Victoria - Croydon

Fruit Picking is nice, but of course holidays are way better. So our next destination is Croydon (near Melbourne) where we are staying at Bob's and Cely's house for one week before we go to Tasmania.

The first Saturday night happened to be a costume party, so everybody dressed up and had a good time with a lot of laughs, drinks and food.

 Bob and Cely

Bine

Eden

Bine, Cely, Jason and Sarah

Victoria - Shepparton and Kyabram or better known as 'fruit picking paradise'

After having had 2 wonderful months of travelling, it was time to move on and time for a job to fill up our bank accounts again. So we decided to get ready for a 2 1/2 day drive from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, down to Shapperton in Victoria.

 

On Our way, there was not much to see but dead animals lying on the roads...

...or funny signs which the government has introduced to prevent fatigue driving.

 Shapperton itself turned out to be a little nice town with a lake and a river, a 2 1/2h drive away from Melbourne. But before we should start working we could enjoy the lake and the nice weather...

...and the nice view on the lake at night.

Another highlight in Shapperton was to be invited to Anna's house for having pasta. How this works? Just open a bank account at the Commonwealth Bank in Shapperton with Anna, have a nice talk and get invited. Thanks very much Anna! It was nice to meet you and your family :-)

Yes, people are very nice over here.

Pears - that should be the fruit which we would be picking for three weeks, almost every day from early in the morning 'till early afternoon. For those who are not professional fruit pickers as we are now, we want to explain you the procedure of picking first ;-). 

1. Get up around 5:30 am, force yourself having breakfast, otherwise you would not be able to work for a couple of hours.

2. Prepare your work clothes, which means better make sure to bring gloves if you don't want to scretch your hands, a hat against the sun and a net, otherwise there will be thousands of annoying flies which try to fly into your eyes, nose or ears all the time.

3. Make sure you use mosquito repellent!

4. Check your backpack which you have packed the evening before, a looooot of water and little chocolate bars which are essential for not running low on energy.

If all preperation has been done, you are ready to go :-)

The picking demands climbing up and down the letter, to reach every single fruit which is hanging in the tree. Once you filled up your bag, you are ready to go to put the fresh picked fruit into your bin (a 1x1m wooden box).

Murray our supervisor, picking us up and driving us to another spot.

Having a short break with Samuel, Eli, Nicolas, JB and Francois.

After having worked for 6 days you at least have 1 day off. These free days we spent with our picker friends from Italy (Eli and Samuel), from France (Nicolas, Francois and JB) and from Belgium (Khalil and Roy).

 Playing PS3 (Italy vs. Belgium)

What would life be without barbequeing :-)