Sammy and Muller

No, its not the two guys on the sofa, its who they are feeding. Glen and Ray have a 55 acre farmstead that will soon be opening as a gay B&B, they needed some help sorting out the gardens as they are both working full time at the moment.

There is enough work to last several months, if not years, but with the help of Keiran, a work loving irish guy and Simon and Hugo, two french lads, we are cracking through our tasks at a rate of knots.

The beer is flowing and you can see the mobile butcher hard at work preparing sausages from the cow and pig that were slaughtered last week.

The little fellas being fed are two rescued babies, a 6 month old wallaby and a 9 month old kangaroo that were rescued from their roadkilled mothers. A constant 4 hourly task of feeding right through till they are about 18months old, not a task that can be entered into lightly, though, aparnetly once they are ready to leave they head off for a day or two at a time to start then eventually leave for good. I guess thatss a good job done, especially as they're so amusing to have about when they are so young.

the pictures from before....

cray harvesting at sunrise.... not so bad in the middle of winter as its 6.30am,summer start is 4.00am, the vast majority of cray walk up a ramp into a holding tank following the flow of fresh water, i just had to pick up all the stragglers that got stuck in the deep sticky mud on the bottom of the pond before they were all sorted, sexed and redistributed to other ponds to grow on or be sold. Very interesting, but i don't think it's going to be my next day job.

The tall mountain took about an hour to climb, with panoramic views of the coast and inland, exhausting, exhilarating and great fun. Getting around is soo much easier with my trusty van. I love it.

Redclaw Aquatica

What with a Public Holiday and the schools being out for the next week or so, i thought i'd get in an early helpX stop and avoid the crowds.

Have managed to get about 100km up the coast and have found a great place to help out for a while in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by forestry plantations and a huge chicken farm next door. The farm i am staying on grows redclaw crayfish, a freshwater variety, in large ponds.

There is plenty of landscaping work to be thought about, painting and decorating to be done, and hopefully harvesting crayfish when the time is right. Any day now i am told. It involves a lot of slopping about in the muddy bottom of a pond collecting the little critters, but i'll have a much better idea once it has actually happened.

There are plenty of things to do on days off. Steve Irwins' Australia Zoo is just up the road (in Australian terms!!) as are the Glass House Mountains, for a good tramp and a bit of climbing and the sea is just down the road.

Sorry, no photos as there is only a dial up connection and they would take hours to upload.

Hello Queensland

Made it this far, might as well continue on my adventures in Australia. Have just picked up an amazing loan from some good friends Irene and Roger that i have stayed with a couple of times in New Zealand. A camper van. Equipped with fridge, microwave, stove, kitchen sink, double bed and all the other bits and pieces needed for luxury van travel. Its not going to be used for a while so they asked if i could take it for a run to make sure it doesn't seize up. No problem at all, its great, goes like a dream and has just about everything i need to be self sufficient.

Spent most of the first day cleaning out the inside and getting rid of all the creepy crawlies and drove up the coast, out of town, for a while before stopping for the night. Don't ask me where it was, i can't remember the name, but the sound of the sea was great to go to sleep by and the dawn woke me early enough to enjoy a beautiful sunrise over the South Pacific Ocean. The local surfers arrived in their droves to catch a pre work wave or two so i sat on the sand dunes with a cup of tea and watched for a while before having an early swim, jog along the beach and some breakfast.

The plan is to head up the coast from Brisbane, where i started, to Cairns, taking in the sights and sounds of eastern Queensland on the way before returning the van to its home at the end of July. HelpX invitations are flooding in so i shan't be short of things to do when i want a breat from the travelling lark.