We returned to Renmark in the pitch black on 17th May at about 9pm! As we drove to a free campsite in Murtho (an place consisting of a river, a road, an orange factory and very little else!) about 15km from Renmark, our eyes were pretty much glued to the windscreen watching out for any kangaroos that might want to jump in front of the van. Not that we'd seen any for the whole 150km journey, but it's pretty common when driving at this time of night.

The following day we sat through a very boring induction involving health and safety blah di blah di blah! We left 4 hours later being told we'd start work the following Monday. So we spent a few nights with Zan and Claire at Plushes Bend (another free campsite but in Renmark), then spent a few days back with the tribe in Waikerie.

We ended up getting called back for work a couple of days earlier which suited us fine! So we started work and were thrown stright into the deep end; Kirsty spending the whole shift sorting oranges on a conveyor belt, which she was to do for the whole of the next week. I spent the first day lifting 25kg boxes of oranges (which Kirsty had sorted) onto a pallet, and certainly felt it the next day! The rest of the week I was writing tickets and running around sticking them on crates of oranges. As you can probably guess, the job lost its appeal after that week.

To our credit we managed to stick it out for another 2 and a half months. Not that we really had much choice due to our money situation. After the first week we were put onto night shifts, working from 4:30pm to 1:30am. Our jobs were also changed; Kirsty became trained at Autopack, which required her to make boxes and stick them into a machine. She had to bloody fast, making a box every 4 seconds and doing this for a full 9 hours. It quickly took its toll! I became the Boxline leading man, which was nowhere near as glamourous as it sounded. I was responsible for giving the right boxes to the right people who were making them, and also responsible for the stickers that got stuck onto the oranges. (Just writing this is nearly as dull as the job!)

After about 3 weeks of staying in the van, it being an Australian winter, it was getting very cold. Some nights even getting below freezing. Our boss, Wayne, took pity on us and insisted we stay at his Mothers house for free. We gladly accepted! We ended up staying there for our remaining time in Renmark.

Margaret, welcomed us with open arms. She lived in Paringa, just next to Renmark, and had a nice little house with lots of land. We weren't the only people staying there too because as she was an Animal Rescuer, she had.......... 3 dogs, 3 cats, 7 kangaroos, 3 ducks, 4 cockatiels, 6 budgies, 28 pigeons and a possum. I don't think having 2 more bodies around really made a difference to her. To help out we would feed the animals some nights and the kangaroos, being hand raised, would even eat out of our hands.

Whilst working at AgriExchange we made friends, but we became really good friends with a French couple, Guylain and Lisolette. We spent lots of nights drinking with these guys, usually after work on Fridays and Saturdays, playing 'caps' and the card game 'African Tarot'.

During our time here the World Cup was on as well, not that you would have realised. Being a 'bush' town, people didn't seem to know (or care) what was going on in the world, especially if it was 'soccer'. Them being more into their Aussy rules football. However, we did manage to catch a few games, and of course all the England games. The problem was that they didn't start until the early hours of the morning.

Our time working with oranges FINALLY came to an end on the 27th July. It couldn't have come sooner, we were geniunely sick of working in a factory. It was mundane, repetitive and very very exhausting! I'm not sure whether Kirsty will ever touch an orange again!! So after a big party with some friends from work, which involved lots of whiskey, drinking game 'caps', dancing, and a little bit of face paint we said our goodbyes to everyone. Including to Ned the dog who Kirsty had become very good friends with.

We set of back to Adelaide for a couple of nights to start our road trip back to Melbourne. We met Guyl and Lis in the city for one last drink before we went our seperate ways, witha plan to meet up again in Phuket, Thailand in October.

Our trip to Melbourne is to be our last in the van (Betty) and hopefully a memorable one, seen as we're going via the scenic, Great Ocean Road.