Hello,
Sorry about the long break in my news! But I’m here now and that is all that counts. ; ) There are three links to pictures below – make sure you have a look at them!
Well, we went picking Water Melons on a farm Called Shelamar. It was a bit of a shock to the system at first – I think the first thing that went through my head when I found out about the job was “Oh feck, I have to get up at 0530, breakfast at 0600 and then work at 0630… I don’t like it already!”
Basically we walk down a field full of melons behind a tractor and trailer. The trailer has a boom sticking out the side of it and on the boom there is a conveyor belt. As we walk behind the boom, we pick the melons ant put them on the belt. What I didn’t know before we started working was that some of the melons are over 20Kg!
Surprisingly , the first day went well, it wasn’t difficult work – I was tired but I felt good. After dinner, I just collapsed into bed. The next morning I try to get out of bed and notice that I have a lot of difficulty moving! I hate melons already!
After only a day and a half of work, it was the weekend. To be honest, I think the three of us felt broken at this early stage. The “Meanwhile, back at the ranch…” jokes were beginning to wear thin. So, despite our best intentions of staying on the farm and saving money, we decide to head for Cable Beach (in Broome) for some “much needed” rest and relaxation. We ran into the Marcus, Evert and their crew (they are the people we travelled through the Kimberley with) and had a great laugh! Dave and I also managed to fall asleep on the beach. To the amusement of all the lads on the farm, we looked like lobsters for a few days.
Unfortunately after the weekend in Broome, it was time to head back to the farm for more work (read agony). We worked for the next three days when the boss decided that the next few patches of Melons wouldn’t be ready for a few days – apparently the cold nights aren’t helping them! This meant that we had another long weekend on our hands. So we headed back up the Gibb River Road – check out the next story for details.
When we got back to the farm after our little excursion, I had a swimming accident and hit my face off the bottom of the pool (stop laughing, it hurt like hell). I cut my nose, lips and chin – I think I was pretty lucky not to knock out any teeth. Anyway, back to work… it turns out that the melons still needed a few more days before picking, so we were put planting seedlings (read making bits of my back).
Unfortunately we only managed four and a half days of planting and picking when the boss announced that the rest of the melons still weren’t ready, so we were going to be out of work for over a week! So, we decided not to waste money hanging around waiting for work that might not be there. Typical, I was just getting into the swing of things. When the lads left for town that evening, we said our goodbyes. When everyone was gone, being faced with unemployment, we did what any self-respecting blokes would do in our situation… we had beer, a lot of it!
I enjoyed my time on the farm. The setting was odd – the farm is located in the Great Sandy Desert, but everywhere around you – all you can see is huge Water Melons growing in the red sand!!!!
