Our employer from the Blueberry Farm brought us to the hostel "1849 Backpacker" in Albany.
Albany is a small and quiet town with very colorful landscapes and national parks.
A big topic in this place is the ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). This commemorates the fallen soldiers from Australia and New Zealand, who fell in World War I in the battle for Gallipoli. You will find there monuments, as well as old bunkers or bases, parks and museums around this topic.
ANZAC Monument
The hostel itself was very cozy. We were greeted by 2 cats on the porch. It has a big entertainment room. In this room we had a movie night with many people from the hostel. We watched the movie "Rabbit Fence", which is based on a true story and is highly recommended for everyone who is interested in the aboriginal history and life.
A ping-pong table was also available. This was almost always used. We had a lot of fun with it and one or the other tournament was played here. After 10 o'clock in the evening it had to be quiet in the hostel. You could stay outside as long as you wanted. So we sat together and drank a few beers. All in all, this hostel felt like a big family. In the morning we always had fresh pancakes for breakfast. Unfortunately the recipe was top secret, because these were the tastiest pancakes I have ever eaten.
Every Wednesday, the Albany residents met in a sports hall to play badminton. Our manager offered us that anyone who would like to can come with him to play badminton there. So we had some matches with locals a few times. Man I thought it would be an easy game against the elderly people. How could I be so wrong :D. This whole atmosphere made Albany feel very comfortable and like home.
Loser had to make push-ups.
At the Blueberry Farm we have already found the job in this hostel. We work 3 - 4 hours and in return we can stay for free in this hostel.
The work day always began with eating freshly made pancakes in the kitchen. At 08:00, we "workers" met in the manager's office. Here we got a simple note with the listed rooms which had to be cleaned. Aas on this day people from these rooms checked out and thus the beds must be made. Generally, our job consisted of stripping and putting new sheets again on the beds, dusting, floor mopping, vacuuming, and cleaning the outside yard. So all tasks are incurred so that the hostel remains clean and well maintained. We were about 8 people and the work was split.
In our free time we often went for a walk and explored the place. We drove to some beaches and visited some parks and most importantly, we really enjoyed that time.
Shopping
Dog Rock
Torndirrup National Park
One day, the owner of the hostel offered us to borrow her car to visit a national park. Here I drove a car for the first time in Australia and was constantly worried about not having an accident or hoping that a kangaroo wont jump in front of the car. But everything went well and we arrived safely at the National Park and also drove back.
As for many national parks in Australia, for this one it also has to be paid a fee of about 13 AU$. This can be booked online. I recommend everyone to pay these fees, so that such parks are also kept in order by the Rangers. So people can enjoy this amazing places in the future.
The Torndirrup National Park offered many attractions. From beautiful coastlines to breathtaking views to amazing beaches. Unfortunately, a camera cannot capture what it really looked like. You have to visit such places yourself to experience it.
Unfortunately there was a big bush fire in this area weeks ago, which effect you can see in some pictures.
Keep your stuff safe
Again Life finds its way
Massive!
Crazy Colours
Feeling it!
On Valentine's Day 2016 we spent the day together with the hostel team. Our friend Gwan also had his birthday that day. We celebrated it a little and enjoyed the sunset.
A few days later we met an Italian girl named Guilia in the hostel.
She told us that this is just a stopover and she was on her way to Batlow with her car. She still had 3500 km to go! She got a job in Batlow, where she will pick apples. You should be able to make good money, she said.
Since we were also looking for a job where we can earn money and not work like here only for accommodation, we were very interested. Because our savings became less and less. So Guilia called the employer and asked if he needed 3 more people. Gwan wanted to join as well.
We were lucky and we could start there as well. (At least we thought we were lucky with this work: D But more on that later.) Now we had a new destination. On 01.03.2016 we had to be in Batlow. We did not have a car at that time so we had to fly.
But before leaving Western Australia and flying to New South Wales in the east, we still wanted to visit Rottnest Island. This can be reached by ferry from Perth, where our journey began.
We met some friends in Perth and celebrated together and made a decent BBQ because we knew we would not see these friends again in Australia.
That should be enough for this time. Our next stop is a day trip to Rottnest Island with the "Selfie Quokkas" and then Batlow where we will pick apples.
I hope you like our little travel recap. ☺
If you have any questions please let me know in the comments.
Enjoy!
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Looks like you are having a great time and a smart way to travel. Free lodging is great ,but you still need money to live. You can only stay in one place for so long so you were lucky to get tipped off about the apple picking. I look forward to seeing the next posts.
You are saying it. In the long run you need a paying job to get around. Thank you for linking my posts :)
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Amazing blog * ___ * The photos are gorgeous and I love the way you write the narration, I feel immersed in your experiences and being Australian, this is such a cool and close-to-home article :D
I will follow you now and look forward to reading the continuation :D !!!
Thanks Mate!
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The photos are great, they really remind me of a trip I made in Venezuela, Margarita, it was the best trip of my life. I wish you liked it as much as I did, the photos are very nice hahaha😀
hi @general.guy, Australia seems so far away! It's already on the wish list but every time we read some posts we add details !! Are you a traveler too? or did you go to Australia to look for work? I can't wait to hear about apples!
Congratulations and thank you for sharing with us
Hi @road2horizon, yeah Australia is far away but if you plan to stay for a longer period of time then its worth it. I went there for travelling. We travelled around Australia. Basically we started our tour in Sydney with our tour and travelled counter clockwise until we reached Melbourne. But to be able to do it, we also had to work for example to buy our car. This is where the apple picking comes into play :D Thank you for liking it :)
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If I'm not wrong, I read in your previous post that you're German: why did you choose Australia for this adventure? Lately I meet a lot of people who go there as if it were the American dream ... do you live better there than in Europe?
You are right. I'm from Germany. Actually I dont know why it had to be Australia. But something in me wanted to go there. Maybe because I watched too many Steve Irwin shows :D
I think many go there because many already went there. So many people talk about travelling in Australia and that inspires doing the same. To do what is known. Australia has perfectly positioned itself for travellers. Tourist roads and information everywhere. Many free showers and many free water spots and much more. And easy to go working with the "Working Holiday Visa". One day doing paper work for the government and you are ready to go.
Do you live better there? Is not so easy to tell because I can only speak from the view of a Backpacker. And other factors like what kind of person you are and what kind of lifestyle you need etc.
For example you only paid 13% Tax from your Income. And with the TaxBack at the end of the year with the working holiday Visa you got everything back. So at the end I got 100% payment on hand. (But I think they changed this on 2017 or 2018. You don't get everything back now)
The living costs in Australia are higher than in Germany, but the income in Australia is proportionally higher. So you can afford more with your earned money. To come to an end, in my case I lived better than in Germany.
Good night :)
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This trip is nuts, I love that you could pay your stay in the hostel working on it and doing chores, the beach looks beautiful the theft risk area signal gave me the giggles lol, all around this was so cool I love it, thanks for sharing!
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It looks like you had amazing time in this hostel. I like the idea of working for a few hours a day and staying there for free :) And I can see that you enjoy the rest of the days as well. Your photos are nice and I wish that we had such beautiful weather here right now :)
Thank you for sharing and have a lovely Sunday!
It was definitely a great time. This option to work for accommodation was really helpful in our situation. But for the long run we needed a paying job because even if you can stay for free, you have to buy food etc. So sooner or later you will run out of money. But luckily we did not get in this situation :) Cheers.
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It looks like an interesting small town, ALBANY, I am gonna read more about it on google. Thanks for sharing :)
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