that if you travel any further west of here, there is hundreds of miles of uninhabited desert known as the Australia Outback.  Moree consists mostly of Aboriginals (which are very much similar to modern-day Native Americans), A small amount of locals (who usually have a different variety of Australian accent. It sounds more like a mix of hillbilly mixed with Australian and it is very difficult to understand at first), and seasonal workers mostly consisting of Irish backpackers, one of which I am currently sharing an apartment with. My roommate Aisling works at the gin with me and we have the same shift. She talks in her sleep and isn't very clean, which I am not unfamiliar with after growing up sharing a room with my older brother who at the time had the same tendencies (even now I'm sure he still talks in his sleep, though I dont know for sure), and it doesn't help that I'm not the tidiest person either, which makes for a nice place..

Ginning season will likely be over around the beginning of August, at which point I will likely head to brisbane and then North to see some of Australia before heading down to Sydney and Melbourne for the summer. Though it seems that plans always tend to change themselves and I am simply forced to adapt to them, all of this is of course tentative.

Hopefully I'll have more time to update the blog in the future, but for now this is all you get. Enjoy

GoPro Byron Bay Video and an update on how things are going in Australia.

I know it's been a while since my last post and I apologize for that. On the upside, I edited the video from Byron, so enjoy that. Things here in Australia have changed quite a bit. After Byron, I got back to the farm only to find that they had ran out of work, which would have been great information to know before I went to Byron, but I guess you can't expect that kind of communication out of a billion dollar cotton business. All in all it ended up working out better because I got a job at a cotton gin which ends up paying almost twice as much as what I was getting at the farm, and I dont have to spend the day doing bitch work like pulling out weeds and taking out trash while all the other guys drive tractors.

I found a cheap place to rent in town, and the cotton in is 10 minutes down the road. I work 12 hour shifts at night from 7pm to 7am, which I actually like a lot. The days go by fast and the money fills up in the bank account as well, but there really isn't much time for anything else which is good because it helps keep the bank filled.

Byron Bay was pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Travelers and backpackers from around the world who lack inhibitions, morals, and money. I fit in perfectly. So perfectly in fact that after ginning season is over I'll likely go back and begin my East Coast tour of Australia from there. My plan is the head north for the Winter, and then work my way back South for the summer finally ending up in Melbourne.

On another note, I cut off all my hair.

Don't bother asking if there is some grand explanation for the haircut because there is not, I just simply got tired of it and felt like something different. And with leaving the farm and coming to the gin I figured that it was as best a time as any. 

Another reason for not updating the blog lately has been my lack of internet. It wasn't until recently that I finally got internet, so I can now update when I do happen to have time, though that doesn't appear to be the case in the near future. Not until the ginning season is over at least. 

For those of you who dont know what I gin is, it is a factory that takes the cotton from the farmer and turns it into clean cotton by taking all the stick, seeds, and dirt out of it. It's actually a pretty amazing process. 

Well, here is my Byron Video, enjoy

Australia Sunset

So I set my new camera up to get a time lapse sunset here at the farm. The time lapse video is still processing, but I managed to pull this frame out because it just looks cool.

I'm getting a vacation!

It looks like in the next few days we'll all be getting a week off here at the farm. Harvest doesn't start until april 10th, and it looks like all the ground prep will likely be done in the next 4 or 5 days which will give us all time to go have a holiday. I'm thinking of going down to Sydney for that time though I've been told that I should go to Byron Bay as well. The problem is that after harvest I'll be buying my manager's Mitsubishi Pajaro and traveling around the country in it, and my plans are to go North for the winter, which means I won't likely be going to Sydney after harvest though I will be going to Byron Bay. I think I've pretty much set my mind to go to Sydney for the week off.

There are a couple of Canadian girls on the farm that are working as nanny's and they come over and party with us on occasion. Last night was one of the those occasions as we had today (Sunday) off. It looks as though we've had the past few Sundays off, which has been kind of nice. The only problem with having days off is that there really isn't all that much to do around here other than work, so when we get a day off we all just end up getting loaded drunk and using the day off to recover which is cool too. Last night I drank a heap a wine, which worked pretty well. Beer and Liquor are pretty expensive around here, but I found a 4 liter box of wine for ten bucks, which is pretty awesome. It does the job.

Since irrigation has ended we've just been doing random work around the getting the fields ready for harvest. Yesterday I spend the whole day on a tractor fixing all the roads with a drag bucket, which was pretty sweet. I ended up listening to an audio book for 12 hours. William Faulkner. The Sound and the Furry. I haven't finished it, but if I drag bucket tomorrow I will for sure.

Here are a few pictures. Cheers

Driving the tractor

Sunrise

John Deer 7730

Driving around the farm

Getting Drunk with the guys, and the Canadian Girls

VIDEO: Cotton Farming in Australia Siphon Flood Irrigation

Last night a bunch of us went to the pub because we had today off. After I woke up I had some time to put together this video that I promised. So here you have it. 

Remember that this was shot with a shit point-and-shoot camera. I'll be getting a better video camera here soon, so be expecting some better quality videos in the future. 

Cheers

Red Belly Black Snakes, Eastern Brown Snakes, Siphon Flood Irrigation, And Cotton farming in Australia

Things down here are going very well. I've been pretty busy with work, with a week average being around 80 hours. It's pretty nice, there isn't much else to do, and the money is good. I took a few pictures and also took some videos with the shit camera that I have, so hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have a short little video of the farm work. Until then, here are a few pictures of me throwing siphons and the beautiful sunsets.

I'm hoping that in the next month or so I'll get a couple days off and head to Sydney or Brisbane and pick up a vehicle. If I had a car before I left the farm, I would be able to use the workshop to set it out how I want. They have a welder and wood working tools that would come in handy when trying to set up a backpacker ride.

The pictures of me throwing siphons are frames from the video I shot, which isn't great quality. The picture of the snake is a Red Belly Black Snake, which is one of the most deadly snakes in the world. I took these pictures of it before we beat the shit out of it with a post. I also almost got bit by a baby Eastern Brown Snake which is the 2nd most venomous snake in the world. It missed though and I didn't have time to take a pictures. They are very aggressive, and while it was coming after me, he didn't see Levi, who smashed him with a board.

The girl is my friend Leija, who was in Moree for work. We met at the pub. She was in town because Moree was declared a natural disaster because of the floods and she works for the government and had to come out in order to process claims. She is from Sydney.

Work on the Cotton Farm Continues after these brief messages

After working for 7 days, we got a couple of days off. In proper Australian fashion we all got drunk and played darts. At one point, Mustard took one to the finger and bled all over the floor. Then we went to Town and drank some more where James puked on the floor in the smoking patio and got kicked out. But all is well here here in Australia. Here are a few pictures of the debauch.

Flooding in Moree, NSW. Still bored so I took some more photos

We'll likely get some work in tomorrow, but as for now, we're just hanging around. The barracks didn't really get effected by the floods, other than the fact that the roads are blocked by water and we can't get to town. Also, James and I work about 25km from the barracks and the road to our shed is blocked as well, so we've just been bumming around, not doing much.

Because of the boredom, I decided to take a few more pictures of the surrounding area and the barracks from the outside. Take a look!

It's a good thing kimball gave me these boots

This is the view from my bedroom