I left Mooroopna backpackers on Friday afternoon and was lucky enough to catch a lift from one of the guys working at the cannery. As soon as I got back into Melbourne I felt an immediate buzz that I hadn't felt for a while. Being stuck in a small town for over two months is a bit different to the hustle and bustle of a big city and it was nice to be back into civilisation again, albeit if it was only going to be for a week or so before heading off to complete my...

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 mentio...

In my last blog I mentioned that as long as it didn't go pear-shaped then I would be staying at the orchard for as long as there was work or to get my second visa, whichever was the earliest. Well, 12 days is a long time in pear picking! The work was drying up, lots of people were leaving and the pears were getting smaller meaning less bins for me to pick and therefore less money. It got to the point where the motivation to work just wasn't there. In the last 11...

Bruises, scratches, sore muscles, backache, 5:30 am starts, nine hour days in the stifling heat, broken stems, up and down the ladder all day - welcome to pear picking! I have been picking pears close to Shepparton for just over three weeks now and it has been tough going. The money isn’t very good at all - we are paid by the bin and the bins are huge so it takes a long time to fill a bin - especially when the pears are quite small as well, which happens many ...

After spending one day in the nations capital Canberra, I jumped back on the greyhound bus and headed for Melbourne. The journey was going to last around ten hours - a long time for UK standards but just down the road for Aussies! Now, I'm sure I'm not the only one that does this when waiting for a bus, but just before you get on I always notice a couple of people you definitely don't want to sit next to. In this instance it was a fat woman and an alcoholic. I wa...