Not so long after writing our last post we received the dreaded call from the job agency telling us they had found us mango picking jobs ....... we were called at 4pm and had to leave at 6am the following morning. However, we had to go and see the agency, buy hats, shirts, suncream, bug repellent all before 5pm so it was a frantic rush to begin with.

We were out in the middle of no-where picking, packing and de-sapping mangoes. Most mornings at 7am (when we started work) it was 24 degrees and 82% humidity! Fantastic. The weather reached up to 37 on some days but the average was about 34 so very hot and sweaty. We were working for a Greek family and doing 9-10 hours a day for 12 days straight. The free beer after a hard days work helped to ease the pain a little.

We were lucky enough not to be attacked by mango sap burns too often, though we did have a nice brown nicotine like staining on our hands for the first few days. Kate escaped the dreaded mango rash which causes unlucky people to get very swollen faces and a rash all over their bodies that itches like nothing and spreads over your body in 24 hours. Nasty. I got a tiny bit which seems to have increased now we've left, great!

Ever heard of Berry Springs? Well that's where the farm was, although you may hear of it soon as we intend to initiate a soap opera based on the farm...... so many dramas that I need not bore you with but just think..... too many cooks spoiling the broth and [un]happy families, who regret planting the first mango tree 18 years ago!!! Also I didn't know it was possible to fit 20 swear words into every sentence! Drama indeed. EastEnders would be cheery in comparison! We have put some mango orientated photos on the blog, they actually look nice and as if we are enjoying ourselves! Funny that, it was so dirty, dusty and a lot of hard work. Kate has new skin on her hands, and I can move my hands again after getting temporary arthritis each morning from opening and closing them repeatedly for picking and collecting mangoes.

We didn't get to the point where we never want to see a mango again. Lucky because a few accidently slipped into our bags! They are absolutely delicious and juicy especially as they were fresh from the tree.

That's the work out of the way, now for the accommodation! We were staying at the 'Lakes Resort' caravan site at Berry Springs, it's got 3 stars from somewhere but I'm not sure they'd get 1 from us. A bonus was that our room/shed/prison cell did have air conditioning that worked and no bed bugs, luxury indeed. Also the kitchen consisted of 1 pan, one hot plate, a broken microwave, a slow BBQ, a broken toaster and a warm smelly fridge. Fantastic. Thankfully there were 8 of us thrown onto the Lakes Resort together and 2 girls had a campervan packed full of equipment that they kindly let us use. So we all mucked in and cooked gourmet meals for 8 which worked out well.

Now we've left though we can say that we're fully qualified mango pickers and we did enjoy ourselves. I think it's an experience that we won't forget(!) and definately served a purpose, it's a good way to earn a fast buck and keep your outgoings down. Saying all that I think we've picked our last mango, ever!

We're back in Darwin and Kates parents arrive in a few hours, so we are looking forward to that and have lots of exciting things planned for the next couple of weeks.

Take it easy

Rich and Kate

Well we've done it, we've finished fostering the Campervan and returned it to it's rightful owner, without racking up any speeding fines! As you can probably guess we managed to clock up 6479km's in a little over 7 weeks which isn't bad going considering that by the shortest route it's about 3500km's from Sydney to Cairns.

So, in our final few days we headed up to the rainforest, Cape Tribulation where the rainforest meets the reef. It was really nice up there, we did a few bush walks including one night walk where we managed to spot 3 species of rat but little else. Not unless you include the smoking, swearing Irish person we had to put up with. Wonder why we didn't spot anything!! We did spot a Cassowary (like an emu with a blue head and an evil side) or 3 during the days, one of which was a youngster who we got a bit too close to and he didn't like having his picture taken. Kate jumped up onto the picnic table thinking that it couldn't get her up there! Needless to say the pictures are as shaky as the elephant ones from Borneo! I should point out that Cassowarys can disembowel you with there big toe so there is reason to be afraid, very afraid.....

For a less strenuous activity, we went on a trip to a tropical fruit farm where they give you a little taster of some fruits that were anything but Australian! Have you ever had fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding, lemon meringue pie, candy floss or roasted onions? Well we have and we could recommend some of them if only we could remember their names! The man who showed us round was called Digby and we reckoned it was worth it just for that!

And then for the ultimate adventure.... I got up and rode a horse! Bet you never thought you'd hear me say that?!? Popeye (that's the horse not Kates new nickname) had a really fun morning and he didn't throw me off once. Kate rode Gonzo (that is her new nickname) who was luckily Popeyes best mate so they got on pretty well. We rode along the beach, through open fields and through the rainforest, it was really good fun though my bum didn't think so for the 3 days after.

A couple more stops on the way back down to Cairns and then we had to give up the Camper and check ourselves into a hostel, though I think we'd forgotten what they were like so we decided to treat ourselves to a double room to ease our way back in to Backpackersville.

One more adventure we had was a liveaboard dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef which was amazing, we did 6 dives on the outer reef in a little under 24 hours. The first one was guided and a bit rubbish with people banging into each other and kicking up sand. However for the second one we went out on our own for the first time (and on another 3 dives) and loved it, so relaxing and great to see all the fish/coral/sea cucumbers/stingrays/turtles etc before they were frightened off by a group of 10 large things bubbling away (thats the other divers for those that don't get it! Mentioning no names, Mum!). We even got to scratch a turtles back to help him get the algae off, you could see him smiling away thankfully. We also did a night dive which I really liked and Kate didn't, though it was a bit worrying when my torch went out ..... luckily the guide had a spare. Unfortunately no sharks but there's always next time........

Now's probably a good time to mention that we're in Darwin, we've left the East Coast behind and are into 35 degree heat with 80% humidity looking for work picking Mangoes. We don't really want to do it if we can help it but there's not much in Darwin, or the bank account come to think of it, to fill our time! So if we disappear for a couple of weeks we're probably holed up knee deep in mango sap and suncream on an outback hill billy farm! Can you tell we're excited by it?

Ok, I'll leave it there before I lose you all dreaming of [us picking] mangoes.

Bye for now

Rich and Kate