So it had begun after talking about it for months before hand we had finally got our act together and the time had come for us to depart. Ben arrived at the airport on time and well I was a tad late my journey was less than ideal the usual 1 hour journey took more like 1hr 45. We checked in and said our goodbyes and that was it next stop Beijing. Well for a few hours. In Beijing we looked for the nearest food venue we found a Pizza Hut, sorted. The next flight was a lot longer and on a smaller plane which was obviously designed for small Chinese people not two 6ft 2 English lads sat next to one another. It was a cosy 13hour flight! We arrived in Sydney in the morning and headed to Justin's Ben's uncle who had an appartment in Marrickville. The afternoon was spent in the city taking a look at all the usual touristy bits and a few ales along the way! Once we got back to the house this was the tiredness hit me I went for a sit down and 3 hrs later I woke up to meet Ben's aunty Miah for the first time.

On the 2nd November we set out making our way to Forbes where we had lined up some work it was only a 9hr journey to get there! Train and bus! We started work on the Monday after arriving on the Saturday we got to grips with the area over the weekend. What struck me was the sheer amount of ground we had to cover. The company we worked for was called Wylong Rural Investments owned by some Chinese investors. The farm covered a total of 42,000 acres spread out over a 120km radius. I recall on one day I was sent to fetch a part from over 200km away… all in a days work, was nice to be able to see some more of the country and get paid for it too! Fuel didn't seem to be an issue either just seemed to burn through it like nobody's business what ever was needed to get the job done I suppose. For the harvest period Ben I were split up I worked with the agtrac boys run by Chris and Dave Haworth. We definitely had a lot more banter than the other agman boys and the fact that we where a tad more efficient! Banter on the UHF radio was great even though most of it focused around 'Charlie's Mother'. The one word game over the radio was by far the best of all. Our time at work seemed to fly by even though in one particular week I managed to clock up 117 hours! As quickly as it began we were left with the job of tidying piles of spilt grain from the agtrac gang. The collection of houses that we stayed on whilst at work was worth noting these are houses which are only lived in for a few weeks of the year so as you can imagine the facilities were not five star. I moved about a fair bit staying at Oakhurst farm for most part with the other lads. We had the basics a matteress and a shower so we were set. Ben stayed in a flash house and he even had an on-suite so was just like being at home for Ben.