THE ADVENTURES OF PEN

AND JANE
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December 2013

Issue Number: One

What happens in Palm Cove...

Really isnt much to speak of
After having thoroughly enjoyed our road trip
from Darwin to Cairns, unfortunately the
dreaded time had come where we would
actually have to get one of those things where
people do things for money.
Whilst we were nowhere near running out
of funds, we both agreed that this is the best
time to get jobs because of it being the winter
season (where it actually gets pretty cold in the
south).
After enjoying Cairns festival and finding
our feet. We started handing out our resumes
in Palm Cove which is the spa capital of
Australia. This tiny little scenic beach village
hosts numerous resorts, hotels, eateries and of
course tourists! The clientele mainly consists
of rich Aussies from Melbourne and Adelaide
fleeing from the cold and Chinese tourists who
are apparently trying to take over the country
like the Pakistanis are doing in England. And
who said Australians are racist?
Because I am particularly amazing, I
managed to get a job in the first place I
handed in my resume; Peppers Beach Club
and Spa. Im still not sure as to whether the
official name is Peppers or Peppers as
various signs contradict one another. It
appears that the complete disregard for the
use of proper English and grammar extends
to multinational companies here. Who am I to
judge, but? In all seriousness they put but at the end
of sentences.

The boring section

of the trip begins:
Work work work.

Cairns Esplanade and Lagoon

The Hillbilly Goats playing at Cairns festival

Controlled bush fire at the festival.

B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | bjaded@hotmail.co.uk

THE ADVENTURES OF PEN AND JANE!

Palm Cove beach

Ben also found a job pretty

quickly, but unfortunately it was in
Cairns central so it would have
logistically difficult. Ben thinks that
Im the devil because he had to turn
down his dream job in Dominos
Pizza, however I believe that I saved
him from becoming morbidly obese.
I started my job at Peppers on
the 3rd September after having
agreed that I will stay in Palm Cove
until the beginning of January.
Working in a hotel means that my job
is sufficiently varied so it is hard to get
bored. My responsibilities include:
Making cocktails in the Pool
Bar which is submerged in our
lagoon/beach style pool
Working the buffet breakfast
shifts which mainly consists of
clearing used plates etc away. This
keeps me busy as every customer
tries to break the world record of
how many plates/glasses/cups they
can use in one sitting
Fine-dining waitressing at
dinner
Working/dancing at weddings
and other functions that we hold
on site

PAGE

Captain Cook Highway

Po i n t i n g p e o p l e i n t h e
direction of the exit when fire
evacuations occur in the middle of
wedding ceremonies. Im not
kidding - this really happened.
I enjoy most aspects of the job
(worryingly a lot more than the office
work I did before coming away).
However, the worst part definitely has
to be restocking the minibars in the
hotel rooms. It turns out that
dragging around a huge bag full of
stock up 52 stairwells (with 3 floors
each) in extreme humidity is not well
suited to a teeny tiny English person
such as myself.
A week after starting at Peppers,
Ben managed to find another job in
Nu Nu; the restaurant right next door
to mine! Its in the same complex so
there isnt even a
wall
between us
when we work! I
am free to wave
and blow kisses at
Ben whenever I feel
like and Ben is free
to quickly avert his
eyes and pretend
that he didnt see

my embarrassing public acts of

affection. Nu Nu is a very prestigious
fine dining restaurant which is rated
one of the top 100 restaurants in
Australia. As you can imagine they
are usually very busy and poor little
Benji really has to earn his money.
Up until mid November I had
been getting a lot of hours at work
due to school and staff holidays. At
$21 an hour on weekdays, $25 on
Saturdays and $30 on Sundays, I
really didnt mind! Unfortunately,
after that it came into low season
which meant that hours inevitably
dropped but at least it gave Ben and I
a c h a n c e t o h ave s o m e r e a l
adventures and visit the reef and do
other touristy things.

Nunu Restaurant
B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | bjaded@hotmail.co.uk

THE ADVENTURES OF PEN AND JANE!

PAGE

But what happens around Palm Cove is pretty

awesome
The great thing about working in
Palm Cove is that there are a lot of
beautiful and amazing things in the
surrounding area. Situated amongst
stunning beaches and rainforest, the
Cove is not somewhere you can get
bored easily. Whenever Ben and I get
a day off together we strive to make
the most of it. We have been to many
lovely local places and have definitely
ticked off a few of the things on our
bucket lists.

Spidey Jade at Lake Placid

Barron Gorge

The first excursion we took was to

Lake Placid and Barron Gorge. I
must admit that we mostly went to

Lake Placid because the name,

however we found that instead of a
murky lake infested with giant, coweating crocodiles, it was actually a
stunning and tranquil lake
surrounded by mountains. If Im
being honest we were a bit
disappointed with the lack of huge
crocs but it was probably for the best.

Barron Gorge is a short drive

away and you can walk along a
suspension bridge that gives you great
views. Ben had an especially good
time drenching my unaware self in
water whilst taking candid photos of
me. Dont worry people of home;
Ben has not changed.

Lake Placid

Ben in the act

B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | bjaded@hotmail.co.uk

THE ADVENTURES OF PEN AND JANE!

PAGE

Crystal Cascades is just as lovely as it sounds; an Kuranda is a quaint and quirky rainforest town. It
idyllic rainforest area with waterfalls and swimming holes.
We are lucky to know locals as we were told of a secluded
spot to take a dip. The water was freezing but okay once you
got used to it and perfect to get away from the humidity.

Crystal Cascades

Crystal Cascades

hosts cute market stalls and various tourist attractions such

as a butterfly sanctuary and a little zoo where you can pay
to hug a koala! We wandered around the area but we
chose not to pay for any of the touristy things. Of course I
will definitely hug a koala at some point but they live in
the south so Im sure I will get a chance down there.

Plane wreck, Kuranda

Kuranda market

After visiting Kuranda we went to

On another adventure, we drove around the Atherton which is a short drive away.
Tablelands which is a rural area up in the mountains. Here
we found a picturesque waterfall called Milla Milla

Barron Falls

Falls. We later found out that we were at the very place

where Peter Andre filmed Mysterious Girl! After Milla Milla
we went to Lake Eacham which is a brilliant blue in the
sunshine and the sister lake; Lake Barrine. The two
lakes are volcanic craters and are said to be connected by
underground vents. Once a person that drowned in one lake
surfaced in the other a few months later! The drive home on
cliff side roads was quite intense but provided amazing views
of the valleys and rainforest.

Ben at Lake Eacham

Ben at Barron Falls

Barron Falls

An hour north of Palm Cove is Mossman Gorge

which again is in the rainforest. Another hour north is
Cape Tribulation, another beautiful spot.

Mysterious boy Ben at Milla Milla

Mossman Gorge

Cape Tribulation

Mossman Gorge Walk

Cape Tribulation

B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | bjaded@hotmail.co.uk

THE ADVENTURES OF PEN AND JANE!

Green Turtle at the reef

We have been lucky enough to take

part in some amazing activities whilst
we have been here.

Snorkelling in the Great

Barrier Reef is obviously something
you have to do if you ever end up in this
part of the world. I was a bit scared about it
beforehand because I am not a strong
swimmer and am not fond of breathing
through a tube that might fill up with water
at any second. However, I should not have
worried about it at all! The reef was much
too distracting to even think about the
unnatural breathing apparatus attached to
my face or the fact that we could be
amongst jelly fish! It was amazing, we found
nemo, we saw green turtles, sting rays and
Ben even saw a reef shark!

Bungee Jumping was something

that I never planned to do again but
considering I won a voucher for it at my
staff christmas party it would have been

An example of said facial contortions

PAGE

Bungee Jumping

rude not to! The site was at the edge of the

rainforest and had awesome views of
Cairns and the coastline. Im pleased to say
that I managed to actually jump off this
time instead of my previous limp-legged
falling. How embarrassing! Im glad I got
the chance to do a half decent Lara style
swan dive!
Probably the most amazing thing we will
ever do in our lives was skydiving at
Mission beach (2 hours south of Cairns).
The weird thing was it wasnt actually scary.
Ridiculously, I was more scared of the little
plane falling out of the sky when we were
flying up there than actually jumping out of
it. When it came to it, it was just a case of
letting it happen to you; its not like you
actually have to make yourself jump out
like with bungee jumping.
The free fall was intense. I cant really
remember what I could see but I can
remember the feeling. It wasnt really how
you would imagine it because it didnt really

feel that much like falling. The powerful

wind force coupled with the fact that you
were amongst/above clouds and couldnt
really see the floor meant that it felt more
like I was in a wind tunnel rather than the
falling feeling you get when sliding down
death slides or on roller coasters.
Unfortunately, I have always had a problem
with breathing when there is strong wind in
my face and skydiving was no exception.
This led to a video of embarrassing but
hilarious facial contortions; oh please do
watch.
After the free fall the parachute was opened
up and we could gather our thoughts as we
gently glided down towards the ground. We
even got to steer the parachute which took a
lot of muscle!
We would definitely do it again if we had
the chance but the steep price (even with
my industry discount) means that
unfortunately its probably a once in a
lifetime thing!

Ben skydiving like a normal person

B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | bjaded@hotmail.co.uk

THE ADVENTURES OF PEN AND JANE!

PAGE

And the people are pretty cool too

We came to Palm Cove knowing nowhere
and no one. Now, nearly four months later
we are about to leave a place that has
become our home and people that it seems
like weve known for years.
When we first started working we moved
into an apartment two minutes walk from
work with a 65 year old German lady.
Whilst she had a good heart and meant well,
she was also quite controlling and particular.
We found it hard to feel at home there as we
were treated like guests, and the overarching
awkwardness of age and cultural differences
led to us deciding to move out after a
month. This was a very good thing to
happen as we ended up moving in with
three lovely girls (two of which I work with).
Even after such a short period of time we
had become very good friends with my
colleagues and would often go to the bar
with people from the kitchen and front of
house. They are all mad in their own little
ways but lets face it Im very used to being
around weirdos (Im looking at you, family
*wink*) and kind of a bit mental myself.
They have all made work not only bearable
but fun and entertaining and I cant get over
how generous they have all been. So many

of them have done their bit to help us out,

they have really looked after us.
Im really going to miss my big Peppers
family, but alas it is time to move on; we
have earned quite enough money thank you
very much!
We have handed in our
resignations and are finishing work on the
1st January. We plan to leave Palm Cove on
the 2nd and start making our way down the
east coast. Essentially we have until the 4th
March to get to Melbourne for our flight to
New Zealand. We will travel around the
North and then South island for three weeks
in a Toyota Lucida camper which includes a
bed and cooking apparatus. We fly back on
the 27th March and will continue our
Australian travels by the way of Adelaide,
Perth and up the west coast to Broome.
Thats the plan anyway but oh how we have
demonstrated how fickle planning is.
The next leg of the journey will be a lot
slower than our tour of the Northern
Territory. There is a lot more to see going
down the east coast so we will be covering a
lot less land which will be nice and relaxing.
It has been nice settling down for a while,
living in an actual house and having a job
and having friends that also have houses and

jobs! I feel like a proper citizen. We will be

savouring home comforts for the next 1.5
weeks until we become nomads again! I will
be working on Christmas Day morning and
afternoon but after that I will be joining Ben
at Martin and Nickys house who will be
hosting orphan Christmas for those who
cant be with their families. Everyone is
bringing a dish from their home countries so
we are making Yorkshire puddings, stuffing
and gravy so we can have some sort of
normalcy. Considering we will be spending
xmas by the pool with seafood I think these
things are important for our heads not to
explode.
I hope you have enjoyed this little newsletter.
I thought it would be nice to fill you in on
our lives for the past four months. Hopefully
we have managed to send you other videos
and slideshows we have put together. as well.
Weve been away for a long time now and
writing this has made me feel a bit closer to
you all. I hope you have a wonderful time
this festive season; we are very jealous.
When will someone get around to inventing
teleportation devices? Love and miss you all.

Merry Christmas from Jane.

Ben working on Melbourne Cup Day

Kate, me, Caitlin, Bec and Mel at our staff party

< Ben at his staff party

B. Campbell and J. Baker-Edwards, White Ford Falcon Station Wagon, Somewhere in Australia | 0401 514 832 | bjaded@hotmail.co.uk

Pens Newsletter...
Hi all.
Alive and well.
Ben x

mry xmas n new yr.