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Well, so now I am here in Kuranda, Cairns, with these beautiful surroundings of the tropical rainforest (which is not dry any longer, since the two past days the forest lived up to its name).
The Blazing Saddles property is huge with forest and bush land all the way around, with all that comes with it of animals and the like. We often see wallabies(art of kangaroo) or wild cattle on our rides, or even snakes or huge lizards in the forest-parts. Sometimes I feel thankful for being on horseback and not walking when we meet some sorts of animals.
We work from early to late, share the cooking and wash our laundry by hand.
The weather is funny, sometimes heavy cloudy and really humid, other days sunny and windy, but the sky is clear every night, and its so quiet, only sometimes the sound of an animal or two.
So it is pretty nice out here, just a couple of things starting to really get on my nerves. I woke up yesterday with ants all over in my bed, crawling around on me and they had bit me several places on my body. There are everywhere, even on my toothbrush, and its disgusting. Today I woke up with a spider hanging dangling over my head, and I saw two snakes yesterday on our property. Not just snakes, but the very poisonous Typan snake, 2 meter long at least and very alive. If you get bid from it you are dead within 10 minutes, I don't really feel amused!!! The toilets are leaking, so all sorts of frogs and "water-insects" live on the toilet as well.
I find it pretty difficult to relax or feel at home anywhere…
On top of that is the work not fun any longer. It is so, that I usually went on the tours with the guest on the horses, leading up in front and in general having a good time.Not any longer. It appears that I only did so to learn the trails, and now I can do other odd jobs like cleaning toilets or water-buckets, feeding, gardening and in general do really hard "mens"-work like handling 20kg big hay-packets and so on. It is fine, the work, the problem is just that I work from 6am to 6pm and I work hard and don't earn a s***. Oh yeah, I get to sleep in this tiny shed shared with all sorts of animals, and I get rice every evening (all the Japanese eat it all the time, they even cook extra so there is enough for breakfast as well - its worse than Derrick from Camphill). And all the others get paid for their work, per hour. And so, like today when there was only one person on the tour, all the rest staff basically got off, except for me, cause they don't need to pay me. So I work my ass off and don't get anything in return.
This is not a fair commitment to make: Usually you work 4-6 hours maximum when you work in exchange for food and lodging, and you usually live pretty descent at least. I am sorry to tell you guys at home, but I really feel used here, and I will now try to find something else. The work I put into this place is just not worth it, and even though I got very nature-freaky, I just can't feel this "crawly" feeling everywhere when I lay in bed and try to sleep. So even though I try to play tough and be cool with it, I won't do it much longer. I will maybe stay a week in my little zoo here, and then head on. Then I have managed nearly two weeks here, that must be enough;)
I have several other opportunities at the moment, so I will figure out a new plan within the next days and then return with updates for my further travel;) Hope you are all well.
Love, Angie in Aussie-Zoo =)
Well, here is my plan - DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
And so I did!
I went after lunch break straight to my boss and said that I find it unfair, that I feel used and that I wont stay here if this is the way (you probably all know this side of me!!) And wow, he agreed, told me that I can be off like everyone else and that I of course will receive some money for the work I do, just like every body else. It is not really money worth talking about, but pocket money(which is allowed with my tourist visa, so perfect!!:) and I will earn around 100$ per week. Amazing. I was still feeling s*** about my room-situation and I let out my frustrations on one of the other girls, and she took a look in my room. We decided then to move my bed away from a huge hole in the wall where all the ants come in from, and completely empty my room, clean it and try again. Ad so I did. Used my free time on scrubbing the floor, whipping the dust away and getting around most of the animals. As the last hand on the work I sprayed insect-repellent all over, and then I moved in again, packed out and made myself at home. And what a difference. I even feel good now. But again, how long does it take for all the animals to find their way back here, through all the holes?? I might need to do this more often, but at least I got to the bottom of it. Now I can maybe start to enjoy life here and sleep well and alone(!!) in the night. I put some photos in as well, of the place and so on, and well, see for yourself, it is pretty nice =)
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