Site : Tantanoola East Rest Area
Rating : 6 / 20
Facilities : The type of Rest Area that you stay at when you’re so tired from driving you’ll pull up practically anywhere. I got woken up 3 times during the night from drivers hooning by at 110km/hr and tooting their hoons for 100metres just cause they thought it would be funny.
We had done it!! We had driven for what felt like eternity and finally.. we had made the border to South Australia. Goodbye Eastern Australia... hello red dirt, stinking heat &16 billion flies!
We really were looking forward to getting out of Victoria. After returning to Melbourne off the Spirit of Tasmania, we realised that we were in Melbourne for a FOURTH time on our trip.. so much for not going backwards! So, we put the pedal to the metal and spent a lot of our time getting us through the driving by playing a Trivia Quiz I downloaded on the Iphone (which unfortunately, is extremely Americanised – our knowledge of US politics is not surprisingly limited to just the names of presidents).
Part of the reason why we were so keen to get to SA was because... we had secured some work! Yay (I think!). The tread on the Troopie’s tyres is running quite low and we’ll be up for a new set of tyres. We had a quote done from Coopers Tyres and we can get each tyre for $350 but that comes with a very impressive 50,000km warranty. So, we’re up for a $1400 bill that we were expecting to have to pay but we were quite enjoying putting off the working part.
Part of the reason why we were so keen to get to SA was because... we had secured some work! Yay (I think!). The tread on the Troopie’s tyres is running quite low and we’ll be up for a new set of tyres. We had a quote done from Coopers Tyres and we can get each tyre for $350 but that comes with a very impressive 50,000km warranty. So, we’re up for a $1400 bill that we were expecting to have to pay but we were quite enjoying putting off the working part.
A week before we left Tassie, Tom and I both agreed.. right, it’s time to get out there and earn some cash. Ideally, we were wanting to pick up some work in SA for 2 weeks. Would you believe, apparently before we left on the trip I signed us up onto some shearers union website as looking for work. THAT AFTERNOON a shearing contractor gave me a call and said he’s got some work from the 23rd of March for 2 weeks for the two of us together for $190 per person per day PLUS full accommodation & food provided. HELL YEAH!! That’ll be a cool $2500ish Nett with practically zero expenses for two weeks ... excluding beer that is. And the work? Well, I made sure Rob knew that we certainly weren’t shearing pro’s and that we had only done very little work on Uncle Bruce’s farm but he said that getting good workers as a Rouseabout is bloody hard to find and that if we’re willing to learn, he’s willing to show. As Rousies (yes, I’m very up to date with the lingo) we are pretty much shearer’s hands so as they are shearing the sheep, we collect the fleece and the bellies and sweep up after each sheep. It’ll be pretty hard work. My brother laughed at me when I told him he and said that I should start waking up at 5am each morning now in preparation. And he’s right too, I’ve been trying but I think I need to keep practising... what can I say, I like my sleep!
Along the big drive, we found ourselves in a cute little town in SA called Inverleigh. Tom practically slammed on the brakes with excitement when he found a second hand store with bikes out the front. We went to have a look but the ones there were a little out of our budget. So after chatting to the guy, he took us two streets away back to his house where he had in excess of 300 bikes. We were in our element and I was feeling a little jealous too, Tom had so many vintage bikes to choose from and I already had my stupid, boring old mountain bike on the roof. We toyed with the idea of me getting a vintage one too and then flicking the mountain bike but that just be a waste, now wouldn't it?
Along the big drive, we found ourselves in a cute little town in SA called Inverleigh. Tom practically slammed on the brakes with excitement when he found a second hand store with bikes out the front. We went to have a look but the ones there were a little out of our budget. So after chatting to the guy, he took us two streets away back to his house where he had in excess of 300 bikes. We were in our element and I was feeling a little jealous too, Tom had so many vintage bikes to choose from and I already had my stupid, boring old mountain bike on the roof. We toyed with the idea of me getting a vintage one too and then flicking the mountain bike but that just be a waste, now wouldn't it?
Tom found an extremely well suited little setup. Once we had reached the lovely beachside town of Robe, we decided to take our two bikes for a spin. Tom’s was great, super fast and purred like a little pussy cat. Only, we have since realised that mine is actually well and truly buggered. Now, we have to go back to the drawing board to find me a new bike just when we had 300 to chose from only two hours drive backwards. Damn it. Oh well, the saga continues. And it’s a good little fun project for the two of us. Once we find the right bikes, we can do them up and make them look like brand new vintage (?!) and by that time, we’ve probably returned to Brissie.
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