Harvest Time - Carnarvon

As the story continues, we arrived in Carnarvon approx 4 months since leaving home. Having done our research in Kunnunura we picked up a harvest job the second we rolled into town - with a flat battery, and Maria’s first flat tyre. We’d heard some negative stories about Carnarvon from various friends. “Ah mate she’s ruff as guts”, “Carnarvon, stuff that, did me back in, I’ll never pick capsicums in that drunken crappy town again”... But, initial impressions we’re quite the opposite and we scored what appeared to be an easy job de-leafing table grape vines. This was fun for the first half an hour, and not very fun at all for the 2 weeks after that. Underpaid?, a ‘no speaking no music’ policy, constantly yelled at, and covered in chemicals - this family was running a concentration camp not a farm! I feel the need to add to the above comments by saying “I am NEVER de-leafing in Carnarvon again”. “That’s it”, we quit, then we got yelled at again and fired. Um, lady, we already quit so it was a bit to late to fire us… we started on a new farm within an hour. The new capsicum, eggplant and bean farm was definitely an improvement. We actually got paid correctly for a start, with payslips, and there was a variety of jobs from maintaince to fruit preparation. We even had the freedom to speak (howsabouthat!) and listen to beats. So we settled in with the international backpackers, worked brutally hard as you do on a farm for <$20hr,  and had some fun.

Eggplant bath

Beans means bending

Capsicums 

Maria - the backpacker trap

Happy Germans and their baby

Mouse love

Day trippin

Dreadlock facilitation

Lazy days off

Stephan, our favourite Frenchie

Group dinner, where we complained about the days work

Maria - the hostess with the mostess

Pinnacles detour heading south to Perth

Pinnacle joy

Jo scores a ride to Perth

But next time you buy your big, bright, perfect shaped fruit and veg from Woolies or Coles here’s the deal – This is agribusiness and trickery. The “fresh food people” have no intention of supplying you with fresh, natural fruits of the earth. Covered in backpacker blood, sweat and tears these ultra large crops are grown with copious amounts of other things called pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. We experienced itchy eyes, noses, choking, coughing, sniffling, rashes and pealing skin. Not one weed, bug or grub in 100 rows! And there are hundreds and hundreds of rows. The take home slap in the face message for us as consumers? – support your locally grown ‘in season’ market produce, and have fun growing your own. 

The Bluff

Considering the season to surf “the bluff” was already getting late, and the harvest work in Carnarvon is year round, it was a unanimous decision. That was to stock up on supplies and immediately drive out to the bluff for a week of camping and surfing. For those that know the place need I say no more… but for those who haven’t had the pleasure its no secret. Isolated by one heck of an anti-Hiace corregated dirt road, rich in swell and sea life, this part of Aus is paradise to any surfer, fisherman, or diver. Here, Australia does it’s best impersonation of Morocco maybe? With goats perched on the mountain tops, the desert meets the ocean and sunny hot days are replaced with cool clear nights. But here surfing is the religion. Huey is God. Beautiful swells are groomed by dry offshore winds, the people are living and breathing for that perfect bluff barrel. Yeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww the local prayer, and beer the holy water…

Quobba Station goats

Swell trains

Eazy

The camp

Fire magic

View of the bluff from camp

The swell was so south you could stay inside the length of the point

Wildflowers

Chillin, fishin

Eazy and Josh 

This happens every afternoon

Anybody?

Wildflowers

...more wildflowers

"So Josh, whats wrong, you getting sick of lefts"?

"...nope, Emzo, this is how you surf em"!

Turtles

The bluff looking back towards our camp (far left)

Fun light onshore sessions

Josh definitely having fun

Jess making  a cinnamon fruit and nut damper

yyeeewwwwwwwwww, GO!

George

Gnaraloo Station

Wildflowers

Emu sightings were much safer than Brown snake sightings

Jess & Desi

You see whales EVERY time you look up at the ocean

Gotta love the early, especially after they hold a pizza and beer night...

Across the Top End - Part 2 - Darwin to Carnarvon

It was good catching up with Mum, likewise with Greg in Bali, and also all of our friends at the wedding. But back to the job at hand – driving around Australia, and although it felt like we’d already done a lot, we looked at the map and realised we had much more ahead of us!? With Maria serviced and re packed we cruised on down the Hwy. A quick roadside lunch at Katherine, a right hand turn, and we headed west.

After a night in Gregory NP we had all these other wonderful NP’s lined up. Walks and waterfalls, oasis in the desert. Then, 13,000km from home, Maria lost power and spluttered and jumped rather slowly for 40km across the NT/WA border into Kununnura. Darwin mechanics? Our luck ran dry real quick. Maria was sick. The border control took our evergreen herb garden and all our fruit and veg, and to top it off Steve reversed into a pole after booking Maria into the local motor hospital. Broken down and broken door. Yep the back door was wedged unopenable. “Lets work while we are stuck here” Jess says attempting to stay positive. Nope, after 4 days we cound’t find a job in Kununurra to save our lives. So, with the help of a panel beater we got the back door working again, and Sever from East Kimberly Mechanics tuned Maria up as best he could but diagnosed her needing some minor surgery – a new fuel pump. But, the pump was in Perth, so it could be in Broome in a day, or we had to wait another 4 days for it to arrive in Kununnara. With LPG available, and Maria tuned to go up to 80km/hr on a failing fuel pump, we opted to leave for Broome immediately. Priorities were set. 1. No detouring off into beautiful NP’s 2. Fix Maria, work, and surf. Or surf then work.

There’s plenty of road and Boab trees between Darwin and Broome. We picked up the new fuel pump and had it installed for a carton of emu bitter. Ok, next, work? There’s a Pearl Industry in Broome but we literally missed the boat by one day! We took our first WA swim at Pt Gantheaume but reality was we needed to work pronto if we were going to do a month of yoga during November in Thailand. The wheels on the bus rolled further south. You guessed it, more road between Broome and Carnarvon, lots more. Visiting 80 Mile Beach and Coral Bay on the way we finally arrived in Carnarvon (?where there was hopefully a job for us?) 9 days after leaving Darwin.