Any long trip like ours is bound to have high points and low points. I think we can definitely say that the last few days have been a low point. Christmas and New Year were boisterous and fun (photos below), with many half-remembered conversations and drunken decisions like 27 people jumping into the pool at midnight. We’ve come to realise that what makes this hostel so good is not the pool or the sauna or the free houseboat, but the people. We’ve heard stories from backpackers who have come from Sydney that if you leave anything laying around for ten seconds it will be stolen. Last night I left my laptop in the games room overnight and it wasn’t touched. It’s weird to have a sense of community among what is in the end a transient hostel population, but somehow it works. We’ve made some good friends over the last three months and we’ll have plenty of people to meet up with as we travel over the next 18 months.

So our plan was to save enough money to travel and buy a car by the end of February, by which time we will both have fulfilled our 2nd year visa requirements. By the beginning of January I had finally found full time work and all was looking good. The work itself is probably the hardest of the jobs I’ve had so far. The actual labour is the same – up and down trees picking fruit in the Australian sun, though now using a cherry picker rather than a ladder. What makes this job harder are the supervisors and the 9-10 hour days (with two 15 minute breaks, 7 days a week).  Marie’s packing and I’m picking for the most respected stone fruit company in the Riverland – or at least that’s what they’d have us believe. The fruit itself is much higher quality than I’m used to and the supervisors are on your back all day to make sure what’s picked from the trees lives up to those standards. So if you pick any slightly unripe fruits (“green” they call it, even though the unripe fruit is actually yellow) you get told off. If you leave any fruits that should have been picked in the tree, you get told off. If you drop any on the ground, you get told off. They have the ability to complain no matter what and they usually do. Our Greek supervisor is amusing, friendly and pleasant as long as he’s not pissed off. “No behind fruits boys!” he says seventy times a day. “No green please, more colours, more colours!” and my personal favourite “This fruit is too soft like the breast of my wife.”

Things started to go wrong when my lunch ice packs were somehow moved to another fridge in the hostel and destroyed.

Total losses: $10

The “65-year old backpacker” who was staying in our house announced that he was leaving, and Marie lent him our Lonely Planet – something we have referenced every step of the journey so far. He left a few days later and never returned it. When I texted him after he left he told me that he’d left it on the community bookshelf but never told us.

Total losses: $60

About 10 days ago one of the backpackers came into our house offering to sell us his car. He was leaving Australia and had been looking for $1800 for a 1990 Ford Falcon but there were no takers. As he only had a couple of days left, he offered to sell it to us for $1500. This may seem expensive to Irish eyes for a car that would most likely not be allowed on the roads at home, but cars are pricey here. We checked guide prices for similar models with similar mileage online and they were selling for $2000+. It was, as was the general opinion around the hostel, a good runner. Various things had been upgraded and replaced. We needed a car to get around the Riverland. Harry Potter was showing in Renmark the following week and a car was the only way to get there. We decided to buy it. We handed over the cash, changed the registration details and drove to the only Indian restaurant in the Riverland to celebrate.

The happiness lasted 48 hours. The very day that the previous owner left Australia, it broke down. Marie arrived back from work and the car died, hot and smoking, in the car park. I won’t get into the details, but initially it looked like we could fix the car by replacing a part which we quickly bought and replaced.

Total losses: $105

But of course, one problem lead to another and we had to replace another small part.

Total losses: $125

Now all was looking rosy, until a mechanic friend in the hostel had a proper look at the engine and discovered a leaking head gasket (whatever that is). I’ve just called the local garage for a quote to get it fixed and, like we haven’t had enough bad luck already, it would cost more than we paid for the car.

Total losses: $1625

So that’s that. Hopefully our next blog entry will talk excitedly about our departure from the bloody Riverland. Oh and I lost my hat.

Total losses: $1655