The last stop of our conservation experience was at Wonthaggi where we spent 3 days working on a farm. No, we didn’t do the usual farm tasks like milking cows and whatever else it is that farmers do, we did more weeding and planting trees.
I think those three days were the worst of our conservation experience. We had the most obnoxious team leader (I don’t even remember his name and he was not an Australian for your information) who made us work longer days with less breaks and to top it off, it rained non-stop, but he forced us to carry on working regardless. Rob even challenged him at one point to no avail. We were miserable, ratty and by that point, missing home. To make matters worse, we slept on the floor in a cockroach infested bedroom. Ok, ok, the bedroom situation wasn’t that bad.
The farm house we stayed in was actually quite nice and I slept on the floor out of choice. Rob, Jon and Young were given one room with three airbeds and me and Ho Hee were given a twin room with proper beds. I didn’t want to sleep in the same room as Ho Hee because she was just a snobby individual who seemed to moan about everything and didn’t even speak to us the whole time we worked together: I don’t think she even acknowledged we were there. She ended up sharing her room with Young (they seemed to get on well, I got the impression they had known each other a while). As for the cockroach situation, we noticed as the bedroom got darker, cockroaches were coming out all over the place: putting the light back on, they disappeared. Uh oh! There was no way I would be able to sleep on the floor that night with cockroaches having the opportunity to crawl in my ear and up my nose. Noooo waaaay! Armed with tissue paper, I went around the room squishing them to death, leaving Rob and Jon rather hysterical. Did they bother to help me? Nope! It was eventually discovered that leaving the bathroom light on kept the cockroaches away. Phew! We didn’t care about the electric bill, just left the light on all night.
Even though those three days were the worst of our conservation experience, I wouldn’t change it for anything. Looking back now, it’s something to laugh at and it all adds to the experience.
Tags: Australia