Drinking the fruits of our Labour - City of Orange

Orange, le bonheur est dans le pre

From Sydney, we made a small detour into the Blue Mountains. A scenic drive, coupled by several lookouts and cute little towns on the way, we spent 4 nights of camping to make the full round of the Mountains. The Blue Mountains is actually a collection of National Parks and is a very popular family holiday spots for Sydneyers. We got to visit the famous Three Sisters rock formation – which legends holds that a wizard turned three sisters into rocks to save them from pestering suitors, but the wizard died before he could change them back. Tragic story! Anyway, we also got to visit the Jenolan Caves. The limestone caves featured sculpted rocks of all shapes and sizes, ranging from icicle forms to bacon-esque sheets of stone. We got there just before closing time so we got a private tour with a bonus viewing of the underground stream that glows in a lime (!) colour. Another highlight of our tour around the Mountains got us viewing a huge dam from a lookout platform from above. The dam was surrounded by forests, with a thin blanket of fog over it, making it majestic and mystifying. We learnt that the water level had fallen greatly over the years, a sad reminder of our nature for over-consuming. This dam is the main water supplier for Sydney! Nevertheless, we really enjoyed the Blue Mountains. The tempuerature was cooler, and it was very refreshing to be out of the concrete jungle and into the lush forests.

Anna is such a constant in our travels. We met her and Nathan in the middle of Russia, travelled through Mongolia together and 13,000 km later, we meet up again in Sydney! Now that we've left Sydney, she is still in our minds as we were kindly invited to stay with her Godmother, Penny, in Orange (5 hours West of Sydney). It was such a breath of fresh air to live in a farm. Penny and her husband Jim had hundreds of acres of land, with wheat, sheep and grapevines, not to mention the tractors and other big machinery spotted around the fields.

The biggest incentive for us to travel to Orange was to try our hand at fruit-picking. Antoine had purchased a working-holiday visa and, with my Australian passport, we had every intention to finally make some money as opposed to simply spend, spend, spend. We had all but bad news at the start, with all the orchids and farms telling us that we arrived at the end of the season and therefore had no more work available. We left our names and number with them anyway. Just in case. With some time at hand, the Mitchells let us help out in their own grape harvesting. Antoine and I were set up at the back of their big harvesting mahine, and were assigned the job of tugging out twigs and branches caught in the automatic belts. It was a fascinating experience, and Antoine felt very useful and proud of himself after the 7 hour shift (I had left after the first hour to help with cooking dinner for the boys).

Working hard... to not fall off

Jen a la ferme

The following day we were called for an emergency job from one of the vineyards. 30 backpackers were gathered to handpick grapes for a few days. We were given a pair of snips each, and armed with a hat and a pair of gloves, we set off to fill up as many boxes of grapes as possible. Each box awarded us $2, and the first day started very slowly. We had to work in pairs, opposite each other on a section of vines. We would snip and drop the bunches of grapes into the boxes at our feet. Every time a box was filled, we put our designated number tag on the top. When the owners came round to collect the boxes, they would tally up our tags which would determine how much we get paid. The first day we worked 7 hours, and Antoine and I only managed to fill up about 25 boxes each. We were too slow! Some of the other backpackers clearly had experience and know-how to their advantage, as they filled up more than double our amount in the same amount of time.

Obviously, Antoine and I decided to step up our game the next time round. We had a full 12 hour day ahead of us, and we got straight into it. One hand pushing through the leaves to reveal the treasures, and then the other hand would reach out almost simultaneously to snip the grapes; and all this time our feet were shuffling the boxes so that the precious bunches would fall directly into them. No time for fussing! At the end of the day, Antoine and I generated 90 boxes each! Yes, you heard me right! We did one more day of work and when the owner handed us our cheques, Antoine had earned AUS$241.86 and I got $238.38 - and that is after tax! A really nice number to go to bed with.

But what made Orange really special was the time we spent with the Mitchells. They showed us their farm, introduced us to the thousands of sheep they had, treated us to copious amounts of gorgeous wine (where the grapes came from their farm!) and cheese, let us ride on their quad bike, taught us the rules of Aussie Rules, and shared a fondness for football/rugby. Antoine and I cooked a Chinese dinner for them one evening, and gathered Billy (their son), Libbie (daughter-in-law), and Lisa (their neighbour). And later that week, we were invited to Billy and Libbie's house for Korean BBQ. The food was gorgeous, and the company engaging. Billy and Libbie even had a pet sheep named Max who responded to their call! First time I've ever heard of a sheep that didn't flee when you came close! We also stayed for Good Friday. Row (their daughter) and Andy (Row's boyfriend) arrived that day for the weekend so we got to meet the whole family! Needless to say, there were plenty of chocolate eggs, and to tradition, we had fish for dinner. Delicious asian-style battered fish with salad in sesame oil dressing. Oh, we are going to miss the food!!

After two weeks in Orange, Antoine and I felt so sad to leave. The Mitchells are such an incredible family, so interesting and so warm and welcoming. Two weeks had gone by so quickly and our memories of Orange are all smiles! Antoine and I are so used to living in a city, and our visit to Orange opened up our eyes to farm life - there is so much more to it than a cowboy hat and chewing a straw of hay!

---

Lors de notre sejour a Sydney, nous nous etions echappes quelques jours de la ville pour aller se ballader dans les paysages sceniques des Montagnes Bleues, a moins de 2 heures de routes en allant vers l ouest. Je n avais pas encore parle de cette excursion, et je refais maintenant mon retard. Les Montagnes Bleues portent mal leur nom, puisque la vegetation flamboyante rend les paysages plus verts que n importe quelle autre couleur. Mais ce n est qu un detail.

L autoroute de l ouest offre plusieurs points de vue sur les reliefs, mais autant dire qu il est inutile de tous les enchainer... Lorsque vous avez fait un point de vue, vous pouvez considere les avoir tous faits ; ils se ressemblent tous. Pour gagner du temps, il faut aller au panorama des 3 soeurs, le plus frequente, et dont 3 rochers sur votre gauche font la reputation du site. Au final, la vue n est pas aussi extraordinaire qu espere, mais nous ne regrettons pas le detour.

Nous avons continue notre route vers les grottes de Jenolan pour faire une visite privee des sous-terrains. A l interieur, vous pouvez apprecier la purete de l eau d une petite riviere sous-terraine, quelques stalactites et stalagmites, des fossils de kangourous, et des roches etranges taillees naturellement. Si vous avez deja eu l occasion de visiter quelques grottes auparavant, vous ne decouvrirez rien de nouveau.

Le froid et les renards ont marques nos nuits de camping. A 1500 metres d altitude, le termometre est tombe a des temperatures auxquelles nous n etions plus habitues, et l epaisseur de nos sacs de couchage etait tout juste suffisante. Lors de l un de nos diners, nous avons ete attaques par des renards qui rodaient autour de notre feu de camp et qui se sont enfuis avec notre sac poubelle. Le lendemain matin, l une de mes chaussure avait disparue, finalement retrouvee dans la foret voisine. Quels farceurs !

Ces quelques jours en montagne se sont deroules tranquillement, et nous sommes retournes a Sydney pour y passer un dernier week-end. Apres Sydney, nous sommes partis en direction d Orange pour chercher du travail, et pour rencontrer Jimmy et Penny, amis de la famille d Anna (avec qui nous avons voyage en Mongolie, pour ceux qui sont perdus...).

Jimmy et Penny sont des fermiers avec leur fils Billy. Ils font pousser du raisin et du ble, et possedent plusieurs milliers de moutons. Leur terrain est a perte de vue, et ils ont plusieurs maisons, dont l une nous etait dediee pendant 2 semaines. Nos hotes sont adorables, nous donnent pleins de conseils pour decouvrir la region et trouver du travail, et nous invitent a dejeuner si nous n avons pas de programme.

Sheep standing on his tippy-toes

On a joue a saute-mouton, c est le mouton qui a gagne...

Finalement, ce sont les premier a me proposer du travail : vendanger leur vigne de Merlot. En australie, tout se fait par machine, et mon travail consiste a debloquer les branches qui se coincent dans la ventilation. Pas tres complique, mais tres fatiguant ! Pendant 7 heures, il fallait etre en permanence sur le qui-vive, a s accrocher pour ne pas tomber, descendre de la machine pour deblayer, puis remonter, se battre contre les chenilles et les araignees, tout cela englue de la tete aux pieds sous une couche de sirop de raisin. Le travail s est termine a minuit et je suis alle me coucher epuise.

Le lendemain, nous trouvons un autre travail, a nouveau pour faire les vendanges, mais cette fois a la main (extremement rare sur le continent). La propriete s appelle Cargo Road Wines et le raisin est apparement de tres bonne qualite. Jen et moi rejoignons une vingtaine d autres rammasseurs, dont 5 sont japonnais et le reste est francais ! Vive le depaysement... Notre travail sera recompense de 2$ par bassine de 10 kilos. Le calcul est rapide : si on veut faire des sous, il faut aller vite.

A coups de secateurs, on enchaine les grappes, on fouille les feuilles, on pousse nos bassines, on court, on sue, et on n avance pas... Apres notre premiere journee, nous avons fait 25 bassines chacun... Demotives, nous ne nous laissons pas abattre, et decidons de revenir le lendemain. La competition est rude, les japonnais sont rapides et experimentes, ils savent ou se trouvent les bonnes grappes, et enchainent les bassines a toute allure. La deuxieme journee est beaucoup plus productive: en une matinee, nous avons fait 45 bassines chacun. L un des japonnais a fait 86 bassines sur la meme periode de temps... Regonfles par une production a la hausse, nous decidons de revenir pour la 3eme et derniere journee de rammassage, sous la pluie. Jen et moi sommes les premiers sur la vigne, et seulement 4 autres ramasseurs nous ont suivis, les autres etant certainement decourages par le vent et la pluie.

Apres 3 heures de vendanges et 25 bassines, le proprietaire decide d arreter, la qualite du raisin est diminuee par les trombent d eau qui nous tombent dessus. Avant de partir, nous recevons notre cheque de 240 $ chacun apres taxes, soit 140 bassines par personne. La somme n est pas enorme, mais c est la premiere fois que nous gagnons de l argent depuis le debut de notre aventure, et notre budget s en frotte les mains.

Apres la satisfaction de cet argent duement gagne, nous decidons de rester quelques jours de plus a Orange pour aider Jimmy a la ferme et Penny dans la construction de leur nouvelle maison. L un des moments les plus amusants a ete notre excursion en quad dans les champs et les patures a moutons. Jimmy et moi avons repare une tuyauterie et une barriere endommagees, pendant que Jen nous cuisinait un excellent diner chinois, auxquel etaient presents Penny, Jimmy, Billy et sa femme Libbie, ainsi que la voisine Lisa. Nous avons egalement ete invites a dinner chez Billy et Libbie pour un barbeque coreen.

Bref, excellents moments passes sur place, et les adieux etaient dechirants. Nous serions bien restes une semaine de plus, mais le temps passe vite, et nous etions attendus par les parents d Anna a Coonamble.