Day 265 The 300 kilometer drive to Katherine went down without a hitch. But even before we took to the road the day got off to a good start. After getting two for one coffees at the local McDonalds Jenn found a $10 dollar bill on the way out. Score! We got to our new home for the next 5 or so weeks around four pm. We drove in to Springvale Homestead and met the job placement agency rep to sign in. After a few more people showed up we were taken to our "block" of rooms. We are making 1020 block our home for the duration of mango season. We are joined by a great group of people from all over. Dorothea and Cindy from Germany, Sebastiano & Manuela from Italy, Brit Dave who is traveling with Mike who is one of two Aussies, the other one being Carl who is rooming with Kiwi Chris. We then have another English bloke Pete who is here with Irish lass Naomi and last but not least Chow & Maku a couple guys from Hong Kong. Seems like we got lucky with a great block. The first couple of nights we spent playing cards and getting to know each other. We arrived Saturday but the first day of work was not till Monday and that was a short 2 hours of orientation. We also indulged in a friendly game of poker, which came down to Sebastiano and me heads up. The last hand was a fitting coin flip as his pocket 8s went up against my KQs. I came up empty on the flop, turn and river as his 8s held for the win. The weather being as hot as it is the pool comes in handy most of the days. Other than the pool the homestead is pretty lack luster. The rooms consist of a bed, air conditioner and a tiny bathroom, possibly the tiniest we have ever seen. Apparently we are not entitled to any luxuries due to our discounted rent. On day two however I found the last room on our block to be unlocked and filled with kettles, TVs and the missing fridges. Word spread quickly and it was funny to watch people come "shopping" for an appliance.
Since the first day of orientation work has steadily been ramping up. In a nut shell we are packing mangoes and it resembles an assembly line. The mangoes get picked on a farm nearby and shipped to us immediately. Then we clean, grade, box, palletize and ship them out the same day. Nothing glorious just 85 backpackers working their bags of in the extreme heat, lol. Jenn got stuck on the packing line and I managed to get myself up to the mezzanine as a box dropper. Basically the mangoes come in from grading on a conveyor. There are thirty packing stations on both sides of this conveyor and the mangoes get dropped into any one of these stations based on their weight, which determines how many go in a box. Above the conveyor runs another with the boxes. This is where me and my partner come in. A nice easy going guy from Paris, Gilbert and myself drop boxes from the mez down a shute to the packers. after this the boxed mangoes go back on a conveyor and head out to get stickered and then palletized and shipped. I will be honest, the first few days kicked the crap out of us. The word is that at the peak of production we will be putting out anywhere between 110-130 tons of mangoes in a shift. We just had our first 8 hour shift and we managed to putout 81 tons.
So the first week came to a close and we had Sunday off. Saturday after work the beer store was packed as everybody loaded up after a week of sobriety. Sunday nobody got out of bed before noon. When everyone was up and at it with brunch discussions started on the days events. We decided on going for a swim in Katherine river just outside the homestead. The water was shallow and warm but nevertheless refreshing as the sun was even hotter. Ten of us made the trip down for the swim and enjoyed the afternoon and the strong current. Upon returning to Springvale and showering a bunch of us headed in to town for dinner. We got a lift in with Manuela and Sebastiano and the only place left open AND serving food was the golf and country club. We had the oddest nachos we have ever had as the toppings included mushrooms (yuck, picked 'em off), broccoli, cauliflower and corn. Unusual but tasty. After dinner it was back home and to bed as work was set to start at 7 am on Monday and we were warned it was going to be a twelve hour shift.