Sweet sweet freedom

Ahhhh yeah. I never want to see water again. Well... maybe when I'm thirsty. Or swimming. But that's it!

Well, it turned out to be a pretty good trip all around. The trip up was probably the most boring week of my life... and that's saying a lot. I really do say this a lot... but I've never been this lazy before. It got that near the end of the trip I was missing breakfast and lunch because I didn't want to get up. Yeah...

Once we got there and started working it was alright. It was like working in a sauna though... nothing too strenuous, but when it's 37 degrees in the operating room, it doesn't matter what you're doing. Most days we'd be done work around 1:00, and then just a clean and depaneling the shell for the next day, which took another few hours. We'd always have at least a couple hours of daylight to go spearfishing or snorkelling or whatever. Here's one of our hauls... mostly coral trout.



The first couple weeks we were doing the same thing as the previous two trips, just putting the shell in nets and tying them in when they'd been operated on. It was as exciting as the last trip. After that (and a trip into town) we started on harvesting some pearls. This was pretty much the same, except we didn't have to tie the shell in the nets. Woohoo. Still, pretty cool seeing all those pearls. These here were the best ones after they were all sorted.



After a week of harvesting, we started x-raying shell. Or, we tried to. The x-ray machine we brought up from Broome didn't work, so we had to borrow another one off a pearling boat nearby. This one made it three days before it croaked (maybe had something to do with the rat that was living inside and got loose on the boat? Nahh.) After that one broke, we had another week of just chipping shell before we finished up, that was about last Thursday. Since then it's been more pub in town, and a couple days on the boat heading back to Darwin.

The town we were near was pretty interesting. And by interesting I mean there was nothing to do but go to the pub. That was always a good time though... pool 'n beer 'n music. A couple shots...





So now that I'm free (and hopefully won't have to work in Australia again!) I have no idea what I'm doing. Not a clue... I guess I'll stay in Darwin for a few days at least, do all the touristy stuff, maybe try and get a ride out with someone down South somewhere. It's just too damn hot here. haha. I've got a few weeks before I meet up with Dani somewhere over on the East coast... hopefully she'll have a plan :)

Well, some emails, then I'm off (possibly to the pub). The guys from the boat are here for one more night so I'll have to have one last bash before they steam off to Broome. heh.

Oh yeah, congrats Pam on finishing exams! Heh, that was great, I was writing up this post and your MSN name was "Sweet sweet freedom" too. Excellent.

Later all... check out my pictures too, I uploaded twenty or so this time.

-Brad