Caravan Clubbing in Wangaratta

Well, things have changed here in the fight for my 2^nd Year Visa. Obama has been re-elected and I now live on a caravan park in North East Victoria, an hour away from the New South Wales border, three hours from Melbourne. Two totally connected events.

I am working for a vine grafting company in the King Valley, living in Wangaratta. The locals tell me to just refer to it as ‘Wang’, but that has too many phallic connotations and I just can’t do it.

Prospects Sheep Farm

I loved the sheep breeding farm, but they had another wwoofer arriving so I had to move on. I became rather attached to the two little lambs I had to bottle feed. I just got this overwhelming sense of joy whenever I had to see them and they made me laugh. Now this could be a symptom of working alone all day for 4 weeks straight, but they just brought a highlight to my day. I even named them after my friends.

But sadly, I had to leave them. I still miss them, but understand now that they aren't 7 days old any more, are probably big, burly and mental. 

Feeding time!

Little Clodagh and James

Clodagh gets her head stuck..

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat lamb again though.

Cider Farm

Anyway, my next farm was a cider farm in Daylesford.

I want to be honest about that experience, but I don’t want to drag too much negativity into my blog. So, I have completed the following summary:

Rollin' in my ride, 'Cider 2'

This dog might look peaceful, but that is not always the case..

Stable and Arena, where I stayed

Amusing/ Positive points:

•      There were two other wwoofers on the farm – company at last! We laughed as we worked and plan to catch up again once I've finished the farming.
•        My accommodation was a room upstairs in the stables! Like Jesus! When you look out the bedroom window, you looked straight onto the arena. I have been a party in a similar (well, to be honest, nicer) set up in The Netherlands, but didn't realise it was common practice.
•        I got to drive a huge 1987 bronze Mercedes Benz, complete with sheep skin seat covers. The number plate was ‘Cider 2’. It was right out of ‘Only Fools and Horses’.

Not so amusing points/ discoveries:

•        If people are not happy and open to meeting new people, they should not be woofing hosts. Some people are just plain nuts.
•        Unhappy horses bang their heads and hooves against the walls at night. Constantly. This echoes and wakes you up when you have a room in a stable.
•        I hate St Bernard Dogs. The colossal size, conjunctivitis, drool, the leaning, the smell. Living with two plus two smaller dogs was a… let’s just say a ‘tricky’ experience.

Anne-Marie and Bonny in Melbourne

I did manage to escape to the city a few times while I was there for birthdays and a visitor from England! A good friend of mine from back home came to visit and we spent 2 glorious days in the city, eating by the river and checking out the sites. She recently had a baby who is absolutely gorgeous. I felt like I’d almost lost a vital organ when I had to leave them and return to the cider farm.

Anne-Marie, Bonny and Me at Flinders Street Station

Me and Bonny!

Anne Marie and Bonny, Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Well, I stayed for nearly 3 weeks and did have some visitors and good laughs, but it was getting to a point where I felt I’d been there long enough. Luckily my fellow wwoofer Frank had a number for someone who was looking for people to work on a vineyard. So here I am!

Milawa

I work in Milawa, a tiny village in the gourmet King Valley region.

At first I was staying in the caravan park there. As it is a vineyard region, all the cabins are named after wines. I was in ‘Moscato’ (a wine that has become a regular tipple in the last year!), next door to ‘Merlot’ and ‘Cienna’. ‘Chardonnay Drive’ is just down the road!

Milawa is gorgeous, with rolling hills and Mount Buffalo as a distant backdrop. At night, as we are so far away from any town, the night sky is bright and twinkling as the stars are so vivid. Everyone is friendly and open their arms to help you. Most of them are over 60, but that’s fine! I’ve shared pizza with some of the residents at the caravan park and had a great old laugh.

Cross Roads at Milawa

My cabin in Milawa, 'Moscato'

It is quite remote though. There are no horses so you can’t even call it a one-horse town. On recommendation from a few people, I am now living in a caravan park in the local town, Wangaratta. I guess the only experience I've ever had of people living in caravan parks was from ‘Home and Away’. I didn't realise it was actually a popular Australian accommodation option. While I've spotted a few mullets, so far there have been no ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’. And I haven't had a sniff of the infamous 'Caravan Club' that Jay from 'The Inbetweeners' boasts about. Fingers crossed though, I still have 4 weeks left..  

Wangaratta is a simple but nice town. The whole region is just full of good wine and food. Myself and a Tasmanian couple working for the company checked out the local pub on Saturday night. We chatted to the locals, played some bingo game called Keno and chatted to a rather hairy man called Daniel who would rather spend his money on beer than get his hair cut.

My cabin was a bit grotty when I first rocked up, but it’s now more like home as I've decorated the walls with prints, photos and fairy lights. I am cooking loads of nice dinners and and listening to really interesting podcasts. It might be that I can see the end in sight and my next stop is time off for Christmas, but I am enjoying myself here.

My job is working in the owners garage and cutting buds off vine branches, a vital part in the vine grafting operation. It is repetitive work, but I work with a delightful woman called Jill (co-owner) and a boxer called Samson. He is a 10 month old puppy who likes to eat anything he can find.

As we work, we listen to the radio and whatever CDs she can find in the house, ranging from the Mama Mia soundtrack, Linkin Park, Susan Boyle, Nirvana Unplugged and a collection of recordings from Gregorian Monks covering New Order.

Myself and Samson at work

Yesterday Jill came back from running errands in town with a large great rock. But it wasn’t a rock, it was a tortoise she had found in the road that was going to be hit by a truck if he wasn’t rescued soon. So we put him in a basin, resting high on a tractor front so he was out of Sams way (like I said, I work in a garage and it is crammed full of stuff!). We heard some Tupperware fall over sometime later but thought nothing of it.

It wasn’t Tupperware though, the tortoise had woken up and attempted to walk home. Not realising he was on a tractor. We found him 10 mins after his fall on his back.

At this point, I had to Google, ‘How to check a tortoise is alive’. Works out, you just need to poke the feet and if they wiggle, he’s alive. Thankfully the feet wiggled and on the way home from work, we released him back into the river.

Rescued Tommy the tortoise

Samson the 10 month old boxer puppy, chewing a dog shaped slipper known as 'Grandma'

Marry that with a frog that Sam found (and was about to eat) and a camel that lives in a field on the drive home, my ‘Australia Nature Watch’ is alive and kicking!

So I have been away from Manchester for almost 11 months. I really am getting more pangs of home sickness but it's only 2 years of my life so I am pursuing life in Australia. I need the sunshine!

It’s nearly Christmas, which hasn't hit home yet as it is 28 degrees. I heard ‘Last Christmas’ in the supermarket the other day and it felt wrong. WRONG. But I’ll embrace it. I am going to Sydney to spend Christmas with Tor, a friend from Manchester and I can’t bloody wait. At some point I am going to sit on a beach and sing ‘Fairy-tale of New York’ with a Santa hat on and it will be brilliant. Maybe slightly drunk, but brilliant.

That’s all for now. One more month and I’ll have submitted my visa application.. In the meantime, if anyone fancies a day in ‘Wang’ *coughs*, let me know!