Camping managers!

After our stay in Cairns we booked a week at a camping called Etteleah Park. It is run by a retired couple at a location about 45 minutes from Cairns. Oscar got his first real test, because apparently the camp site was up on quite a mountain and it was 30 minutes of driving steep hills and sharp turns. He did good though, and upon arrival we discovered that the camping was truly a paradise on earth, with a huge garden and loads of fruit trees which we are allowed to pick and eat as much as we want. In addition to that it has a beautiful pool who basically nobody else uses and two dogs to cuddle and play with. A campfire is lit at night and everybody sits around talking and drinking and sharing stories while it gets dark. But our luck didn't end there, because after the first night, the camping owners came to our van and wanted to have a talk with us. I was thinking we had done something wrong or whatever, but no, they needed to go out of town for a week and since we didn't have a job and were planning on staying here for a week or more, they figured we might be interested in a free stay + half of the income of the campsite in return for being camping managers for the week. Well, that was of course an offer we could not refuse. It basically means just being around in case guests show up, do some light cleaning, lighting the campfire and feeding the dogs. We loved being here anyways, only downside is we can not go hiking or whatever together during opening hours, but we are fine by the pool for now...

We used our last day of freedom to go see the tablelands and take the watefallcircuit. The waterfalls were amazing but the water was freezing. It took us a whole day and quite some kilometres (I think we made about 500) to see everything, but I guess that is something we will just have to get used to around here. 

We have kind of made up our minds that we will probably go for whatever farm work we can find after this, because we'd like to get our 88 days of farm work (so that we are eligable for a 2nd year visa) and save some money to travel further. So we are just applying for fruitpicking jobs around in Queensland, hoping we can find something nearby. 

For now we are very happy being camping managers at our own personal paradise!

You can view the pictures at a larger scale by clicking on them.

Resting during a hike

Our first campingspot!

Picking mandarins

Private pool

At a huge fig tree during our roadtrip

Milaa milaa Falls

Cool boy

On the road

Explaining to Willem how to take a good picture

The apprentice has succeeded

Cairns - the tropical paradise

Our first two weeks in Cairns are already over and we feel like we are finally settling a little bit in this city. Right now Cairns is the place to be for backpackers because of the nice weather compared to the rest of Australia. That means it is a wonderful place for a holiday, but it also means job-hunting becomes harder because of more competition. We are looking and responding to many different job opportunities, but no luck yet. Except for Willem, who has been giving two hours of football practice a week. That is of course not enough to be able to manage financially but luckily we are prepared for some weeks of unemployment. We have lived in an Airbnb for the last two weeks which has been great. We are living with two danish girls who are doing their internship here and that means some nice social nights on the porch. Since most airbnbs are full and hostels are crazy expensive in Cairns at this time of year, we decided to look into some alternatives. Our idea was to save money on accomodation by going camping, which led us to the newest member of the family: Oscar!

We are staying in Cairns for the moment because we might have some job opportunies coming up, we are just waiting for answers. If nothing appropriate comes our way, we will either relocate or do some fruit picking at a farm nearby Cairns. This is not our first choice, but there are a lot of fruit farms and jobs here, so it would be a good option.

For the rest: we have been hanging out by the lagoon, cycling around, working out, going on a hike, drinking goon (which is cheap wine ) because beer is too expensive and searching for jobs. We have also been to Fitzroy island to go snorkling, but unfortunately there was quite a lot of wind and waves, so the sight at the coral reefs was not great. No turtles or koalas spotted yet, but right when we talked about how Willem started to believe the kangaroos did not really excist, we saw a lot of them hopping around in the distance.

At Fitzroy Island

Chillspot at the lagoon (The lagoon is a swimming pool by the sea because the sea is too dangerous to swim in because of alligators...)

Right before we found a local brewery and had our first night out in the city and found out we could not afford this.

Willem on racing around Cairns

 

 Ready to work on the farm

Going camping for the next week, really excited to sleep in Oscar!