Margaret River Week 2

Mon 21^st – Thurs 24^th November – Monday and Tuesday were fairly average days at work except on Tuesday we finished at 10.30am because we had finished the work on the block we were working on in the vineyard. When I got back to the hostel I decided to be productive and go for a run. Stupid me I tripped on a rock and injured my knee (the same one I had hurt the previous week when I went running), and grazed both of my hands. I wasn’t good at pool that evening and I was limping so I decided not to go to work on Wednesday. I figured if I can’t hold a pool cue and cannot walk at a normal pace then walking up and down a row of vines whilst bending over to pull shoots out with my hands may not be a sensible idea. Wednesday was a nice warm day and we’d heard on the news that there were bush fires in the area. We could see lots of smoke in the sky and news reports suggested we may need to evacuate in the next few days.
A couple of us drove out to where the fires were but the road was blocked with fire engines and we couldn’t get close enough to see the extent of the fire. Apparently it started off as a controlled fire that then ‘lost’ control, and people living in the countryside had to evacuate their homes.

We spoke to one local who was really annoyed as he was told to grab his money and leave the property but he wanted to go back for his “scripts”(?) In the evening one guy asked me to dye his hair blue and as there was lots of mixture left, I also dyed another guy’s hair and 2 guys’ moustaches and goaties! Then one guy from the hostel who was a professional barber cut 4 guys’ hair, so the hostel temporarily turned into a gents’ hair salon. On Thursday I went to work but I struggled as my knee and hands were still hurting. However, due to the vineyard being so close to the fire we finished at 12 and the manager told us there would be no work the next day as the vineyard had to close. So a three day weekend ahead!

Fri 25^th – Sun 27^th November – Most people were off work on Friday due to the fire so we had a chilled weekend. The weather wasn’t great so we mostly stayed in all weekend. On Saturday a few of us stayed up until 5am playing card games and chess. Unusual for a group of twenty-somethings on a Saturday night but we had fun! On Sunday I woke up at 2pm and most people had chipped in to make a roast dinner. 15 people all sat down together to eat a Sunday roast so that was really nice.