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THE WORK4TRAVEL FRONTIER CLUB
For picture captions hold mouse cursor over picture. As a traveller for adventure you'll participate in all kinds of interesting and varied activities and enjoy all manner of unusual experiences. Working a little along the way makes it all possible. |
Work Abroad - Seasonal Jobs - Summer Jobs - Casual Work - Work & Travel - Workcamps - Voluntary Work
This sort of work has been the mainstay of our Working Travellers for over 40-years. Maybe you fancy the experience of working on a sheep station in the Australian outback, joining a crew repairing bridges in Kenya, getting to know the real Switzerland as an au pair, spending a summer season as a hostess on a cruise ship, driving an expedition vehicle through South America or Africa? (Picture shown left: Jeff stuck in sand in the Sudan!)
For those not wanting to make a commitment for even a few months, short-term casual work provides the answer. It allows variety for anyone who does not want to be tied down and enables you, the Working Traveller, to spend just a day, a week, a month or longer wherever and whenever you want, providing great flexibility to travel plans. For some members, the excitement of not knowing which shore they will land on next is exhilarating, while others prefer everything to be planned before they leave. The choice is yours. "I've spent the summer in France as a courier, seen some sights, done some things, and met some folks ... you gave me the 'kick in the ass' to get away this summer and that's given me a taste of things to come " ... Simon. Opportunities for casual work are predominantly through the summer months (apart from skiing and winter sports), but summer 'down under' is during our winter, so seasonal variation can work to your advantage, providing year-round venues - there’s always something, somewhere, no matter when you want to go. No experience is usually necessary as casual work, by its very nature, is generally unskilled with plenty of choices available.
A few weeks of hard work can fund months of further travel and there are now many 'Oktoberfests', not just in Germany but throughout the world. The Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest in Canada also hosts the Rocktoberfest for music lovers! "To break the monotony of being on the beach all day we would sometimes take off into the mountains for the evening on trail bikes and explore old roads and trails that ended up going nowhere except to places where we’d get the most spectacular views …" Susan NB. Jobs like this are quite common as most resorts now have Jet skis and other watercraft. For example, we were recently approached by the operators of the watersports centre for Club Med in the Bahamas to see if we had members interested in jobs there - illustrating to guests the safety aspects of riding a jet ski and leading jet ski tours, also assisting with launch and haul out - room and meals (when at work) provided plus guarantee of a least $200 week (plus tips). Not bad for such a lifestyle!
Joining in the camaraderie and all-round fun with other crew members when working on a cruise ship, heading off into a foreign port on days and evenings off - all these things add up to more than a job and more than a holiday. Is what you're doing now more exciting? TRUCK DRIVING USA - John Peacock
"And in between I was introduced to the world of the American trucker. Not the romantic life that most people think it is with erratic feeding and sleeping and long periods of isolation with only a CB for company. It was all worth it though ... I was dropped off in Philadelphia for the 4th July celebrations and spent a week there in accommodation ranging from a girl’s sorority house in Penn’ University, Wow!! Made some great friends and loadsa’ money!"… John EXPEDITION DRIVER - Chris Colbourn "I’ve always been a lover of the outdoors, and been to plenty of places with the army where I’ve been for more years than I care to remember.
"I left London in mid-April bound for Vancouver with the thought of spending every night for the next 6-months in a tent in the Mountains. The first week we camped in snow next to a remote lake which was still frozen ... chopping a hole in the ice with an axe to get water. "Each trip lasted 14-days and we ran ten that year for members - a total of 20,000 miles, plus a 4-week holiday break down to Mexico which added another 5,000 miles. "Every other Sunday at 10am we picked up a new group of would-be adventurers in the small community of Hope, 99 miles east of Vancouver, dropping them back two weeks later when we collected the next group. One of our campsites was at 4,000 feet next to a huge wilderness waterfall - some people said that the roar kept them awake at night! Personally it (and others we camped by) sent me straight to sleep.
"Part of the fun of it all were the great people, some of whom had never camped before, or hiked further than the nearest supermarket. But they all joined in, no matter what, and everyone had a great time, with night hikes through dense forest, scrambles up banks of petrified sand to the Hooded Hoodoos of Deadman River, canoeing wilderness lakes and rivers, climbs up mountains and waterfalls, into volcanoes, driving the infamous 'corkscrew' road notched into the side of precipitous rock bluffs, with twists and loops, turning back on itself in sinuous zigzags and spiralling up and up through sagebrush - just like a corkscrew! You name it, we did it. I was able to save $7,000 during my stay, as everything was all-found - flights, food, medical insurance - it was just like getting paid to take a fantastic holiday, something I will never forget." … Chris |
Seasonal
work is the answer for many people who want to just take off for a few weeks
or months, more or less at any time of the year. Numerous opportunities
worldwide are created by seasonal peak labour demands from ski resorts to
holiday camps and resorts, and on farms, ranches, parks, etc. No experience
necessary for most jobs.
And,
there are as many different ways of doing it as there are opportunities.
Oktoberfest
is the world's biggest beer-drinking folk festival. Every year around 7 million
visitors to Munich, Germany, will consume some 6 million litres of beer.
Oktoberfest
jobs are plentiful - mostly in catering with waiters and waitresses to carry
food and drink to the tables. But there are also other jobs. You will be on your
feet for 12-hours a day, 16-days in a row, but with these jobs you can earn good
money, so much so, that there are members who simply travel from one such
festival or event to another.
"Some
people will laugh when I say that it was hard work at the marina renting out jet
skis, but the lifestyle and people I came into contact with made for a fun
summer.
What
better than, after a day
harvesting grapes in France, to spend the evening drinking freely of the
vendange with newly made friends from around the world or, after a day working
on mountain trails beneath snow-capped peaks, to have a fun evening around the
campfire?
"I
took the offer with a pinch of salt seeing as I couldn’t even drive a
Mini Metro let alone a 75ft, 50-tonne Kenworth ‘big truck’, but sure enough
the job was there when I arrived in Portland, Oregon, after leaving the Club
project in British Columbia..
"So,
for the next three weeks, I was taught how to ‘line haul’ as part of a
sleeper team. The 5-hour on, 5- hour off shifts were pretty exhausting, but in
return I was given the chance to see sights I never thought I would ... the
canyon lands of New Mexico & Colorado, the Rockies five times, the Great
Smokey Mountains of Georgia and Tennessee, electric storms out on the Great
Plains of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, the Mississippi Delta, and places ranging
from New Orleans to the Irish communities of Pennsylvania.
“Thus,
when I had the opportunity of spending 6-months in Canada driving a Club Dodge
Ramcharger on a series of 2,000 mile back-roads Explorer trips into the
mountains, and well paid for it, I jumped at the chance. The army agreed to give
me 6-months leave of absence.
"The
ghost-town of Barkerville was the most northerly part of the 2,000 mile
'circle' route and we'd spend a day in town before camping at a remote lake
where the group would learn how to pan for gold - the real way - and keep all
they found. We'd also climb to the top of a 7,000 foot peak and visit the site
of the old cabin where the Club was 'founded' back in 1964. Our 'adventurers'
were from all walks of life and it was sad every two weeks to bid them farewell
and meet the next group. Many of them went on to jobs and work projects in the
four corners of the world.