Things have been moving quite quickly the last few days. While you guys might have enjoyed the relaxation of coming together with your family for the holidays, I managed to create some stressful days for myself without christmas shopping, bickering with my relatives or the usual ruckus. My last job at a flyscreen and security door manufacturing business was planned to go on until christmas, so I thought I’d enjoy the holidays taking some time off and maybe poking the internet for some interesting jobs. In the end it was exactly one calm evening, prewriting some postcards, enjoying a lovely burger and a cider before jumping headfirst into another commitment.
The same evening some fellow backpackers mentioned a job offer to me. A job offer too good to be true. A job offer to instantly pick up the phone and get an interview. When would the interview be? On the 24th? Okay, rather be quick than getting this opportunity snatched away in front of my eyes. This narrowed my downtime of being jobless down to a mere weekend. Still okay, or so I thought. On the morning after, Silas arrived back from Brisbane where he had been looking at cars for himself, but without any success. Well, remember this out-of-context-pic at the end of the last post?
We bought it. Looked at it before, but after a week the seller got nervous and dropped the price. With a bit of bartering, we saved Silas quite a sum. It is a 97′ Holden Rodeo TF, leaky engine/tranny seal, no extras, no 4×4, just heaps of space for very small money.
After putting in a carpet and a cheap air mattress the cheapest camper known to man is good to go. Notice the included broom to keep up the tailgate window. Oh, yeah, and we got spare Oil and a new battery, just in case. If I wasn’t planning on doing some serious outback adventuring, I might actually be jealous. His car will blend in well in any sidestreet for stealthcamping, spare parts are cheap and easy to get, and most of all: There really isn’t that much that could break in the first place.
Still, I’ve fallen in love with the puzzled looks I get whenever I meet other people with their souped up monster trucks in the middle of nowhere with my ramshackle van.
Investment of the month: Walkie-Talkies. Not only handy in convoy situations, but plain fun in the meantime.
This was our first “testdrive” with the Holden. Well, I had a job interview the next day.
Silas however was getting sick. It’s just getting better and better.
So, either Silas has gained weight or something with his suspension is… fishy. But, as he isn’t planning on leaving paved roads for longer stretches, he’ll be fine.
Starting the 24th. You may have been opening the last door on your christmas calendar the same moment this photo was taken. We however were just happy that there was power, wifi and a warm shower. Merry christmas y’all. We still had to reregister the car to Silas, so we spent a good portion of the day at the transportation bureau. While Silas was waiting in line, I was trying to figure out why most of his coolant had disappeared overnight. Duh. Hard to figure faults like this out before buying. So, at this moment we were horribly scared that this might point to a cracked cylinder head, but looking around online there was a whole engine for $650. Spare parts are much easier to get when you’re not driving a japanese spaceship like I do. A simple fuel pump easily has a price tag of 2000$.
But poking my head under the hood (so much space compared to my deli, lovely), I eventually found a glimmer of hope. Do you see it too?
Crrrispy. I didn’t put much research into it, but this may be either water pump or thermostat, which can be bought and mounted for a steal. Soo since oil is not getting thinned, no danger for the engine as long as the coolant is kept filled up, huh?
Car’s registered, possible major problem turned out as a minor one – time to smile?
Oh, wait, I wanted to get to my new job today. No time at all.
The sun was already setting as we followed an elderly lady into the woods on a bumpy dirt path. Turns out there is no job interview because they are dangerously low on staff. Mmmh, hm. Red Flags left and right. So, these huts in the distance would be our accomodation? Silas had a look in the common room, then he headed straight back to the car. Rather sleep on an air mattress than in this shithole. Can’t blame him. I was seriously considering to leave the next morning too, and on top of it he was getting more and more sick.
The Staff huts in the morning sun. Garbage strewn all over the place. Out of 9 huts, only 5 can be considered as somewhat useable because of busted windows, misaligned doors etc. Weeell, ever wondered why exactly you’re short on staff?? Also, there’s 3 japanese backpackers currently residing here. Who are, yeah, well…
Lazy. Lets let this picture speak for everything else in the common room.
Also a poster from 2001. Okay, Can’t blame my fellow workers for that one. But well, it’s so old, it’s almost cool again. Maybe put it in a picture frame so it doesn’t deteriorate further…
A few metres further down, there’s a dilapidated hostel, I chose to park my car there because its the most level place in a 400m radius. Good thing if my hut suddenly falls apart. Or if I decide to chip away at the smaller “cosmetic” problems that still persist with this car.
Suspiciously cloudy pool. As it later turned out, they are using mineral-rich-groundwater which just doesn’t get that see-through. But I’ve been cleaning the filters the last few days, it’s slowly getting better. Private pool incoming!
But well, lets move on to the hostel.
Who wants to sleep on that? Who wants that in front of his room?
The whole complex is what I would describe as a diamond in the rough. So much potential, but all wasted.
The rain gutters rotted away because they’ve never been cleaned.
Plastic chairs all over the place like a child was having a tantrum.
All three taps not only dripping, but running.
That’s more or less the view over the valley. Maybe it’s time to tell you what the actual job offering is. This is a horseranch. I’d do a 6-week unpaid apprenticeship where I’d learn to ride but get food and accomodation for free, then I would work for them normally (paid) and since it’s rural work, I would even get my days for a second year visa. Sounds like a nice deal, learning to ride “for free”? Well although I’m surrounded by red flags, I’m willing to try it. Opposed to the other backpackers working here, I’ve got my own car and will be able to leave whenever I want. The only dodgy part is the accomodation, but at this point I’m happy to work on something else than my car for a change.
That’s Silas leaving. Can’t blame him, I’m not too sure that I’ll be staying for long either and I’m not sick with a feaver like he is. He’s heading back for Maroochydore to see a doctor and to get some packages for me which arrived late. I hope he’ll get well soon. I also hope I didn’t infect myself as my voice is getting rough now, too… So now I was alone on a farm god-knows-where on christmas day with horrible reception so I couldn’t even get messages in and out reliably. That was pretty much the low point. But I’ve got a wonderful coping mechanism for that: Fixing stuff. And it seems like I’m in the epicentre of stuff that needs fixing right now.
First, I nicked a glass window out of one of the broken huts to replace the the wooden flap in my chosen home.
That’s the sliding door of the common room, it was impossible to close it due to built up dirt and stones.
Spoon to the rescue! I would have tried a vacuum first, but as it turns out there is no vacuum, also the combined stone-dirt mix was sitting in there so firmly that I bent the spoon trying to scrape it out.
I only realize on this video how dirty the door is.
My meagre salary for today. Stuff you find when cleaning up…
Gathering the horses for my first workday.
I need a bigger horse, this one looks just ridiculous. And, maybe the stirrups are a bit too far up. Ugh, there’s much stuff to learn for me. Let’s just hope I don’t forget to change the brake pads on my car with all that other stuff around needing my attention… I’ll be back with another blog post in a few weeks, but im curious myself whether I’ll still be here when the time comes.