27 A Change of Plans

So as I'm sure you're all aware I have a tendency to change my mind A LOT; and in extreme ways as well. So there goes my plan to stay in Brisbane for 5 months. I am now in Darwin.

After struggling with lack of hours at work in Brisbane, and also not being able to get a second job, I decided to leave. I met some friends of mine in Bundaberg where they were camping to do their farm work. I joined in for half a day's work of zucchini picking, which was awful. I don't know why I bothered to go back to farm work after already completing my banana farm work long ago. Anyway, I stayed with them camping for about a week and a half because it was so much cheaper than Brisbane and I was happy to be out of the city for a while. Anyway, we discussed as a group to head up to Darwin to find work which is exactly what we did.

We went back to Brisbane and picked up a relocation van which we found to take to Darwin. This means that someone needs the van in Darwin, so we took it for free, just paid petrol to bring the van to the person in Darwin. It was slightly dodgy to say the least; automatic van with a gear box that sounds like its falling out every time you dropped from 5th to 2nd gear and every now and then we had to pull over to reset the box but other than that it was all good.

Our road trip went as follows:

Day 1 - Brisbane to Gladstone

This took us about 8 hours of driving time and we stopped in Gladstone to meet a friend of ours we were camping with previously. He found a full time job in Gladstone which is why he wasn't coming with us. The van came with mattresses so some of us slept in the van and 2 people had the tent. This was how it went for the next 5 days.

Day 2 - Gladstone to Longreach

This was a long day and we drove for 13 hours. We stocked up on food before we headed off into the outback because it literally was in the middle of nowhere. When it got dark and we were driving at night there were soo many kangeroos in the road we had to watch out for, as well as so many dead ones at the side of the road. It was horrible. Unfortunately we hit one massive kangaroo. It jumped out of nowhere. We braked as hard as we could but we still hit it. It was still alive and but badly injured but managed to run off. We then went to find a campsite to sleep until morning and drive again when it was light and easier to see.

Day 3 - Longreach to Camooweal

Today we drove for 10 hours. It was really was a boring drive so I got a chance to read a lot of my Hunger Game's books. We passed a herd of cows and a cowgirl rounding them up. This time we stopped before dark to avoid anymore accidents.

Day 4 - Camooweal - Mataranka - the next town along

This was an 11 hour drive. We crossed the border from Queensland to the Northern Territory. By this time we still had no shower access and my hair was beginning to turn into dreadlocks, all matted and very knotty. Today I finished my book. The weather is looking pretty good and we are still in the middle of nowhere with zero phone signal. We were going to stop in Mataranka tonight but we discovered it was full of drunken aboriginals so we drove to the next town to get a peaceful and safe night's sleep.

Day 5 - somewhere to Darwin

This drive only took about 5 hours and we were finally in Darwin. We stopped at a place called Katherine to go into Woolworths and stock up on food. When we got to Darwin we dropped off two people from our trip who booked to stay in a hostel and the other 4 of us carried on to find a camp site. On route we decided to go to the beach, take a dip in the sea and enjoy finally being here. We decided to sleep in the van one more night and stay in town so we could go out and experience the Darwin nightlife. So the following day we drove to a camp site.

This camp site were staying at is amazing. It's a lot cheaper than staying in a hostel and we get 3 swimming pools, a bbq area, showers/toilets, kitchen, etc. It's pretty good value and we have the mattresses from the van in our tent so were 'glamping' (glamorous camping)!

We arrived on Saturday and I have had a job as of Tuesday. I got it so quickly it was pretty lucky. I was just in the right place at the right time and now I have loads of hours and working at a bar with some awesome people J