mereldeen-blog

[mereldeen-blog]

Bridgetown Couple

I am constantly amazed at the generosity of people. 

I was introduced to Adopt a Backpacker the other day, it’s essentially a scheme that tries to combat the hate that backpackers and travellers have faced in Australia in the last months by inviting them into their home and offering them a place to sleep. Absolutely brilliant, it seems every desperate cry of help on the facebook page had at least 3 replies inviting the backpackers into their home to stay. 

We got lucky too. 

We have been adopted by a lovely couple near Bridgetown, WA. They have given us a place to stay in their yard and have given us free range of their home. I honestly cannot say how heavenly it was to have a proper shower after being caked in filth for a week. And an oven in the kitchen! I’m already imagining hundreds of recipes I could bake. 

It’s perfect.

So perfect even, that they invited us to come along on a fishing trip. We went just the other day, to a secluded spot somewhere along the margaret river coast. We camped in tents near the cliffs and fished with lures and floats. Two things I had no experience with until then. 

I’m not afraid to say that I suck at fishing. Wholeheartedly. 

We caught 4 fish during the trip, 3 herring and another fish that had teeth and was apparently a bitch to catch because they are smart enough to eat the bait without touching the hook.

Guess how many of those 4 I caught?

If you said none, you’d be absolutely correct. I’d like to blame it on the teeth-fish, which apparently only comes out after a while, so by the time I was throwing the reel out, all the good fish had found better waters. 

Aside from the fishing, they took us on a little tour of the coast, we went to Hamelin Bay, where we petted massive stingrays and then onto Bridal cave and the Kari forest, all absolutely beautiful. It was like the perfect weekend.

But it wasn’t the fish, or the camping, or even the stingrays that made it special for me. It was the people. Because here they are, people that have known us for maybe two days, and they have willingly taken us into their home, given us food and taken us along on a private trip of theirs, none of which they had to do. I love them for it. I barely know them, but they feel like my australian aunt and uncle, helping us out with no strings attached. 

We’re filling our days by helping them in the garden, walking the dogs (2 beautiful huskies!) and doing odd jobs here and there. 

We got really lucky.

[mereldeen-blog]

Coronavirus and camping

As I write this, I sit in my van, parked at a campsite tucked out of the way near collie, Australia. The campsite is free, which isn’t surprising as the only facility available is a drop toilet that smells like death and has a 20x20 hole that’s supposed to be the doorhandle but only functions to increase my anxiety that someone sees me on the toilet. The surroundings are nice enough, it’s an old dam that’s mostly dried up due to the drought Australia is experiencing. The reason I’m at the campsite is the same reason why everybody else is holed up in their house at the moment, Coronavirus is kicking my ass. I left Melbourne about 2-3 weeks ago, when nobody took it seriously just yet. I set out to Western Australia to do my farmwork and earn myself a spot in Australia for another year. That was the plan. Along the way though, things started getting out of hand. Concerns grew, the death toll rose and, finally, the borders shut. Starting with the border to the country, followed by the states and now, tomorrow, the border to the region will shut. So along with a ton of other backpackers and jobseekers, I am now trapped. No work is available, I’ve spent today calling up farms, orchards and estates asking them if they’ve got any jobs going. They don’t. Nobody has. Farms are either closed down completely or closed down to new employees, worried that they will come in and spread the virus. It’s like the agricultural industry is caught in a limbo, one the one hand they have the need for more workers to complete the harvest and plant new crops, and on the other, the need to protect their current staff so they don’t lose anymore of their workforce. And caught in between is me and thousands of others, jobless, without money and caught in a country that isn’t our own. Flight to go back to our home country have long since been cancelled or priced upwards of a thousand dollars. Not that I could take one anyway, the van I’m currently sitting in prevents that. A 6 thousand dollar investment which would take me across Australia but now sometimes feels like an anchor dragging me down. I love my van, I really do but living out of a van is a real test of patience and personal space management, and I’m definitely failing at the moment. So that’s why I’m sitting at a campsite, in my van, on the edge of a dried up lake. I spent all but the last 10 dollars in my bank account on groceries and fuel and drove out here to weather the storm in a place where I’m not having to be on guard every second, wondering when the police control is coming by to shoo my out of my parking spot for illegal camping. They’d probably be quite understanding, times are tough for everyone after all but there only needs to be one that decides that they’re not feeling too gracious to hand me out a 100 dollar fine and put me in the red.

 Happy camping to me.