After surviving my bungee jumping episode, I felt there was nothing left for me to conquer in life, except to watch a UFC pay-per view on another continent. So, that’s exactly what we did Sunday morning, as it was one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year featuring Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. The previous day we had seen an ad in the local paper advertising that they would be showing the fight in one of the big bars in town so we headed over. It definitely seemed a little odd watching UFC live on a Sunday morning instead of a Saturday night, but needless to say the beer still went down easy and the chicken wings were greasy! After such a strenuous morning, a nap was in order, followed by a visit to one of our new favourite Australian franchise restaurants, Fasta Pasta. The name says it all, and not only is it quick, it’s delicious!
July 5th was to be our last day on the tourist trail, as we had burned through well over $12,000 in two months on the road and it was time to get some work in. Unfortunately we had to switch rooms for our last night, as the hostel was full, so we ended up shacking up in a 3-person room with some random girl. Before we could get back to working and such though, we had some unfinished business in the form of catching up with some friends we had met up in Broome, Jamie and Hannah. We had constantly been trying to catch up with them but we always seemed to be slightly ahead of them on the tourist trail. This just led to Leeanna and Hannah (sounds like the title of a TV show), becoming texting buddies until they finally arrived in Cairns just as we were preparing to leave. In honour of our finally meeting up, we decided that one last trip to the Woolshed was in order for us. To put a long story short, many drinks were had, an ass load of stupid photos were taken, and fun was had by all involved. At some point there may have even been some dancing on tables if my foggy memory serves me correctly. Naturally this was all followed by Leeanna and I being ignorant and undoubtedly waking up the poor girl in our room who I don’t think was going to be adding us to Facebook anytime soon.
The morning of our departure we had some nasty hangovers. Fortunately, we had decided to do all of our shopping and errands the day before so we were able to recover before making our way to the bus terminal to catch the bus that would lead us to the next part of our journey…the booming town of Dingo, Queensland!
As mentioned, by the time we arrived in Cairns, money was starting to become a thing of the past. Before we had arrived there, we had decided that we would try and look for work in that area, as it was warm during the winter months and there was a big tourism industry. Shortly after arriving though, we were greeted with the cruel reality that the jobs were few and far between as apparently every backpacker in Australia has the same idea, and that is to work in Cairns during the winter months. This also led to an abundance of low wages in the area, as employers know that a lot of travellers will take any work they can find. After talking to a few people and scouring the internet, I concluded that we may have to look elsewhere for work. Although neither of us really wanted to work on a farm, this seemed to be the next logical step as it seems almost everyone who travels Australia works on a farm at some point or another. But alas it was not meant to be. After calling what seemed like every major farm in North Queensland that hires backpackers, I was told that none had work and that I was basically shit-out-of-luck. Around this time, I no doubt started to worry and thinking that I may have to succumb to male prostitution, although I’m not sure I am pretty or fit enough for this occupation anymore. Leeanna and I started talking about the possibility of moving down to Brisbane and thus started looking for jobs online down there. During this time though, I was also scouring Gumtree (Australia’s version of Craigslist) for any jobs that caught my eye. We really did not want to end up in Brisbane, as this would involve finding an apartment, etc. Then, just as I was about to commit suicide, I found a job that seemed perfect for us. It read something to the effect of: busy roadhouse in Central Queensland, looking for couple to work on counter, kitchen, cleaning, etc. I sent off our resumes to a job agency and low and behold, the next day I was talking to Bob, the general manager of the roadhouse, on the phone arranging for Leeanna and I to start working.
Once we secured the job, we arranged for a bus down to what would become our new home, or bum-fuck-nowhere as I like to affectionately call it. The bus ride was a gruelling marathon that lasted over twenty-one hours and took us about two-thirds of the way down the Queensland coast from Cairns to Rockhampton. From here, we transferred buses and travelled another 150 kilometres inland towards the coal fields of Central Queensland. The bus driver kept half-joking with us and asking us if we were REALLY SURE we wanted to get off in Dingo. We assured him that we were ready for whatever laid ahead. Or so we thought.
What awaited us when we stepped off the bus was like something from another universe. Here, seemingly in the middle of nowhere was the Dingo Roadhouse, a 24-hour service station that also acted as a 13-room hotel, restaurant, convenience store, and all around mega-truck stop. The place was insanely busy, with a combination of truckers and travellers all queuing up to spend their hard-earned money. For the life of me, I could not figure out where all of these people came from.
Over the next few blog entries, I will try to describe briefly what life has been like in the town of Dingo over the past three and a half months. As I write this, we are down to our final four days of living here, and to sum it up, it’s been an experience, one that I will not soon forget (although Leeanna says she is going to try and suppress her “Dingo” memories).
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