Melbourne (as a little pit stop)

Well, we’re back in the city. Downtown as a matter of fact. The days spent in Bendigo were certainly enjoyable and it was nice to feel finally “free” again after a week of WWOOFing at Adrian’s. There would be no one around to tell us what boysenberry plants needed pruning or to make sure that we’d be up by 6am just to watch the sunrise.

It turns out that Bendigo was the perfect place for us to go and explore for a few days… and to relax. It felt big enough that it’d be hard to see everything in one day, but small enough that it could be easily explored by foot. And, it’s pedestrian-friendly streets made it even easier to get from one place to another. It would be a place I wouldn’t mind visiting again- if not on this trip, maybe the next.

And, it was even more fun with our friend Uta who decided to join us last-minute. Leaving Adrian’s she had had in mind that she’d be going back to Melbourne. But, after we told her that hostel prices in the city are nearly doubled due to the Open (and she hadn’t booked a bed anywhere that night) she took a train to Bendigo with us instead. There, the four of us spent our days together and we all enjoyed her company. She made the decision to stay behind another day, after thinking of more places she’d like to see before leaving, so maybe tomorrow we’ll meet up with her again and have dinner.

Today though, Annie and I came to our senses and realized we are soon going to run out of money if we still want to go see all these places around the country, and it’s impossible to live on a penny. And, sadly, the same would be true if we WWOOFed for the rest of our time here- money’s going to be spent somewhere!

Turns out, after talking to a few people, there’s NO paid farm work to be done in Tasmania until late February. So, Annie and I are going to stick together and head north to Mildura to pick figs for at least a week and see how much we make doing that… while Riley is going to tour around by herself in south Victoria (around Melbourne) and go to Tasmania on her own if we don’t meet up with her in time to make the sail.

Annie and I are leaving February 2nd to Mildura and we’ll see what that does for us. Hopefully it’ll be worth it.