At one with nature

I'm part way through my first adventures to the Australian bush.

Spent two nights in Brissy, saw two awesome gigs by Melbourne band The Melodics and partied with them, met some randoms from country NSW, and caught up with a friend who showed me around a bit. Then on Sunday I met my new family for the next two weeks - three guys from spain, three guys from Brisbane (one formerly from NSW), two Korean girls and our leader Tom who's from Nottingham. Everybody is pretty much in their twenties and the language barriers are lots of fun. There is also a leader who we meet each day who is based in Springsure for the whole project (eight weeks or so), who is also a real character. He is 40 I think, and awesome fun. He really gets into the fun of things, especially with the spaniards.

The 'bus' we were travelling in for two days turned out to be a 4x4 with bench seats in the back, for 10 people! The driver and a passenger in the front, and eight in the back with our knees up and our shoulders pressed together. It promised to be a long drive, but ended up being quite fun. It was a sort of blessing in disguise that we were all shoved in like that because we were forced to talk and make friends, and we had a lot of fun. I have invented "The Sprinsure Four-be" dance, in a similar vein to the "Melbourne Shuffle", it came from the way you dance when in the back of a four by four up hills and over very bumpy surfaces.

We spent one night in a caravan park, in three caravans. Then carried on our way, arriving at Springsure mid afternoon. Set up our new home in another caravan park, but this time in tents. I lucked into having a 3 man tent to myself, because I'm the only one with no friends and the leader has to be on his own due to policy. There are two to a three man tent otherwise. I'm sleeping on the floor with the ants and the dirt, but it's fabulous. I've been sleeping so well.

To summarise (local library has slow computers), we have spent this week trying to plant trees. There have been setbacks however beacuse there are local walabies eating all the fresh baby trees. We were going to try to get a fence built before planting any more, so went to maintain (water and replace dead) trees around the township on public land. The spaniards then devised a way of protecting the trees, so we went back to the national park to plant some more. Sure enough their method worked, but it requires cable ties, which we have run out of. So we've done some planting, some watering, a lot of bush bashing, and some nature spotting.

We've seen loads of walabies and kangaroos, an echidna, a possum (not exciting for those of us from Melbourne), a cane toad (not exciting for those from brissy), a green tree frog, a preying mantis, a lizard and finally on our last day at the Koala habitat, one Koala up a tree. They are really suffering from the drought so we didnt' think we'd see any.

We tend to start work at about 7.30 and finish anywhere between 12 and 3pm. Today was forecast to be 35 C so we left at 7 and finished at 12. It's bloody hot out there. I'm not used to it! I think the gradual build up to summer makes a big difference. Then in the afternoons we will hang out for a bit, maybe go and do somethng fun like lookouts, walks or swimming in a creek, then cook dinner and play cards. The Korean girls have been struggling with the conditions and keeping to themselves a lot, so its usually me and the boys playing poker or some other fun and games. They are such a cheeky bunch, so rude, so many swear words, crass humour, and all sorts of non-PC jokes. It's pretty funny, but thank god I got used to this kind of behaviour at uni! If I was here 4 years ago I wouldn't ahve coped with their antics, now I'm totally holding my own. Thanks guys! Only problem is that I can't play soccer. It's a shame they don't play AFL up here.

Tomorrow is nature Saturday, where we have a day off (dont' have to leave until 9am!! WOOT) and go to see some nature. Although, there is a total fire ban here and there is a blanket rule with the Conservation Volunteers that they don't go to rural places when there is risk of bushfires. It would be kinda crappy if we were caught in a bushfire and died, but I'm sure they will look after us. Last I heard they were speaking to authorities about what is ok for us to do.

So far so good, and I'm keen to do more of this sort of thing. It's been really good fun. Hard work at times, but overall just fun. It's enough work to make you feel good about yourself, and it's clear to see why it needs doing. Still a whole week to go though!