I want to take you to the Gayndah, Gayndah....

Orchard adventures

Our fruit harvesting careers, (screw the planning master's) began in Bundaberg. Bundaberg is the home of Bundaberg rum and a lesser-spotted hairstyle known as 'The Mullet'. It really is Bogan-ville! (Bogan is Aussie slang meaning chav/scally etc.) We spent a week in the Bundaberg Backpacker's hostel. Carla did 1 day of zuccini (courgette) picking and Bex did mandarin picking for 2 days. We were paying a fortune to stay and making a pittance so we headed off again.

I want to take you to the Gayndah, Gayndah....

We drove pretty randomly and arrived in Gayndah. This little town is the Orange capital of Queensland. It is the oldest town in Queensland, and is about a 2 hour drive inland from Bundaberg. We were promised jobs the following week, packing mandarins in a packing shed. We were really excited not to have to do any more picking as its such hard work!

The Welcoming Giant Gayndah Orange

Well we've been in Gayndah a month now; its been a series of highs and lows if we're honest. There is nothing really in Gayndah but orchards, packing sheds and three pubs! We have spent our days working from 7-3.30ish, and then usually grabbing a case of lager from the bottle-o (drive through off-licences....only in Australia) and drowning our boredom in the campsite.

Just a few drinks with a few friends! (Find Bex and Carla....answers on a SAE)

We stayed for a month in our tent but have now moved up in the world and have a house complete with a pool! We have made heaps of lovely friends from all over the world here and the campsite has such a lovely neighbourhood feel. We still pop down to visit everyone, and we've only been in our house a week! The packing is pretty easy work, we get paid $20 an hour to grade oranges/mandarins picking out the rotten fruit and the marked ones but we're getting quite bored of watching them roll in from of our eyes for 8 hours a day. Yet again we have been really lucky to work with such lovely people, from the bosses, packers and floor-boys to the girls on the sorting table everyone is so friendly there. (pics to follow!)

So that's us up to date for now,
B & C xx