From the fires, to the floods and then COVID, heres how my travels in Australia were far from normal.
Australia has been on my bucket list for a long time. Spending 3 years in New Zealand, I was just a short flight away and after finishing another season in New Zealand, it was silly not to head over to Australia to explore.
Before flying into Sydney, I had a very convenient stop-over in Paris for 24 hours. After an evening of exploring the streets of one of my favourite cities, we found a little vegan burger restaurant called Hanks Burgers that served the most delicious burgers- perfect for tired exploring legs.
I then flew into Sydney, meeting my friends there and spending a lovely week exploring, drinking wine and catching some rays on the beach. This was my first time in 3 winter seasons I had swapped the mountains for the beach.
As a British citizen, I applied for a Working Holiday Visa which grants you one year in Australia with the ability to work anywhere in Australia. We decided to head off and do some farm work so that we could extend our visa for longer than a year. This, unfortunately, was around the times that the fires in Australia tore through the NSW area. This was a devastating time in Australia, but the whole country pulled together to support one another and help rebuild the devastation. It's still not over yet, many farmers and australians are still rebuilding and trying to move forward.
Here are some astonishing facts surrounding the fires:
An estimated 1 billion animals are thought to have been killed by the fires
A little more than 25 million acres of land have been set ablaze
Almost 2,000 homes have been destroyed
More than two dozen human lives have been lost
https://www.bustle.com/
Here are some great places you can donate to help people still in need:
I was one of the many other brits in Australia looking for farm work, we luckily stumbled across a fun opportunity working on a blueberry farm. We ended up living on a huge complex with lots of others who were doing the same work as us. I met the most amazing people, worked the hardest I have ever worked in my life and ate my body weight in blueberries.
The story doesn't end here, keep an eye out for Part 2 of my Australian adventure coming soon.
Lots of love,
G x