I was talking to my friend Svenja about travelling the other day. We were working on the harvester or “digger” of a sweet potato farm, putting potatoes from the digging conveyor belt onto the packing conveyor belt: a bit of an unusual job for two women in their late-twenties with Bachelor degrees… but that’s what you have to do in order to apply for your third year Working Holiday Visa in Australia (for now, at least. Changes to backpacker visas should be coming…).

I first met Svenja in February 2021 at a farmstay hostel called Secluded Springs. It was secluded and beautiful and I will be writing about it in the future, but I don’t feel like I’ve consolidated all of my thoughts, feelings and experiences about my five months there yet. In truth, we probably only lived together for about six weeks before she moved into town, but, like all travelling, time is warped and six weeks living, working, cooking and weekend-ing together is about the same as knowing someone for a couple of years.

Sidenote: Claire and I used to have a van, and Svenja also had a van. I showed her a picture of our van and she said: “I feel like I saw your van on the road. Did you guys stay in Emerald in August or September last year?” And I was like “OMG! WHAT?? YES! *Checks diary* On the 30th August for one night, under the bridge! We heard a group of German people next to us (she’s German), but we were too tired and shy to say hello! One man said hey though.” And she was like “Yeah! Under that big bridge. That was the group I was travelling with for a while. I thought I recognised you guys but you had brown hair.” (I’d since dyed it blonde). Wow. I find things like that amazing! Of all the days, of all the rest stops, of all the vans, we parked next to someone who we then ended up living with six months later, 1300km away from where we had been living in Sydney. I love how there is something intertwining people and experiences. “Coincidences” might just be “coincidences”, but when you think of all the little things, decisions and things beyond your control that have to happen to create a “coincidence”, it seems pretty magical. And maybe for no other reason than to be like “That’s so cool!”.