The Ground Sizzles

We spent our last day on the coast soaking up the rays and swimming. When we were swimming Fay come over to me and we both felt like something was in the water with us, once we returned to Cheers our roommate told us that poisonous jelly fish were washing up on the beach we just left. Which kinda creeped us out, that we felt that something wasn't quite right in the waters. We had heard from other travelers that if we wanted to fruit pick we'd best head north to Bundaberg via train. Of course when in Australia there is a good chance in backtracking with the trains. I'm starting to recognize the gap between England's rails and here. We ended up going to Brisbane and visiting the Blue house because of the layover in trains. The train to Bundaberg was quite spacious. And not to mention air conditioned ...
what a delicacy.

The trip was just under 5 hours, when we departed from the station we found the town to be dead at 9pm a real ghost town. We found the Cell Block hostel with little to no issues. The owner was drunk and took his time in getting us a key for our rooms even though we booked it two days in advance. Once we unloaded our  backs we met our three irish roommates. Jen, and Dermoit, and lovely Fin. We couldn't have asked for better roommates.

We were able to be ourselves with these people, but once outside we were not safe in these areas. Fin notified us that this was Queensland's rape capital. This was a sign of what type of locals we were dealing with. Dermoit being the gentleman that he is offered to walk with the women of the hostel whenever it was late and they  needed a buddy.


Fastward two days time Fay and I are working the tomato fields and the pesticides are giving us a rash and noise bleeds. We tried to stay covered, at this wage we'd be earning over a grand a week. And we really wanted to just get

the three months for the second year out of the way, but there are other ways. After trying to give her notice to the drunken owner and was met by a creepy back rub. With that we said farewell to this dusty town and headed for the Sunshine Coast, Mooloolaba. We still earned just under a half a grand for four days work which doesn't hurt. After another train ride to Brisbane we then took a mix of train and buses for Mooloolaba. On the way to the Coast we had to pass the Glass mountains which we saw as far as the eye could see.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture so I thought this one from google would help give you an idea.  Locals told us about the bush fires  that tend to be around this time of year. We also drove past the Australia Zoo, where Steve Irwin's family still work on conservation projects. They have a new addition called Africa. We're hoping we can go there while our stay by the coast. I want to do the mountains but Fay's knees don't really agree with the incline. Theres also a Underwater  world that I have plans for. If I get another job before my birthday I'm looking at diving with the sharks with Fay.

 Once we got settled in our room, we headed for the beach, even though it's too dark to swim we checked out the cafes.  The first day we met Sherry at a cafe and just started talking for 3hrs. She's a 44yr old that is a swimmer, white water rafting instructor and comes from Hawaii. Which works out great because after this two year trip we're looking to stop over there before settling in Western Canada.  She's really interesting.


The hostel here is the best so far, with free rentals,  and we found a job just today, we're working together in an air conditioned office getting the same pay that we'd be getting in the fields. We're payed up for another two nights, and then we're looking for a place close to the coast and near the office.  We're really excited to have a clean kitchen to ourselves where we can cook dinner's and try out new recipes :) Fay wants to learn and I want to bake muffins and breads. You know all the good stuff.  Today was quite nice we're settling in nicely, I treated Fay and I to a dinner next to the sea side. She got us amazing icecream which we had on the beach while the sun died the clouds in purple. We collected some shells for people back home.  And here we are in Mooloolaba. Tomorrows another adventure, see you there.