1st Holidays

Our first Holidays were really great but put our team on a test, wich it failed in the end but later more about that.
We first drove to Adelaide at the south cost. We rent a roome in a Hostel right at the Beach with luxus around like, proper showers and even a Starbucks (Oh I mist civilization). In the end we had a great week and even booked a surf camp at Neptunes Surf camp in Penisula. Here I would love to show u shome pics but, unfurtnatly they got somehow lost on the way...

But I can say that much... Its great even tow I didn't manage to get up at the first attempt (yeah its harder than it looks), I manage to catch a couple of waves in the end !!

So now some pics...

KANGAROO ISLAND... on the left only one of the beautiful beaches of that place. And the remarkable rocks which u actually can climb (as I did) but be careful, they are larger than they look...

The wildlife on Kangaroo Island was untuched for centuries and was able to develope a unique wildelife. Besides tows animals u see there are also pinguins, sharks dolphins and Kangaroos (we accidantly hid one with the car, so there aren't any more)
The huge sand dunes are perfect for sand bording or just rolling down, but I have to warn of the side affects as are dizziness and SAND EVERYWHERE .

After Kangaroo Island (the time past much to fast) we went to Kalgoorlie Boulder what meant a ride of more than 2500km. Here came the total blow... we arrived in Kalgoorlie and it turns out to be a town with Bars, Hookers and the Mines. Like everywhere in Australia its not hard to find a Job here, but if u wanna earn the big money u normally have to be a resident our wait a couple of weeks (of cause there are exceptions). And to top that all our car broke down, it was terminal and we had to sold it to the local junkyard...
Probably thats why I have no pics of that bloody town... a disaster !! Also the tension in our little group became to high... but we decided to stay together and spend our money we got out of the car on a rental to Perth.

Working in Mildura

To find some work, we decided to drive North to Mildura a little town with so much Grapes, you
probably could cover the world twice. Our problem was just it wasn't season yet... Anyway the first day we arrived we slept in the car, in front of a petrol station. So we bought our breakfast there and ask the cashier if there is any work around. It just happend to be, that she is the daughter of one off the biggest Grapes farmers "Don Marciano" so she gave him a call and he hired us on his Farm (out off season) to prepare the Grapes for picking (covering, spraying, etc).


from left to right, Thomas (Dons son), Thomas (whom I traveled with), and Don Marciano. He is a talker like no one else... when the pay was wrong he manage to talk himself out off it in no time.

For the first month we didn't much else than covering the Grapes with those huge plastic covers. Unfortunately those covers had to be nailed to the wires covering the grapes (by hand), so after the first month our finger were saw as hell...

By that time, we were accommodated in a workers shed (the one in front), as I sad every Hostel was the Four Seasons compared to this ;).





So after the first month, picking season started and we worked in the shed all week long. even tow we got one day of per week it was rather normal to work 10 hours per day, from 10am to 8pm with one long Lunch break (from 1 to 2). At the end of the week we had a paycheck of about 400$. At least we didnt payed much for our accomodation ($20).
In the shed we had to sort the grapes and pick out the bad ones from the bunch. Even tow I'm smiling, picture that 6 days a week from 10 to 8 ... do the math ...

But here comes the upside... still we managed to have a lot of fun, especially with our co-workers who soon became friends. The majority came from the Cooke Islands, like Lui (the guy standing at the Boxes) who was as Uley (the long guy in the left pic) a entertaining and great guy.












But propably the most fun gave us Arnold (sitting on Lucas shoulders) whom we teached stuff his mother had to blame us more than once for ;) By the time we left he just sat in our car and resisted to come out. We also met two chicks from the Netherlands travelling together, even tow we tried to play more than one trick on them, they still talk to us. So my best regards to Natalie and Tanja.

Arrival in Melbourn

All right, my first day in Australia... I arrived in Melbourne and was immediately welcomed into the world of Backpacking by my first Hostel ever !





It was as you can see not the worsed one I would have to stay in but definitely not the best :). Despite its accomodation it has a Bar, Pool Tables and a "Cinema"






Despite that Melbourne is an impressive city with an enourmes skyline. It is also home to the Royal Botanic Garden, which is showing the immense variety of Australias Fauna.

These pictures show the perth City Centre and the Perth Botanic Garden. Impressive isn't just the size of the Garden, but also that every larger City in Australia has one.

I used the first days to do some site seeing, but I figure out, that I soon will need a Job since I was
running out of money. Fortunately it turned out that there are heaps of Jobs down under, espacialy if u don't mind to do some Labouring. So my first Job was in a Relocations Company, moving furniture in the Univerity from A to B, wich payed $16.45 per Hour.





My Organisation meanwhile found two guy frome Germany who would arrive in Melbourne two weeks after me and suggested, that we might join together to chare cost and travel. So I met them prety sone and we figured out, that we had the same plans and bought a Car together. Holden Jakeroo for $3000, quite a price but since it was a 4 Wheel drive and we splidet the price it was affordable. What we didn't knew was, that it should break down 4 Month later, but more about that later...



This shows us later in Mildura. From the left Thomas, his brother Lucas and me. Thomas just finished College with a Degree in Physical Science and Lucas his apprenticeship as a Baker. I am propably more the standart Backpacker, that just finished the German High school and took some time of to travel the world.
Thomas infected us all with doing sport every day and we were propably the only Backpacker carrying dumbles around...

In memory of a great car, that took us all the way from Melbourne via Mildura to Kalgoorlie. Even it was just for us three the car was packed to the top with luggage and our campming equipment, wich we hardly used...
We took its 4 Wheel drive more than once to a test and even, if its very thirsty it was fun !!
So if u can afford one , I would recommend a 4 Wheel drive with all his space...

That much about the first part of my travel... The next one will be about our working stop in Mildura spiders, Grapes and new friends.