At the moment the Barossa area is getting a lot of rain. That’s bad for me for two reason. Firstly the grapes can’t be harvested when it’s raining because the harvester can’t separate the wet leaves from the fruits. Secondly the grapes had enough rain and any more could do serious damage. The grapes get mouldy and prone to diseases. I’m concerned that the harvest might come to an early end, taking away from me the opportunity to earn money for a trip to Asia and Europe.

Back in Adelaide for a couple of days now. There is probably no work till Tuesday and I didn’t feel like hanging around in that old farm house. It’s a fine place to sleep at but there’s not really anything else to do. Work in the vintage is, as already mentioned, highly irregular. Right now all the big wineries have filled up their fermenters and don’t need any more grapes for the next days.

The last days have been pretty busy and working times have been all over the place. Yesterday I started at 2:30 am, worked till 1pm, went home to sleep and came back at 7pm for a couple more hours. As I’ve been told that’s pretty standard for vintage. “Sleep is overrated.” or “Eight hours off? Don’t get bed sore.” is what my co-workers say about it. My work is usually two or three different jobs on the tractor or harvester each day and in between there is cleaning up and moving the machinery to the next job.

One week after my first experience with night work I now have a chance to get used to it. At 3am in the morning I left Adelaide to start work on the vineyard at 4:30. This time not as a tractor driver but on the harvester with Jim. That harvester is a huge 9.5t load of steel and needs a driver and somebody to have a look if everything is working alright - my part.

Travelling long distances on the road in Australia is different. It’s not just the driving on the other side of the road. There is no separate speed limit for trucks, pretty much regardless of their size. That means that if you’re obeying the speed limit or even stay a bit below it you will sooner or later have a truck in your rearview mirror. And if that truck happens to be a road train you basically have 100t of steel and cargo just meters behind your bumper.

When I did some research on which farm to visit next I found out that the grape picking season is about to start around Adelaide. That brought up the question of whether I could make some money while accumulating the necessary farm work time for my second year visa. Regular fruit picking is still not an option as it is backbreaking work and shitty pay. I don’t like jobs that involve either of that.

This one’s a bit older. The place where I stayed for the night in the Snowy Mountains weeks ago did not only feature an amazing 270° panorama view but also wildlife at its best. After the sunset I heard a lot of noise in the bushes and when I went to have a look I saw two mountain kangaroos fighting. Those guys had an impressive stamina, for half an hour they were beating the crap out of each other.

Adelaide sure is nicer in the summer. After the somewhat cold and rainy experience I had earlier, the sunny and warm days now are one heck of an improvement. In the last days I checked out some of the beaches in Adelaide. They are a bit different to what I’m used to from the east coast. No signs warning about crocodiles, stingers, submerged rocks, dangerous currents and whatever. Just sand and warm water.

A blue sky, sunshine and deafening heavy metal music. It’s Soundwave festival 2011 in Adelaide. I got the ticket from my friend for my birthday last year and was really exited to see Iron Maiden live. Like AC/DC I wanted to see them before they die of drugs or - less likely - old age. The festivals headliners besides Iron Maiden were established bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Slayer.

People say when you come to visit Australia you have to see three things: The rock, the reef and the road. The rock being Uluru and the road being the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The road was built between the two world wars by returned soldiers to commemorate their casualties. It is as such a big war memorial but fortunately few parts of the 250km drive show any link to military and war.