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After Hervey Bay I got back on the oz experience bus and was deleighted to see the welsh man english man and scots man who i had now met a few times! they say when i am with them i complete the british isles. We travelled through childers were I went to a memorial for 10 backpackers who had been killed in a fire in 2000.
After this we travelled on to bundaberg. My plan was to get off the bus here and work for a while. I already knew rich from oz intro and he had managed to get me into his hostel were it is quite easy to get work. But welsh ryan and the others tried to get me to come on to the next stop with them.
After a moments hesitation i decided to stick to my plan. Rich met me off the bus and we went to the hostel. A converted prison- called cell block! I regretted my decision of getting off the bus within 10 minutes! My first impression of the hostel was that everyone who lived there was like a zombie. I soon learned why. Some people were working night shifts in packing sheds from 6pm-6am 6 days a week! others were working all day 7 days a week! I decided to pay for a week now i was there- another decision i regretted.
Later that day I found out that most of my oz intro friends who had been working there way down the coast were in arilie beach- were i would have been headed had i not stopped. However i had made my decision so had to stick with it. I was very lucky as the next day i got work. in a chilli factory!- thank goodness not tomatoes!
I worked 5 hours and it was horrific.- The factory was called AUSTCHILLI. no joke like austschwitz. And i soon learnt the bad sides to travelling. Yet my shift was only 5 hours so that was alright.
The next day i was given work in a potato farm. Leaving at half 5am starting at 6. And we cut potato plants in the blistering heat for ten and a half hours! The next day I could barely move but was back on the farm for 6am. 5 minutes before lunch the supervisor- who was called B1? told me the boss (who was nowhere to be seen) would send me home if i didnt speed up. ISo i sped up then 2 minutes later the van came to get us for lunch. When we got back to the barn he told me i was going home. I had been given no second chance. Everyone at the hostel found it hilarious and told me that farm fire people all the time as there is always another backpacker on hand to take over. To be honest i was delighted! Farm work was definitely not for me!!
I had a lazy weekend and it was good to see rich again and meet his friends. I was amazed how strong some of the people there must be. There was a german brother and sister who were in my room and had been there for 3 months. Between them they had saved 10,000 dollars. Yet they worked constantly (one day from 6am-9.30pm then again at 4 am the next morning. Perhaps us northern irish just arent cut out for it- i certainly know that none of my friends at home would have lasted more than a day. I think all in all it was a postive experience- yet i was so so so glad to get back on the bus and head out of town!!
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