I am now more than half way through my first WWOOFing experience and I am still loving it even though I am now WWOOFing here on my own. My German friend has headed south to continue her travels leaving me to play with the animals on my own and planning the next stages of my own adventure. I have decided to head to Brisbane for Josh’s birthday and spend a week there exploring before heading south to the snow fields for my next job. Last week I received confirmation from a friend that she will be joining me in Australia for a few weeks next October. We haven’t confirmed dates as yet but we hope to meet up in Melbourne before heading to Alice Springs to take a tour through the red centre and back south to Adelaide. Once my friend leaves Adelaide I shall finally head west taking a Nullabour tour through the lower south of the country which will end in Perth, WA. Once in WA I shall have a wee visit with Josh’s family in Perth before looking for work or another WWOOFing host. I hope to spend about 3 months in WA working towards my second year visa extension and exploring. Once I have achieved that I shall head back east and work my way up the east coast at a leisurely pace looking for work as I go.
For now though I am still farming away. Having dropped my German friend off at the bus station on Sunday morning it was back to the farm for the rainy day task of cutting out protective sleeves for new vines. Seven hundred odd sleeves later and I was done for the day. It wasn’t the most exciting day but it was nicely relaxing as the afternoon was spent chatting and doing bits and pieces around the house.
By Monday morning the weather hadn’t improved much so we headed in to town to get some supplies including some five seeds cider for me so I could join my hosts in a drink in the evenings. Rum and coke is tasty occasionally but I’m far from being a complete convert! Whilst in town we took the opportunity to visit some nurseries and had a mini tour of town including some of the more expensive houses. Some were beautiful and some were definitely not to my taste but the views that they had of the botanical gardens were spectacular and I can see why the plots were so expensive. Back at the farm the weather had improved enough for me to head out to pick up some fruit and check on some vines. The vines are planted so they grow up sturdy posts and along guiding wires which they have to be twisted round to give them adequate support once they start producing fruit. I found this quite therapeutic and happily twisted vines until I realised it was getting dark. At this point I returned back to the house for the evening much to the amusement of my hosts had not expected me to stay out so long, oops.
Tuesday started out differently I was educated in the working of your basic tap as my host repaired a tap from one of the paddocks. They use bore water here and the minerals in it erode all parts of the taps so it was a case of matching working parts from previously damaged taps until we had two working taps to try. Post plumbing it was time to get the chainsaw out. Much to my disappointment I am not allowed to use the chainsaw as apparently I could hurt myself with it, which is fair enough really but still disappointing. My job was to take the cuttings from the surrounding area and place them on the fire pile in the middle of the lawn. Sadly the chainsaw cut out halfway through so the tree pruning was temporarily abandoned and the bonfire lighting was delayed. With our pruning task cut short we headed in for lunch then I returned to the vines to pick up more fruit and finish twisting the group of vines that I had been working on the day before.
On the Tuesday there was another delivery of bugs and so my first task the next day was to distribute them amongst the vines as I had two weeks previously. The main thing to remember when placing the bugs amongst the vines is not to squish too many of them which considering how tiny and fragile they are can be quite difficult. I then had a bonus day off as my host decided to take his visitors fishing and I got to go along for the ride. Though we tried a few different spots it turned out to be a bit too windy for fishing. I did get to attempt to throw my line in to the river a few times but the only thing I managed to hook was a floating tree. Taking pity on my terrible aim my host cast my line into the water for me but even then I kept getting it snagged on non-fish debris in the river so I soon gave up. I felt slightly better about my poor fishing skills on discovering that my host and his visitors were also experiencing a lot of snagging and we eventually gave up and returned to the farm. I feel it is safe to say that my fishing skills are equal only to my surfing.
In addition to the usual fruit picking on Thursday I got to have go on the sit-on mower, my first time driving in over 2 months! After about 2 rows the belt slipped off the cutting mechanism. I drove the mower back to the house only to find my host had taken one of his visitors in to town. Fortunately it was a simple job to replace the belt once I had an extra pair of hands provided by my hosts other visitor. So off I went all proud of myself back to the vines only for the mower to cut out once more, this time the belt had snapped and I had to head back to the house for some tea and biscuits whilst I waited for my host to return and replace the belt. It was fun but harder than it looks. I had no idea it could be so difficult to drive in a straight line. After spending much of my day sitting down I used my excess energy to rake the alpaca paddock but I had left it too late and before I could get out the poo-vac the alpacas returned for the evening.
Friday saw the departure of my hosts guests and therefore a slower start to our morning. With most of the morning gone we headed in to town to get a part for the chainsaw and a coupling for the boat trailer. On returning my host attempted to repair the chainsaw whilst I returned to the alpaca paddock this time with poo-vac in tow. I can safely tell you that alpacas can certainly make a lot of poo and by the time I was finished moving the full vac seemed like a pretty good workout! Sadly the chainsaw was still playing up so our bonfire remained unlit and it was back to the vines for yet more fruit picking. The floods up here caused a lot of damage and the vines are not producing anywhere near as much fruit as they usually would at this time of year. Though I am collecting fruit every other day or so I am only collecting a few buckets per block whereas in the summer they will collect twice a day and collect up to 30 buckets per block of vines each time. I wouldn’t like to be the one carrying all those buckets in to the packing shed that’s for sure.
On Saturday we did an extra pick up of fruit in the hope of colleting enough to make up a decent number of boxes and thus warrant a delivery but the clouds were rolling in and it wasn’t meant to be. In the afternoon therefore instead of collecting fruit we headed to the boat trailer to fix on the new coupling. We also tried to lift the motor but there was an electrical problem that was only diagnosed later on once an electrician friend dropped by to have a look. I did learn a little about engines and boats so it was an interesting afternoon and now I want a boat though maybe I should wait until I am employed and have a home first....
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