Wattle season is over!
We harvested quite literally until the cows came home, and then it was time to call it quits. I was pretty glad to finish as it was hard work. You had to work fast to be in with any chance of earning money, and when it was so hot it was just exhausting. The heat makes you frustrated very easily - if the trees are too wet, or too spread out and the seed is not falling well, you just get annoyed with everything. So I wasn't sad to say goodbye to the wattle.
Bunny however found it made a nice bed!
I found out what they actually use wattle seed for...
So after we bagged up the last loads of wattle I decided to practice my ninja skills and take all of my wattle related frustrations out on it.
We moved out to set up camp for the next harvest; Lemongrass. We moved to a campsite in QUORN! Not the Quorn in Loughborough, but the Quorn in South Australia based on the Quorn in England - because Australian's can't come up with names by themselves. You would not believe the number of towns copied from England - Salisbury, Kensington, Derby, even Dublin and Edinburgh, then they got tired of English places and started with names; Laura and Clare, and then they gave up on real words all together and got Woolundunga, Winninowrie, Booleroo, Wandearah, Koolunga and Mundoora. It's an odd mix.
But anyway, we set up camp in Quorn. We've got a pretty nifty set up with an awning pulling out from the roof of the car, a side wall that attaches for shade, chairs and tables, a gas stove, and a tent to sleep in. Because we are now travelling with Masa, the Japanese guy we work with, there is no space for 3 of us to sleep in the car. Its a good job we brought the tent, though we still only have the one mattress!
There were some SERIOUSLY big spiders there, like this Huntsmas on the water tank. He's possibly one of the biggest I've seen, but I don't mind him because as his name suggests, he hunts the nasty ones. The Nasty Ones being the Redbacks and the Funnel Webs who can kill you with a single bite - if you don't get anti venom quickly of course. There was a case on the news just yesterday of a 12yr old who got bitten by a Funnel Web and needed 12 vials of anti venom…
Spiders aside, we started picking lemongrass. This grows near creeks and waterways; never mind the fact that they are all stone dry, the grasses are hardy little buggers. It was an easy task, grab a clump and chop it off with a big knife, pull out seeds and shake it to get rid of dirt, leaves and dead grass. And voila, into the bucket and onto the next clump.
I liked it, it was very therapeutic, especially as it was generally quite shady. And the creek where we were picking was so beautiful, beside a big rocky hill with no one else around. The whole area was just unbelievably stunning (I know, I know, I've never said that before about this country, right!!).
Bunny also enjoyed the lemongrass. =]
But all good things come to an end, and this one happened quite abruptly. We realised that the grass would be weighed when it was dried, not freshly picked and wet, and we would be paid on that weight. So while we could pick around 20kilos a day, when it dries out it looses around 60-70% of water weight. Which meant instead of $200 a day, we would get maybe $75 if we were lucky.
It was time to call it, so the five of us packed up and headed back to Adelaide.
We stopped on the way at lake Bumbinga in Lochiel to check out Nessie's cousin, the Loch Eel Monster. Bumbunga is a giant salt lake that uses some funky trick to turn the water pink. Don't ask me what the trick is, I tried to google it and didn't understand. Something to do with the decay of continental ice sheets and climate change...
So now Seb, Masa and I are back in Adelaide. We're in limbo a little bit, because *hold your breath for big news* we are getting a new car. (I know, you don't have to tell me it's crazy, I'm with you on that) Our car cannot handle the vast distances in Australia. It's a great car, but it cannot travel 500km without a fuel station as it will need to on our way to Perth when we cross the Nullabor Plain. (Latin: Nullus meaning 'no', and Arbor meaning 'tree'.)
Seb has wanted to get our Pathfinder's big brother, the Patrol for a long time. And now he has finally found one it's all go. This one has a shelving system in the back and a second battery and slide out table for a fridge - our cool box is not dealing well with the intense heat and every other day the ice has turned to water and invaded everything we own. Water soaked cheese anyone??
Oh, and it has a snorkel so we can cross rivers too!
It's all about waiting now. Waiting for the mechanic to check out the Patrol to make sure it's in good condition. Waiting for someone to buy the Pathfinder. Waiting for all the registration documents to be sorted. And while that is going on we've holed up at Hermitage Produce Farm, a gorgeous little herb farm in the Adelaide Hills. Jo and Roger charge us $5 each a night and we've got a bathroom, shower and loads of space to set up camp. There's kangaroos around, and lots of dogs, and cats who like to come for a cuddle - thank you Boysen for sitting outside our tent all night purring!
We'll be off to Perth in the next week, it's only a little drive, 2693km, 1day and 4 hours according to Mr Google. Masa has family there so we said we would take him, and it's time to move on anyway. So while we've been hiding out in the air conditioned library due to a heatwave there's been a lot of applying for jobs in Perth, and hunting for someone to buy the car.
And like always, I guess we'll see what happens...
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