My adventure in Mooroopna has now come to an end as the tomato season at the cannery has finished. I have now worked 70 days and require another 18 days to apply for my second year visa. The job at the cannery has gone really well. I have been working every day Monday to Sunday for the last six weeks or so with just two days off for Easter but it has been worth it as I have managed to earn a bit of money to help go towards my future travels this year. As I mentioned previously, I have been working in the Tomatoes section and I was really lucky to be working with the tomatoes as they are the only section to have been regularly working weekends, which means double money. I have been operating machinery, evaporating tomatoes into tomato juice and paste and doing manual labour. Not the most exciting work but better than picking fruit and it may lead to an opportunity to work there again next year for the full season this time should I want to re-apply, which I would say is pretty likely if I get my second year visa.

One thing is for sure though, if I do come back to work here again next season I certainly won’t be staying at the Shepp Moor International Guesthouse, the hostel I have been staying in located in Mooroopna. It is without a shadow of a doubt the worst hostel I have stayed in so far in Australia. For one the kitchen is a nightmare. No pots and pans to use, the microwave disappeared a few days after we arrived, the toaster only toasts on one side of the bread and the hostel manager keeps closing it after 10pm before most of us finish work. Most of the time there aren’t even any sponges provided to clean our dishes with. The other day I picked up a sponge after a Korean girl had used it and she said to me it was hers but I could use it to clean my plate. It says it all when guests are bringing in their own sponges to clean their dishes! Then there is the toilet roll. You’d think there was a world war on at the moment the way it is rationed out, and in-fact for almost a week I had to steal toilet paper from work as the hostel hadn’t provided any toilet rolls to us! Then there is the TV, which turns off at 10pm and comes back on at 7am and no matter how nicely you ask the hostel manager will not turn it on for you! The washing machine doesn’t work properly and you can’t drink in the common room. I could go on and on! But all of these things pale into insignificance when you meet the hostel owner - a totally mad woman who is on some kind of power trip and makes every guest’s lives here a total misery! The woman is unbelievable, shouting, swearing and screaming all of the time. The hostel is basically more like a prison than a youth hostel. I would tell anyone I meet NOT to come here, although I guess just for the novelty value maybe everyone should stay here a night just to meet one of life’s characters ‘Serena’ the hostel manager. It has to be experienced to be believed!

I must admit that the TV going off at 10pm is the most annoying thing. Especially when I and many others finish at 11pm and just want to relax for a few hours after work, without causing any disturbance to anyone else. However, we have managed to find a way around this, much to the annoyance of our lovely hostel manager! Robbie, an Irish lad who was also working at the Cannery, has managed to find a way of winding on the timer (which is in a padlocked metal box) with the aid of a torch and a wooden tablespoon from the kitchen (well, the kitchen does have one thing useful in it…..). It is ingenious! As a result I have been able to watch Man Utd in the Champions League at 4.45am without the hostel manager knowing……until she wakes up and realises that we have been messing about with the TV. Then all hell breaks loose, but she doesn’t know who has done it! The first time we did it, I was alone in the TV room watching the football and she was confused how the TV was even on. My ‘it wasn’t me guv, I just came in and it was on’ seemed to work the first time but she seems to have cottoned on a bit now. Honestly, I’m 29 years old and I am being told I can’t watch the TV past 10pm!

All I can say is thank goodness it is all over and I will be leaving this hostel! For the most part it is ok as I have been working 7 days a week so I haven’t had to deal with ‘her’. Even on checking out she told me I wasn’t allowed to check out as I hadn’t given her 24 hours notice and tried to fleece me out of more money. Needless to say it wasn’t an emotional goodbye when I left the hostel!

So where to now? I am now back in Melbourne for a week of relaxing, sightseeing and a couple of nights out before I move on somewhere else to finish off my seasonal work. Having worked for the last 10 weeks I could do with the break! I'll be staying at Urban Central, a really decent hostel and then work out where to go next......