Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Carnarvon - Marc (writes)

So we drove for a couple of hours before we reached the metropolis that is Carnarvon - Population 3000.

We didn't come here for any other reason other than work. This place produces like all of the fruit for the entire world and they need slave labour/backpackers to pick it all and pack it all. There are something like 170 farms and fruit and veg plantations producing all kinds of stuff from avacodos through to yams (couldn't think of an 'Z' fruits/veg). Collectively they need a workforce the size of a small army to pick and pack this produce so of course if you are there at the right time you can rake in the cash. You see what I said there? "If you are there at the right time".....The amazing timing of Marc & Nora pays dividends once again and every farm we drive to has a either a sign swinging on the gate post stating "NO ENTRY/ NO JOBS", an elderly farm owner slowly shaking his head as we ask for work or simply a shed full of shifty looking vietnamese workers looking baffled as a we approach them with our tired smiles of desperation....in short there wern't too many jobs on offer in this "town of jobs". We soon learnt that we had arrived in that very short time of year which falls just at the end of the fruit/veg harvesting and the grape picking....basically the only 3 weeks of the year when there are no jobs! Eventually we came across a tomato packing shed which still had some work on offer and I just had to turn up at 7am on Friday morning and and that was that...perfect!

Anyway, whilst looking for these jobs we were taking advantage of Carnarvon towns vacant car park spaces overnight. It was only as we woke on the 2nd day that we realised that we were parked directly outside the police station. As you drive into most towns in WA you will see a sign telling you that it is not allowed to 'Camp' anywhere within a 17km radius of a campsite/caravan park. Now even the smallest of towns have some sort of camp ground but the problem is that they're not free...Outrageous I know! Anyway how were they to know that we were camping there? We could just have been parked. However on the 4th night it was clear that they were in fact fully aware of our existance because just as we were getting into bed in the back of the van there was a serious bang against the side of the van. We ignored it initially but they persisted so we knew we were busted. I slowly opened the door to be greeted by 2 of Carnarvon's finest shining their 200W torches into my face and telling us "Not to take the piss as 3 nights parking/camping 'illegally' is probably enough". Can't say fairer than that can you. They were spot on and the fact that they had known about us for the last 3 nights and left us alone tells you that they were pretty fair coppers! At the end of the day we hadn't exactly been descreet what with our camping stoves fired up every night at the back of the van cooking dinner and being caught in the full beam of the poilce patrol cars as they pulled into the police station car park as we brushed our teeth each night.....it didn't exactly take Inspector Columbo to figure out that we were camping. They gave us 2 options: A) Leave town or B) Pay for a campsite. We opted for B and checked into the closest campsite as tomorrow was Friday and the start of my new career as a tomato packer.

So I was up at the crack of dawn and drove to the packing shed to find the supervisor. What a waste of time....he had spoken with his bosses and they in fact didn't need anymore workers afterall...."No worries mate" was his response to my sarcastic "Cheers for that mate"..."I'll give you no ****** worries" I thought as I walked back to the van.

Back to the campsite it was and with our minds made up for us it was clear that we were leaving town today. But the Gods were messing with us today and things were not going to be as straight forward as hitting the North Western Highway on our way North. We stopped at the campsite office to pay and on jumping back into the van ready to hit the road the van was dead....POSH was dead! No life at all...she had flat lined...the key turned but with not even the faintest splutter in response! I looked across at Nora with one of those completely irrational "What did you do to the car whilst I was gone" kind of looks. An hour of being driven around town looking for a mechanic by a fellow camper, a $45 call out charge and a $260 starter motor replacement later we were eventually on that bloody road North!...