Travels around the world – Fruit Picking – Bilyana

Bilyana is found in the absolute middle of nowhere just south of Cairns, we were picked up from the coach stop by a minibus and taken to the farmhouse and settled in.  Every one had to pay a small deposit for the plastic plate, cup and bowl and the cutlery and we were shown around.  The tour didn’t take long as it was just Kitchen, TV room and dorms apart from the shop that we had already seen when we were allocated our utensils.

As we had arrived early afternoon we just sat around chatting until everyone else arrived home from work.  The looks on our faces must have been a picture when they arrived back filthy, sweating and looking knackered.

The idea of fruit picking sounds like a gentle pastime, you picture a day of strawberry picking or a sensual plucking of an apple from a tree but we were just about to find out that the reality is very different.

We were advised on an early night as they started early, very early.  Our alarms were set for 4 am so 9.00 was bedtime, the first nights sleep wasn’t very forthcoming, normally by 9 we were just getting warmed up so sleep was not the most natural thing to us.

All too soon the alarms were going off and the sun was rising, the bottom of the farmhouse was pretty open as the building was on Stilts so the back part was just surrounded by Mosquito netting and allowed the light from the sunrise to fill the house, if we were not awake from the alarms then this was enough to wake us anyway so we got ourselves ready for our first experience on the farms.  Even though it was hot we were told to wear long trousers so I was glad I’d bought a pair of Jogging bottoms with me.

The set up of Bilyana was pretty good, the farmhouse was not a working farm itself as I had assumed, it was just where we stayed and every morning they would drive around to the farms in the area dropping us off as we were needed, they obviously communicated with the farms the day before and were told how many workers they needed and what we were picking.  It was already starting to get warm and there were Kangaroos hopping along next to the road, this was the first time I had ever seen a Kangaroo and felt so lucky to be seeing them in the wild like this.

Our first day of fruit picking began, today’s task was Pumpkin picking.

The first thing we had to do it walk down the rows finding the pumpkins of a certain size and cut the stalk with our cutters, this was easy at first but as you go on they get tougher as the cutters start to hurt your hand.  After they have been cut we had to roll them from under the plant onto to the track you are walking down so that you can see them all.  I am not sure what is the worst part about fruit picking, it could be the constant heat or the back breaking bending as you are doubled over for most of the day.  The next day we were full of aches and pains and exhausted but ready to go back for more.  Needing cash is a great way to motivate yourself and the choice was easy, get working or get ready to go home early.

In the few weeks we were there we picked Pumpkins and watermelons and the theory on both is pretty much the same.  Pick them then roll them into the gulley before grouping them all together and then loading.  The loading is pretty tough and is a bit of a chain.  One person doubles over by the pile of Pumpkins / Melons and throws them to the guy stood next to them, they in turn throw them to the guy on the back of the van and he passes them to a guy in a container that is storing the fruit safely to avoid damage.

As well as the hard work and learning about picking fruit we also met some great people at Bilyana.  There was Lisa and Adele from the UK, a Canadian named Todd and an Australian named Millhouse.  It turns out that this wasn’t actually his name; an English guy named Peter gave him the name as he bared an uncanny resemblance to the Simpsons character.

Another person we met was Kev, he joined us on a couple of the farms and was soon a part of our group.  After a little while he asked if we minded him tagging along for a while and joining us on our journey south….We never really looked back from there as he stayed with us for quite a while.  I am sure you will be hearing much more about this later.  There was a song around at the time called “get a hair cut, get a real job”, Kev joked that he’d quit his job and grew his hair since he’d decided to travel.  He also admits that the food and beer had caused him to put on weight.  One of us noticed that there were 2 distinct lines across his stomach so we nicknamed him 3 Belly’s.

I think it is fair to say that Kev was a driving force in the group, Ian held this job before Kev joined us but they tended to egg each other on quite a bit.  They really got along well and with the 2 of them together we were never going to be short of an adventure.

During our stay we had got along with everyone except one person, this was a Dutch kill joy named Jerome, every time we were having fun he was there telling us we should not be doing this or could we stop that etc so on our last day it was open season on Jerome.  While he was at work we found his room and arranged a few little surprises for him.  His spoon was glued to his dish, the dish was in turn glued to his plate and a liberal amount of glue was applied to the bottom of the plate before we placed this on the table.

We found he was travelling with what looked like a bike lock so we rolled his mattress up complete with his sleeping bag and put the bike lock around it as tightly as he could.  The key was then glued to the ceiling fan (We had to stand on a chair to do this).  Someone then had the idea of putting flour on the fan itself so that when it was turned on the flour would cover the room….I have no idea what happened to the last 3 pages of his book.  We were reunited with Jerome a few months later in Brisbane and he was overjoyed to see us again.