The Next Block - #1. Mount Gambier.
WORK TRIP? APPARENTLY..
Expectations of a place can either ruin your trip or completely blow your mind. Prior to heading to Mount Gambier for work my thoughts were, I guess you could say, confused and worried. The rumours you hear of a place can also play a part, but I try to avoid what I hear and let my experiences talk for themselves. I knew not a lot of running was going to take place, due to coming off the back end of my 85km ultra 3 days prior to leaving. I was going to use this time to put my efforts into other ventures. Like creativity; photography, learning more of the editing side of things and playing around with a bit more videography. Oh, and working on my writing and learning how to design a blog. Aside from the creative prospect, I was also using this 4-5 week block to look after and rebuild my body. After the 85kms, it needed some well earned love and rest.
Instead of packing three pairs of runners I decided to just bring the one pair and throw my mountain bike in along for the journey. Aside from the interesting rumours we all hear about Mount Gambier, I had also heard they have some world class downhill mountain bike tracks. That took me back to high school days, I would spend hours on end out riding my mountain bike while most kids played footy or soccer. I figured that most days I would normally be spending anywhere from 45-90 minutes out on the trails running, but I knew that jogging wasn’t in the picture this month. I had to keep some sort of sanity, so that’s where the bike would play its role. There’s something that I love so much about running for hours alone, and riding alone is the next best thing.
We chipped away at the real job at hand, the reason we were sent to The Mount in the first place, refitting and rebuilding the new Mount Gambier Telstra store. Normally we would score around 3-5 days off in the middle of the job while we wait for other trades to do there part. And in those days we explore. While this may be a work trip I don’t really think of it as one. I guess my mindset is ‘oh, a new location, paid travel, plus a bit of work to keep the adventure fund topped up’. Work is work at the end of the day, making money doesn’t have to be exciting, Its what you make of it. Prior to a trip away for work my travel mum, Jess, gets looking for things to do after work and on our days off. We research a town, see what the locals get up to throughout the weeks, stalk instagram tags, and ask around. Once we dived in and started looking at Mount Gambier, we realised how good it was and that we were in for a memorable adventure.
We knew we weren’t going to get bored here. Despite the weather not being on our side with cold wet and rainy days forecast, wet suits packed and rain jackets on. One thing I’ve learnt is that the weather should never play too much of a role in an adventure, it just makes it more of an adventure. We got lucky with this job and scored 10 extra days up there. It was cheaper to book for longer then a month on Airbnb then just for the 3 weeks we needed. No complaints here.
You wouldn’t be able to put these adventures into just one category like some others, they vary a lot. Swimming in the clearest water I’ve ever seen in a random, but extremely large, pond just 15 minutes from the main town of Mount Gambier. We had the whole place to ourselves for the entire day. Depths ranged from 2-9 metres deep, it was a free divers paradise. Next was a locals ‘paradise’ called ‘the little blue lake’ where you can cliff jump into this really random sink hole just off a main high way. I believe I overheard the depth of it is anywhere from 25-30 metres. So deep it is generally a black hole where you cant see the bottom.
Our days were packed but so were our nights. We had heard about a forest that has glowing mushrooms not far from where we were staying. Of course it only happens 8 weeks of the year, and we were there for it. So we lucked out once again. We didn’t really see any glowing mushrooms like they are pictured on Instagram but we managed to see some mushrooms, so that was good enough for us.
We came down to the final few days of our trip at The Mount; we all had grown a lot of respect for the place and it came high on the ‘we’ll be back soon’ list. So as far as a ‘work’ trip goes, this takes the cake. We also got told that our next job will be in Alice Springs, NT. So that’s a little exciting.
Working no longer felt like it did before. I used to talk and manifest about a job like this, but I was too stuck in old ways and surrounded by people that had no push to explore more. Now I’m excited to find out where we go next, a new place to call home for a while. The work/life balance is flowing just nicely, and living with a married couple has been better than expected, my travel and work parents. Love you lots Luke and Jess. Let's keep the ball rolling.
You can see more photos from this trip here!
