So the 9th started off with more pulling garlic and blisters on my blisters, then entertaining the rest of the (still working) crew after I had my shower, and waiting for Terry to come pick me up.
Off to Grafton! Just the drive down alone left me with an awesome amount of new music to catch up to, thanks for all the blues-rock Terry :) More explanation about the areas we drove through as well, made for an interesting road trip, and a better understanding of the layout of the countryside we were travelling through. Had a good dinner and listened to more good music, and to my great surprise, I had mail! Birthday cards from the Netherlands and New Zealand. Didn't expect that.
I had already seen pictures of the house Terry & Chris lived in, but beeing there was a whole different experience altogether! A beautiful house - I love verandahs, escpecially if they go all the way around the house - and a beautiful area. Terry took Sam, Nikki and me for a walk around the land, through the bush and past Poison Creek, and after the little tour we had a go at fishing in the dam. Caught and gutted my first fish. Saw Sam & Nikki off to Sydney and then went for a swim with Terry at Minnie Beach. A quick tour of Grafton and a walk through the local Art Gallery and then back home and looking for a spot to stay in Sydney the next day.
Righty-oh! Off to Sydney - in for some serious driving! We don't drive back home, we just go to the shopping mall in comparison! 2 hour drive and a little break, starting around 8, and we got to Manly (just north of Sydney) at 4...From there we took the ferry down across the gap, and into Sydney. (Although it's the only way I've arrived in Sydney, I reckon it's the best, beautiful view of the Bridge and the Opera House).
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Boomerang Creek Farm - 2/9 november
Driving into the hills from Byron Bay towards Lismore. The sea in the distance and a marvellous amount of hills and valleys meeting me up ahead. Simply amazing.
I had arrived at a beautiful, small-scale, organic farm, with bushtoilets and a rainwater system, and my own little extended camper in which I could sleep the coming week. Met the whole family, and went out to watch Will play Aussi-tag (offseason rugby, no injuries).
First working day was spent digging out lillies, weeding and rearranging the plant-nursery. Replanting the lillies to reclaim the natural riverside flora, and after that prepared beds for tumeric. When Vanessa came back from work, and the kids from school, they took me out swimming at some waterfalls near them. Early to bed, because Will and Vanessa are up early - me as well, but not at 4:30...phew!
Next day more tumeric planting and growing blisters on my soft little computer hands. Started clearing the shed for the harvest as well, and did a 'testpull' of a hundred garlic plants to see in what condition they were. Listened to some raggea/ska in the evening on the new sound system which had an ipod input - had to try that of course!
On Saturday there's farmers market in Lismore, so we loaded up and went there. Had some time to walk into the town itself, quite big actually...watched the movie Rio with the kids in the afternoon, Will had trouble with the pump, but I couldn't be of much help there, had an awesome curry for birthday dinner and apple pie after.
Sunday Will dropped me off at Minjon Falls, at 8 o'clock in the morning, hiked down (2 ours) swam in the pool at the bottom - freezing cold - just as I got out people startted showing up, and I met more on the hike up (1 hour - sweating my ass off) and as I got back to the top the car park was full...perfect timing for my walk :) Caring for the tumeric in the afternoon and met Will's rugby team which came over for pizza party - pizza oven in the back of the garden, so home made stone oven pizzas for dinner!
Harvest started the next day at 7:30, been trimming garlic most of that day and to bed before 9, because we'll be doing the same tomorrow!
Got blisters on my fingers (yes, again) from pulling garlic - did a speedrun with Jason - it's not a race (knowing me, yes it is) then some more trimming, and then some more pulling. Phew! Last full day of harvest though, I'm being picked up the next day by Terry - turned out Terry & Chris had lived right across the street from Will and Vanessa, at the old postoffice in Corndale. It's a small world after all!
Amazing experience, the whole Boomerang Creek Farm made me feel part of the family (even the dog accepted me - no barking) and I was sad to leave this beautiful place. I'll be sure to go back when I have a chance!
I had arrived at a beautiful, small-scale, organic farm, with bushtoilets and a rainwater system, and my own little extended camper in which I could sleep the coming week. Met the whole family, and went out to watch Will play Aussi-tag (offseason rugby, no injuries).
First working day was spent digging out lillies, weeding and rearranging the plant-nursery. Replanting the lillies to reclaim the natural riverside flora, and after that prepared beds for tumeric. When Vanessa came back from work, and the kids from school, they took me out swimming at some waterfalls near them. Early to bed, because Will and Vanessa are up early - me as well, but not at 4:30...phew!
Next day more tumeric planting and growing blisters on my soft little computer hands. Started clearing the shed for the harvest as well, and did a 'testpull' of a hundred garlic plants to see in what condition they were. Listened to some raggea/ska in the evening on the new sound system which had an ipod input - had to try that of course!
On Saturday there's farmers market in Lismore, so we loaded up and went there. Had some time to walk into the town itself, quite big actually...watched the movie Rio with the kids in the afternoon, Will had trouble with the pump, but I couldn't be of much help there, had an awesome curry for birthday dinner and apple pie after.
Sunday Will dropped me off at Minjon Falls, at 8 o'clock in the morning, hiked down (2 ours) swam in the pool at the bottom - freezing cold - just as I got out people startted showing up, and I met more on the hike up (1 hour - sweating my ass off) and as I got back to the top the car park was full...perfect timing for my walk :) Caring for the tumeric in the afternoon and met Will's rugby team which came over for pizza party - pizza oven in the back of the garden, so home made stone oven pizzas for dinner!
Harvest started the next day at 7:30, been trimming garlic most of that day and to bed before 9, because we'll be doing the same tomorrow!
Got blisters on my fingers (yes, again) from pulling garlic - did a speedrun with Jason - it's not a race (knowing me, yes it is) then some more trimming, and then some more pulling. Phew! Last full day of harvest though, I'm being picked up the next day by Terry - turned out Terry & Chris had lived right across the street from Will and Vanessa, at the old postoffice in Corndale. It's a small world after all!
Amazing experience, the whole Boomerang Creek Farm made me feel part of the family (even the dog accepted me - no barking) and I was sad to leave this beautiful place. I'll be sure to go back when I have a chance!
Byron Bay - 31/1 November
After having beautiful weather pretty much the whole way through from Alice Springs to here, it was time for some rain. So the night before I left turned out to be storm. Beautiful storm.
Next day was still grey and dreary, but that doesn't matter sitting in a bus. Drove through a town called Miami, and when I got to Byron it was beautiful weather again. Added an extra hour to the clock, as I had arrived in New South Wales (time travelling!).
Met up with an Englishman, Sam, and walked out to the lighthouse (beautiful walk btw) and the most eastern point of Australia. Turned out Sam was an avid surfer, so he was checking the surf constantly. Good thing though, because that ended up in free tips on when to go surf, and what to do while surfing. Next day rented a board and headed out - good surf - a bit too good for this starter on his long board, but nice for Englishmen catching barrels until they rip their foot with one of the fins. Took my longboard to a different beach, perfect surf, long and small waves, perfect for longboarding.
Next day was still grey and dreary, but that doesn't matter sitting in a bus. Drove through a town called Miami, and when I got to Byron it was beautiful weather again. Added an extra hour to the clock, as I had arrived in New South Wales (time travelling!).
Met up with an Englishman, Sam, and walked out to the lighthouse (beautiful walk btw) and the most eastern point of Australia. Turned out Sam was an avid surfer, so he was checking the surf constantly. Good thing though, because that ended up in free tips on when to go surf, and what to do while surfing. Next day rented a board and headed out - good surf - a bit too good for this starter on his long board, but nice for Englishmen catching barrels until they rip their foot with one of the fins. Took my longboard to a different beach, perfect surf, long and small waves, perfect for longboarding.
Surfers Paradise - 29/31 October
From Brisbane down to Surfers Paradise, and as the Lonely Planet already said - Surfers don't go there much, and the paradise is a long way from there. Nice to see it though. Interesting experience for starters. Walked into the supermarket which had pepernoten and hagelslag, and the city centre had all the shops you can think of. Stayed at the YHA which was out of town, in Marine Cove, to get back to Surfers was about half an hour to three quarters of an hour walk along the beach, so I did that a couple of times :)
Next to having an outrageous amount of holiday/family parks, fortunately there's more to do in Surfers, like the Federation Walk, which was a walk up the Spit/Main Beach (7.5km return trip) Once at the end of the split you get a nice view of Surfers from the end of the jetty. Was bloody hot walking there, and turned out to be the main 'dog' beach, but fun nonetheless!
Next to having an outrageous amount of holiday/family parks, fortunately there's more to do in Surfers, like the Federation Walk, which was a walk up the Spit/Main Beach (7.5km return trip) Once at the end of the split you get a nice view of Surfers from the end of the jetty. Was bloody hot walking there, and turned out to be the main 'dog' beach, but fun nonetheless!
Brisvegas - 25/28 oct
Next stop Brisbane - also known as Brisvegas...didn't see much of the partying though. So what did I do?
Well....
First two hours on the plane, which were spent asleep - always good. Stayed at Chill Backpackers, I got dragged in by the view over the city, but pretty much all the backpackers were next to each other, so the view would have been pretty much the same from every hostel there, oh well. Nice 'cinema-room' here though, so watched Gladiator and went to bed after.
Breakfast on a rooftop with a view of the city is always nice. After that walked through the botanical gardens - including swamp - and the Art Gallery. Modern Art Gallery as well, but half was being redone, so not much to see there. Didn't plan a lot for that night, but ended up doing a tour of Brisbane with a German girl, Tina. Trying to get an apple, which were way too expensive, we ended up with free Travellers Pies...how about that. Wouldn't give us an apple, but meaty snacks no problem...
On to finding Desktop Magazine, which featured an interview with The International Office - including a picture of Emmy in there as well :P gotta get me a copy of that! took me a while to find a shop which sold it though...
Well....
First two hours on the plane, which were spent asleep - always good. Stayed at Chill Backpackers, I got dragged in by the view over the city, but pretty much all the backpackers were next to each other, so the view would have been pretty much the same from every hostel there, oh well. Nice 'cinema-room' here though, so watched Gladiator and went to bed after.
Breakfast on a rooftop with a view of the city is always nice. After that walked through the botanical gardens - including swamp - and the Art Gallery. Modern Art Gallery as well, but half was being redone, so not much to see there. Didn't plan a lot for that night, but ended up doing a tour of Brisbane with a German girl, Tina. Trying to get an apple, which were way too expensive, we ended up with free Travellers Pies...how about that. Wouldn't give us an apple, but meaty snacks no problem...
On to finding Desktop Magazine, which featured an interview with The International Office - including a picture of Emmy in there as well :P gotta get me a copy of that! took me a while to find a shop which sold it though...
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