G'day folks!. It's Monday 17th March. The van is ready and our pockets are empty. It's time to leave the comfort of Chris and Janes and stand on our own two feet. Time to get our lazy arses into some work. We set out at 8am in the morning and headed for some vineyards that we had contacted on the saturday, only to find the harvests were already halfway through and the crews had been found. We were offered waiting and kitchen work at one of the vineyards but only for one of the days so we declined this. After phoning the harvest hotline we were offered work picking grapes in Leongatha for 7 days, about 2 hours East from Blairgowrie. We arrived in the afternoon, filled out all relevant paperwork at the agency and then were set to start work at 7am the following day. We headed over to the farm to ask Rob, the farm manager, if we could camp there. Rob is a cool guy and let us camp there for the next 10 or so days free of charge! The remainder of the day was 40 degrees and a plague of flies had descended on the van. Luckily we had our mossie net (thanks Steve Barry) which we spent the afternoon under sweating our t*** off and covering ourselves in wet t-shirts trying to cool ourselves down. Bright and breezy we rose at 630am to begin our first days work. The grape picking was from 7am - 5pm for 6 days and wasn't too difficult just a tad repetitive and boring. We met some fab people though. On the second night a couple called Shaun and Jesska stayed with us on the farm. Shaun is Canadian and Jesska an Australian. They met a couple weeks previously in Tasmania where they were living in trees and protesting against a road being built. On the third night we were joined by 7 more travellers as word had spread that we were getting free camping. Eoghan(owen) from just outside Dublin, John and Dave from Ryhl in Wales, Kerttu and Anella two girls from Estonia and Roy and Sam from Holland. We have had a great time with these guys, loads of laughter and goon (wine in a box). After the grape harvest was finished we headed down to the coast to a place called Sandy Point. This was a very messy night. We consumed 5x3L boxes of goon between 7 of us. Lots of drinking games were had followed by a very civilised dance on picnic tables and a skinny dip! In the morning our camp looked like a bomb had hit it, everyone had sand in places they didn't know they had, most of the glasses and crockery had been broken or destroyed, and various objects had been lost, both equipment and mental ability. We all drove back to Leongatha, where by the way all the residents have 2 heads and 12 toes, cousins, uncles, sisters,fathers,mothers,brothers if you know what I mean. A bit like Radstock or Newton Abbot. We were due to start pumpkin picking the following day so we all had an early night. We done two days of pumpkins. Really hard physical work. The pumpkins are snipped, then thrown and caught by someone on the back of the tractor, very tiring because they are heavy and you spend most of the day bent over. (not our idea of fun TOM!!!) At smoko( tea break) the farmers wife would bring us out tea and homemade cakes. YUM. So not all bad. Work is now over. It is the 28th March and we are back on our HOLIDAYS! We said our goodbyes to our new friends as they are all heading West and we are heading East. We are now off to Philip Island to see the little penguins on the beach, then to Wilsons Prom, Canberra to see friends before heading to Sydney for more work. Although Vicki is maybe thinking we should stop off for a week in the snowy mountains to ski and clean holiday cabins. (wants to see the snow in bloody Australia!!!) Ciao for now. Check out the pics and vids. Will be uploading them shortly. ( bloody computer doesn't have usb) Lots of love to everyone. xxxxx