Posts Tagged ‘farm’

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h1

Cruising the Land

May 22, 2010

If you recently got a driver’s licence and you are not too sure about your abilities I would recommend you to drive a Landcruiser across Australia….. and back.

After fifteen-thousand km, I’m feeling a bit more secure behind the wheel.

And, as a nice side effect, had a wonderful time cruising the land.

Although my legs are starting to complain about the lack of excercise in resent weeks…

When I dropped mum and dad off at Melbourne airport it seemed like a good idea to call a friend…

Brendan is driving his van around Australia. We met a couple of weeks ago and kept in touch We caught up at the airport so he could safely guide me out of Melbourne (…) At Mount Franklin we made camp. Brendan is very well-organized so even when its raining and real cold, you can sit warm and dry inside the van where a complete kitchen provides the luxury of a great meal… the cook helped on that account too :-) Another excellent feature is the shower. It runs on gas and in no time at all you can be as clean and warm as you can imagine, heavenly. No wonder I decided to meet up again along the way… ;-)

In the landcruiser I have got a Tom-Tom. I’ve never used it before so it seemed a good idea to ask for the shortest route back to Kapunda…

That was a mistake.

Or maybe not really a mistake since I had a very interesting time and took roads I NEVER would’ve picked on a map. The TomTom was friendly enough to start off with, even asked me if I wanted to avoid dirt-roads. I did. But then he continued completely ignoring me and the dirt-roads… any roads actually. He guided me into a lovely hilly area, but seemed to be unaware of the fact that the road he had in mind didn’t actually exist. Turn left now, turn left now…. TURN LEFT NOW. There wasn’t a left turn! In fact there wasn’t any turns… And it didn’t just happen ones. On some strangers driveway I decided TomTom knew even less where we were going than I did.

So I ignored TomTom and let him mumble to himself while I continued. To arrive in Kapunda just after sunset.

Where my parcel hadn’t arrived (more about that another time).

But after 2 days I wanted to move on. So I cooked (yes, I cooked! Seriously… strange things are happening this side of the world) a huge pot of ‘hutspot’. So I wouldn’t have to bother withbuying or making food along the way. You can’t take fruit & vegetable across the Western Australian border unless it’s cooked. So, there you go. I cooked…   (hutspot=Dutch dish of onion, carrot and potatoes all mashed up)

There is a lot of free-camp area’s in australia. Many are along the highways, but some are in hidden and amazing places.

They are easy to find if you get this guide-book ‘Camps Australia 5′. I didn’t. But lucky for me Brendan did :-) It is also referred to as ‘the travellers-bible’. And for good reasons, it guided us to some very pretty, quiet and free camp sites.

We stayed at stoney point where we walked around the lighthouse with sunset.

And the one at Pildappa rock. A huge granite outcrop in the middle of nowhere (like everywhere in Australia… pretty much) It was so pretty we stayed for two nights, climbed the rock had a beer and found a sheep.

Have I mentioned Brendan is from New Zealand?

After saying goodbye and see you later I kept cruising west. Back along the long straight road and past the hat-tree, the appliances-tree, the underwear-tree and the shoe-tree…

It seemed to take less time going back even though I stuck to 90km/h the whole way to annoy every other vehicle going my direction… And to safe fuel.

I found some lovely camping spots right on the edge, and one near a waterhole.

I wasn’t the only one there. Mark and Wendy were just on their way home from buying a fancy new caravan in Adelaide. It was fancy. And new. And in the fridge they had cold beer. And on the laptop they had a movie. And in the kitchen they could make sausages and poached eggs. I really liked their fancy new caravan…

In the car they had a two-way radio. So on our way to Norseman we could talk to each other about other road-users and the colour of the trees. (They looked beautiful! Like someone had gone to paint them all gold..)

In Norseman the friendly lady at the information was so friendly, she gave me a certificate to commemorate that I have crossed the Nullarbor. I didn’t think it was a huge feat. Not in a big white car. Not like it would be on a bicycle… But I’m not going that way on my bicycle. I’m gonna go straight across the middle of Australia. So I gladly accepted her certificate. And kept driving.

Untill I ran into my friend Don, who happened to be on his way east on the Enfield. After a night in the tent, a coffee and a go at the bike (love that bike) I kept going. The car was overdue, thought I better get it back.

But when I got back Michael told me to get up to Shark Bay and go fishing with a farmer. Strange request I thought, but ok. I drove the 500km North from Geraldton and went fishing with the farmer.

I caught a shark. Not a big one, but still.

I did catch the biggest fish of the day, a snapper. 77cm. So big it was illegal according to the chart, so we cut it up and chucked it on the BBQ :-)

Although I’m still not sure I can say ‘I caught it’ since someone else put the bait on and some one else took the fish off… Ah well, never mind.

At Shark bay you find ‘Stramatolites’.  Stramatolites are direct desendants of the oldest form of life on earth. About 3,500million years…

Since I was there I thought I’d better go and have a look…

Driving up to Shark Bay it suddenly struck me as very strange how people seem to find it perfectly normal to live in ridiculous remote places. Like Denham, Australia’s most westerly town, everybody just goes on with their lives like it’s no big deal that the next town is 500km down the road… Madness.

They idea behind the whole fishing-expedition was for me to get a job on that farm. Farmer said yes. But when I got down there nobody seemed to have any idea and farmer himself had mysteriously disappeared.

So there I was. With a Landcruiser full of stuff (bicycle, camping gear etc.) And no idea where to go or what to do. I rang Kayne. We worked together on the tarps and now he’s on a farm near Perenjori. I helped out for a day. Picking up rocks from the paddock. It seems like a crazy job to be doing on a 30.000 acre farm. But I guess it needs to be done.

I realized there is a bit of a language barrier between some of them guys (mostly kiwi’s) and me.

Like when I asked where they wanted me to drive the truck….

Him: “See them poles?“

Me: “I see a lot of poles, there’s a whole fence“

Him: ” No, not Poles… poles..“

Me: “ah! You mean piles?…. Yes, I see them“

Him: “right, just make a beeline for them centre two outside ones…” …And he walks of.

Me: “????“

After a few days of feeling slightly lost I got the car back to Michael. So that’s another chapter closed.

And I got a job at Gary and Jenny Masons farm.

They’re the same people I’ve spent x-mas with.

I’ve been doing random jobs around the farm from shovelling shit out of the shearing shed to scrubbing floors and from building brick pathways to planting flowers….

All this while waiting for rain…

Today it has started. If it keeps going we can start putting the crop in shortly and I’ll be doing one of the things I like best after cycling.

Driving big tractors :-D

One day I’ll get back on my bicycle.

It will be soon!

…I’ll let you know.

 

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Country roads

March 20, 2010

You meet people when you travel. Often you know it’s once and never again, sometimes it’s different though.

I met Anja in Karinjini National Park. I knew she’d found herself a spot in Margaret River so when I finally got there we spent a few days together doing things I don’t often do. Belly dancing for example.

We decided to take a trip up to Perth for the ’City Muster’. A country music gathering with names like John Williamson, Kasey Chambers, Becky Cole and Lee Kernaghan. The same line-up as at the Darwin City Muster where I was eight months ago. Only difference – I knew half the lyrics by now thanks to some cd’s lying about in my tractor.

It was almost more fun watching the audience as it was seeing the bands, but I have converted another soul to country, haven’t I Anja…? ;-)

Organised as we are we never planned where to sleep. But on this Saturday night, around midnight, we found a perfect spot in the dunes right at the city beach. No signs, or people, telling us we couldn’t camp here. And a refreshing swim in the morning is all you need to wake up.

Don (you might remember from Nepal, Thailand, Darwin…) happened to be in Perth too. After meeting for a coffee we took his Enfield for a ride. I wasn’t quiet dressed for the occasion, but after borrowing his jacket, helmet & boots I was good to ride around a little. I still like motorcycles.

Apparently there is six degrees of separation right? …

I reckon there’s only two in Western Australia.

Everywhere I’ve gone and just about everyone I’ve talked to knows a person I have met before.

Up north I met Chicky, he lives in Margaret River and happened to know Anja as well. I stayed over at his place where I had the most comfy bed you can imagine; A swag on a trampoline :-)

Jippa, one of the other guys I met in the same place took me for a mountain bike ride. Brilliant fun, and a lot less pushing then I do with my own bicycle… Especially the cold beer afterwards was extremely enjoyable.

A great thing about meeting up with people you’ve met before is that it feels like meeting up with old friends. It was no different here. I enjoyed the luxury of having a home and a family for a few days. Complete with BBQ’s and beaches and a dog.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, it’s not (just) the places you visit but the people you meet that make it all worthwhile.

I had a good time riding down to Augusta through lovely cool forest. But that is where the road ended. The most South-West corner of Australia. It was either cycle back up or try to get across the water. It didn’t take long at all to find a lift to the other side where I promptly got invited by a lady named Margaret. At the jetty she was waiting for her friends to come over to go fishing, swimming and watch the stingrays.

I joined them and ended up catching my first fish ever. Had it on my plate that same evening :-) Life is great (well, not for that particular fish… obviously)

I do not like sand very much. Australia has been trying real hard to convince me and has given me red sand, yellow sand, white- and even black sand. But nothing helps, I still don’t like pushing through sand. I do like the places it usually gets me though.

Like along the track east of Augusta. I planned to camp and called into a farm-house to top up on water.

Chatting to the farm-lady I found out I’m the first cyclist she’s seen passing her house in the last seven years. She does see a few, but usually on the main road, just 10km further north…

About to go and milk cows she wondered if I’d care to have a look. Now I have a sister living on a dairy farm I thought it might be interesting to see how things work here.

There were 900 cows. All of them need milking twice daily.

I have never been shat and peed on by a cow before. I can tell you it’s not the greatest thing I’ve done and I’d recommend everyone to step back when it happens. It smells bad.

Two days and many cows later I thought it be time to move a little further east.

That’s when I got back into the forest where the trees grew bigger and the flies too. March flies.

I thought I had experienced them, but never as bad as on this stretch of road. As soon as you go below 20 km/h they come and drive you mad. Only on a long downhill run you get rid of them a little while before they come zooming around your head again. I found waving a branch around a very effective way to stop them from biting. It’s a bit of a hassle though, to cycle with one hand and wave that branch around with the other.

I got to Pemberton where I met some others cycling and even a hiker. Main conversation topic was those flies. And what to do about them. Apparently mixing baby oil with dettol works well. Haven’t tried it yet but will do so when the need arises.

Another topic was Sunderland. And how, apparently, they are the best… (you’re welcome Chris…)

On my map I’d seen a road that looked interesting to me. Through D’Entrecasteaux National Park. It’s remote and rugged and combines pristine beaches and tall tree forest in a wild and spectacular landscape… That is what it says in the leaflet anyway.

The road was rather rough but the March-flies weren’t too bad. It surprised me to find a whole lot of abandoned beach shacks at the end of a road to an Inlet. Great spot to camp, and no shortage of water.

It’s been real nice to just cruise around and stay in places a little longer since (as I keep telling myself) I’m in no particular hurry. I’m not actually going anywhere, just making a bit of a loop around the South-West.

So when I ran into a guy on a motorbike and started talking and drinking coffee after only 30km of cycling I wasn’t too bothered about staying right there for the night and have him cook up a feast on the BBQ while enjoying a glass of wine and listening to music. Yes, it’s a hard life indeed.

I made my way slowly to the valley of the Giants.

Big trees. Actually Huge Big trees. A kind of Eucalyptus grows here to heights up to 80 meter. Impressive to cycle in between, even more impressive to walk through the tops. That’s exactly what you can do at the ’tree-top-walk’ the name kindda gives that away)

I spend hours wandering around with Tommy and Nicole who are driving around and helped me out in a few different ways (nog bedankt he!)

In the small town of Denmark I fell off my bike. A silly thing to do in the middle of a busy town. Slightly embarrassing as well. It wasn’t my fault though! A little screw came undone so I couldn’t get my shoe loose from my pedal. Not even after I fell over. So I sat on the road, took off my shoe, got my bike back up and hopped on one sock to the nearest coffee shop while my ankle nearly snapped and ordered a coffee like it is all perfectly normal.

The coffee was excellent, so I ordered another one… and then an orange juice…

I got talking to a bunch of Dutchmen one of whom happened to own a sport shop and promised to send me a pair of bike shorts! Yay! How lucky was that?

Cycling away along the coast against the wind I wondered why I even bothered leaving Denmark that day. While looking around for a camp spot a van pulled up beside me: “Are you the Dutch girl..?” was the question. “We are the Buff-people!”

Eight months ago in Katherine I lost my ‘Buff’. I love this little piece of material so sent an email to the company asking where I could get one. They sent me a couple… Here in the van were Edward and Inge, the very same people who sent them to me! Over from Queensland for the Ulysses-meeting.

We camped together that night at gorgeous Shelley Beach.

I’ve seen lots and lots of motorbikes on the road the last few days. The Ulysses-club is Australia’s biggest motorcycle club where all members have at least one thing in common. They are all over 50. Their motto is; ‘Grow old disgracefully’… Sounds alright to me.

So I went, had a look and stayed. The full week.

I hung around the Buff-stand for a bit and checked out all those people on motorbikes, a very varied crowd indeed.

About 3500 people came to Albany from all over Australia and set up camp at the oval. There was a huge tent with bands playing, I had a look once but felt a little out-of-place.

It felt slightly ridiculous being in my tent trying to sleep at 9pm while all them ‘old people’ were out there dancing the night away.

It was a good chance to look around town, meet up with some old friends from near Mullewa and see another side of Australia…

And I did indeed meet some interesting people I’m sure to catch up with along the way.

The idea had been to leave Albany after a day or three and cycle up the Stirling ranges. Instead I stayed a week, got a lift up the highway and cycled only the last 40km. Because I wanted to be in Katanning before St. Patrick’s day.

When I got out of the van in Kojonup a lady came up and started talking to me. She told me she lived just 15km down the road and if I would like to come and stay…

On the farm it was sheep-shearing-time. A great opportunity to have a look around and see how that goes. I even had a go myself! I think I’ll stick to cycling, but good to have a look around.

In her beautiful farmhouse I discovered this lady’s sister is married to Shirley’s brother.

Shirley is, together with Isabel and Gerry, one of my ‘Three Aussie Grannies’ whom I met three years ago in the hostel in Ireland. When they heard about my plans they told me to come and see them when I got there…

They have followed my journey from the start, exactly three years ago today. Shirley prints out all my stories so the ladies who are not on internet can read them too.

So Katanning, their hometown, has been a place on my map I knew I would get to at some stage.

When I arrived in town and walked into a random shop to ask if they happen to know Shirley I was surprised when the reply came as; “Yes, she is my mum.” Out of 3500 people I picked her son to ask.

It’s been the warmest welcome I’ve ever had.

I have stayed with all three of my ‘grannies’ and they introduced me to just about every single person in town and even put me in the newspaper!

They took me down to the largest sheep-sale-yards in Western Australia.

I have visited two primary schools so must have talked to nearly ALL the children in Katanning (there is three primary schools)

We had a great time at the all-ages-playground and got all dressed up and ready to party on St Patrick day when we found out we were the only ones in the pub… But we made our own party :-)

From here I will slowly make my way back towards Perth were, at the end of this month, I will welcome Mum & Dad to Australia!

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a Harvest Holiday

December 17, 2009

I’ve had a great time riding around on my beautiful big red tractor.
With 485hp and 3,5 meter high it’s easily the biggest thing I’m ever likely to drive.
And, over the past six weeks collecting roughly 15.000 ton grain, I’ve made a good amount of money doing so. A nice side-effect….

There’s few things you must think about when operating a machine this size.
First of all, and obvious, don’t hit anything. I’m a 20 ton tractor with a 30-ton trailer, if you hit something it’s not likely to survive… I’ve managed that one alright,
Another rule is not to drive into the crop. Ever. I’ve managed to stick to that one too.

Farmers can do everything right, but if the weather doesn’t help they’re pretty much buggered.
Like when it starts raining during harvest.
The moist-level in the grain is a measure you have to take notice of. When it gets too high you need to stop working.

It’s a beautiful sight to see the dark clouds rolling in over the paddocks, with lightning and thunder… that’s another problem though. If lightning strikes on dry land a fire is easily started.
Every farm has to have a fire-fighter car in the corner of the paddock they’re working in. And when a fire is detected everybody has to stop work, ‘cause if another fire starts there will be real trouble.
All surrounding farms will send their fire-fighters to the blaze and try to control it. It’s a real threat so while working you keep an eye on the horizons for smoke.

It’s a good job; actually it’s a great job! I’ve spend up to 90 hours a week in my comfortable cabin where I’ve got all possible luxuries, from air con to a DVD player. It’s truly glorious.
Funny how you spend a lot of time working with a few people, but you never actually see them outside the machines. Apart from 1st thing in the morning and last thing at night…

I am staying in Tony’s and Judy’s house, the farmer and his wife. They’ve been like a mum and dad to me while here. They’ve got 4 kids of which the three sons work out here on the farm. Daniel and Tim both live on the property with their own families while Jerome, the youngest, comes home for the busy times and has been travelling the world over the past 5 years.
Then there is Barry, Tony’s 73 year old uncle who operates the other chaser bin and Connor, on the header, a 18 year old English lad who’s just over for the harvest and will go straight back home when we finish.

My job is to chase the boys around the paddock and offload them before their headers overflow.
We’ve got a bunch of guys carting the grain to Geraldton in Road trains.
Mike and John come in most regularly.

On one of the rare days off John figured I should see a bit of the area. So we took his car and cruised up the ‘Batavia-coast’ towards Kalbarri. A very scenic drive passing some peculiar pink lakes, beautiful windy coast roads, and cliffs. Climbing up a hill to have a look at this statue of a man on a bike we got a bit stuck in spider webs… lucky they weren’t dangerous ones…. (the spiders, obviously the webs weren’t)

John had told me he got me a birthday present, but I needed to come to Geraldton to get it…
So after work on the 8th I hopped onto his truck and off we went.

I happened to have the Best birthday Ever.
Better than cycling in pouring rain in Indonesia (29th).
Better even than sharing pizza with 14 strangers including a Buddhist monk in Kathmandu.. (28th)
Better than building a snow-lady in Sweden …(26th) Although the bicycle-birthday cake I got there deserves a mention…
Better than getting my hair & make-up done and be all pretty and girly in Derry (25th).
Better than hiking across Spain (24th) and most definitely better than sitting around on an airport (23th) or living in a closet in Edinburg (22nd) …

It might be because it was my first birthday in summer, or it might be because John took me to the airport and in a tiny little plane we took off to the Abrolhos islands. It was a beautiful trip and from the air you see all the coral reefs and small islands where fishermen and pearl farmers are trying to make a life in harsh but pretty surroundings.
We could even see dolphins from the air!

It also happens to be the exact spot where the 1st Europeans set foot on Australian soil back in 1629 when the Dutch VOC-ship the ‘Batavia’ hit the reef and sank, leaving the passengers and crew stuck on those desolated islands where they stayed and survived till some of the crew rowed to Indonesia to get help. Most were brutally murdered, but some survived and made their way to Indonesia and eventually back home. Some were punished for their crimes and either hanged or let loose on the mainland. Where, so the story goes, they might have mingled with local aboriginals. From the 341 people who set sail from Holland only 77 survived…
A small fort still stand on the island these days and I flew right over the top to see the first European building in Australia. I find it funny to think that the first people here were Dutch and at least for this one day, the last one was too…. Smile

Then we spent half a day snorkelling around the Island and after my first worry to encounter sharks or other deadly creatures that live in Australian waters I thoroughly enjoyed watching the little (and not so little) fish, sea-cucumbers and stars and even a stingray. I stayed well clear of that one… we all know what happened to Aussie legend Steve Irwin….

Back on the picture perfect white beach our pilot/tour guide set up a table full of rolls, fresh salads and seafood. Even a bottle of champagne wasn’t missing! Wow! Happy birthday to me Very Happy

After a stroll around the island where it kept amazing me how people could’ve survived with the lack of fresh water and… well anything really. I did spot 3 of the small wallabies that inhabit the island and have done so forever, they were a food source for those first shipwreck-survivors as well.

On the way back to the farm there was a bit of a hold up as half the country seemed to be burning, we’d already seen the fires and the smoke from the plane.
After some time and with a police escort we were taken down the road where the glowing trees and burning fences were quiet a spectacular and rather Christmassy sight.
Shame it does so much damage…. 3.000 hectares just went up in flames in no time at all…

Now I’m 30 and since there seems to be no signs of settling down mum & dad gave up hope of me ever walking down the aisle. So instead of buying me a wedding gown, like they did for my sister, they decided to give me the money.. That means I can keep cycling an extra half-year at least with the rate I’m spending! Hurray!

I’ve got another job lined up straight after harvest, its back with the crew I worked with just before I landed myself on the tractor.
Tarping.

It means getting up around midnight to go and cover the grain in bulkheads. It’s hard work and the reason we do it at night is it’s cooler than the 40 degrees it reaches during the day. Also the wind settles down a little. Last year a guy died when the tarp he was working with took off and sent him flying…
Wading knee-deep through grain while dragging a 360kg tarp with 5 others is fairly heavy. That’s a good thing after sitting still on the tractor where I seemed to expand at an alarming rate… Wink

Can hardly wait to get back on two wheels.
It will probably be just after new years.

So for now I wish you all a merry Christmas.
We’ll see what the New Year will bring.

-xxx-

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Got Wheels

November 19, 2009

I didn’t get very far after my last update….
About 400km is my guess.

Obviously I should have been well past Perth by now. According to ‘The Plan’.
But I am not and I will tell you why;

After 10 glorious days in domesticated bliss of baking apple pies and shooting cartons I figured it be time to leave Byro station. I had an invitation to come stay at the next station down and an interview for the local paper ‘Bush Voices’.
Sandy was the pilot on the goat muster; he lives at Mount Naryer station and let me stay for a day. He has made it to the cover of the National Geographic in ’88, I’m well impressed.

I’ve been noticing small changes in landscape lately it’s warming up, getting greener. Here and there I still see a glimpse of the famous wildflowers of Western Australia but I’ve missed the main season. With the temperature going up flies are coming out too.
They’re the most annoying little creatures who prefer spending their time crawling into your ears, nose, mouth and behind sunglasses. I’ve finally discovered the use of those fly-nets. Even though they look ridiculous.

Cycling down the road I called in at Billabalong station.
It seemed to me a brilliant spot to grow up, and surely the seven children of the owners must think so too.
I didn’t need to think too long when I was asked to help out a couple of days…
An extra hand was needed to load cattle onto the truck. They weren’t too willing though. One cow in particular did not want to listen and came charging straight at me. I got a bit of a fright and nearly ended up in the water tank…
So we shot the cow. I’m starting to become an expert in taking animals apart.

You might have heard about ‘the school of the air’ before.
In remote areas in Australia children can’t go to school. The distances are just too great. Here, at Billabalong, I got the chance to see how it works up close, I got invited to join the class and have the children, who live hundreds km apart, ask me questions.
In the afternoon we went down to the Murchison River to drift around in tubes while watching the emu’s quench their thirst.

The last night before I struck civilisation I found a lovely bush camp near a dry riverbed, as usual in Australia I only put up the inside of my tent. But around midnight I woke up from this most unusual sound… rain! So quickly I crawled out to fix the outside while huge drops splattered around me. Not just that, it was accompanied with the scariest thunderstorm. Lying in my tent I hoped the lightning wouldn’t strike… I just survived the outback, it be silly to die there.
Lucky the lightning didn’t strike and in the morning I was amazed by the extreme and sudden change. Not more than 10km down the road everything was completely different. No more scrub and bush and kangaroos but lots of rabbits and fields of golden grain weaving in the wind. I’ve hit the wheat belt.

I also hit something else, didn’t figure out what, but after thousands of km on dirt roads I got back onto the Bitumen and had a flat tyre.

As I sat down at a petrol station in Mullewa fixing the leak a car stopped to have a chat. On my way out of town the same car pulled up. Michael and Jai asked if I would mind helping them out for the day. They were shifting tarps around and needed an extra hand.
I ended up working with them for 4 days, earning a little extra cash and learning how to fix tarps, enormous pieces of plastic that cover the grain in bulkheads so it doesn’t get wet. The Tarps must not have any holes in it. So with the 6 of us we’d drag the tarp over a huge light box where you can see the holes and fix them. A bit like fixing bike-tyres… except completely different.

As I got ready to leave Mullewa I noticed my tyre gone flat again. Apparently the glue doesn’t work to well when it’s hot.
I headed to the pub to make a phone call and while I was there figured I might as well have a beer.
That’s when I met Bob & Rob. Two contract harvesters enjoying their time off before the work starts. They invited me down to the farm where they’re gonna be working and I thought; Why not?
4 days later the harvest still hadn’t started and I still hadn’t left…
Since it happened to be Cate’s birthday we danced, drank, sang and played cards. I baked another apple-pie.
While there she showed me the machines they’ll be using ones the work started.
They are Ginormous! Huge tractors, bigger than I’ve ever seen and trailers that can hold 30ton of wheat.
How cool it would be to drive that!

So I asked around and now I’ve got my own chaser bin. Well… I drive one around for the Critch-family just out of Mullewa.
It’s a great big beautiful machine. I spent between 12 to 15 hours a day in my air-conditioned little heaven listening to music, reading books and of course following the harvesters around to offload them before they overflow. When my 30-ton trailer gets full I chuck it in the trucks who take it to the biggest grain collection point in the world in Geraldton.

Only 2 days in the boss, Tony, figured I should have a driver’s licence.
In Australia there’s 6 steps to obtain a full licence.
The 1st one is to do a theory-test. I could skip that one since I’ve had my motorbike licence already.
The 2nd is getting a learners permit which allows you to drive a car with a qualified person.
The 3rd is to actually practise and learn how to drive. I skipped that bit too.
The 4th is a test.
Two days after getting the learners permit I did the test. The assessor was real nice and told me I did almost everything right… Just one minor detail. I couldn’t drive…
She didn’t say it like that, but she didn’t need too…
So I failed but a new test was set for Friday the 13th.
And miraculously, after less than 5 hours practise on real roads and backing up into a tree during the test. I got my driver’s licence!
Now usually after the test you get P-plates. It means you still have to drive under supervision and after another test you ride around with P-plates for two years before getting a full licence. I skipped that bit as well…
So you better stay well clear of West Australian roads for a while…

I’ll be back with more stories about my tractor and the farm since I’ll be staying here untill x-mas.

Next time you here from me I’ll be 30. Ugh.

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BeNeLux

March 26, 2007

This morning I waved at the train, and the train beeped its horn at me Smile one of them little things that make me smile :-)

Biggest part of the experience of traveling in any way, but specially on a bike, is the people you meet.
I’ve been on the road for about a week and its been freezing cold and soaking wet. It could’ve quite easily not have been much fun but;

One day I happily cycled along the LF3 when I ran into a bunch of workmen on a coffee break. So obviously I joined them and had a nice chat and a lovely cup of hot coffee

Next evening I was searching for a campsite but when I found one it was closed , this hadn’t stopped the owners of the campsite the night before from letting me use it anyway, but the lady here was clear that it was absolutely IM-POS-SI-BLE to put my tent there. A little strange since there seemed to be lots of grass and that’s all I really need.
Lucky I then ran into Karin, who is from Apeldoorn too, and Kate, who’s parents moved to New Zealand from Amsterdam when she wasnt born yet. But at 28 she decided to cycle back to the homeland Smile :-) and has lived there ever since… even studied Dutch law!!
They took me home and let me stay in a caravan in the garden and cooked me a lovely meal -which didn’t include pasta..

Across the ‘Ardennen’ the weather was truly shocking! After a good few km across snowy hills I stopped to ask where I could find a cafe and I found a young family from Amsterdam who gave me tomato-soup and coffee and apple pie Smile :-) I stayed for 2 hours to dry up and talked to the lady from the radio who asked me funny questions like if my bum doesn’t hurt (no) and what will I do when I run out of money (I won’t….. or won’t think about it anyway, easy)

This Morning I made porridge with milk that came straight out of a cow! It tasted great, I stayed the night on a farm just outside Luxembourg town.
Now all rain clouds have magically disappeared, the sun shines there is blue sky. If only it be between 20 and 30 degrees till I get to Australia…
I’m happy

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