The Island of the Kangaroo
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006April 28 update: I added a whole slew of pics of Kangaroo Island which can be found on the following link.
pics here
It’s funny when I first got to Adelaide, I heard some people talking about Kangaroo Island but saw how much it cost to get out there and that the only way to really see the island is to either have your car or go on a tour. I hate tours, if you haven’t noticed and I don’t have a car so I really wasn’t planning on getting out there. Ends up, thanks to the greatness of wwoofing I managed to get out to there and ended up having one of the best times during my trip thus far. Fishing, sightseeing, working on cool projects, having some great introspection and most importantly, meeting amazing people and has pretty much been the name of the game during my stay out here.
The Best Thing About my Stay: Great Friends, Kate and Torran.
Kate and Torran were the best things about my stay out here, I’ve left Kate’s place not feeling like some worker for her but as a friend. I’m always a bit apprehensive going into a stay, and so I should be, but two times in a row they’ve been amazing experiences with this one being the best so far. From going fishing and working on the compost bin with Torran to simply hanging out and living with Kate to cooking dinner with the two of them was so much fun and just a great experience and I feel like I’m walking away from here with some great friends that I’m leaving behind. They’re humour, generosity and patients with me has been great. I’ve broken so many dam dishes of Kate’s, or at least it feels like it and yet all she has done is just laugh at me and call me clumsy. Every time I’ve gone out with Torran fishing I always seem to screw something up like crossing the lines or hooking Willow and yet he’s just shrugged it off. Yeah I hooked the dog Willow and still feel like shit about it and still see her in my head running around trying to figure out what’s biting her and why Torran and I are franticly yelling at her. I makes me cringe but she was alright. She was pretty shaken up at first but about half an hour later she was back to her old rad self and all was forgotten. Speaking of Willow, she is such an amazing dog that if/when I get a dog someday it will be a kelpie. They are so loyal, smart, cute and just generally great all around dogs. The only bad thing about Willow is that she jumps on you lots but I can think of a little dog back home that does the same too…little bugger.
More Work
So I’ve been on Kangaroo Island for just about a month now and in that time we’re done some major construction on the veggie garden and compost bin. It’s been a pretty interesting experience to be a part of this, and in some cases in charge of it all. There has been a couple major lessons in building that I’ve learned is such as:
Make an account of all your materials – We’re using all recycled and old building material for it all, this includes all the lumber, steel panels, posts and all the way down to the nails. We’ve run into some pretty interesting snags along the way but fortunately we’ve managed to overcome them all without having to go out and buy more materials. It might sound odd to do it that way but we’re cheap plus town is like an hour and a half there and back.
Get Proper tools – I would have loved to have had a simple level and a long rope to align all the posts but alas.
Regardless of all the snags and with outs we’ve put together a pretty decent set-up that should make loads of compost and keep the critters out. If I were to start it from the start though a list of materials would have been the first thing to do and I’m sure I would have started the construction completely different, that said there was so much stuff that we added as it went along like the shed and greenhouse. I have to laugh at that as I make it sound like minor additions.
I’ve also helped out a little in the cafe when it was really busy. Often after I was working outside I’d head into the gallery to check on Kate and see if she needed any help, some day’s it would be really busy and there’s be a big pile of dishes to clean and tables to clear so I’d go at it and help where I could. I really enjoyed this as I found it a lot of fun to go around to table to table and simple talk and mingle with the people. I think if I were to look for a job down here it would be just doing that, clearing tables just so I could talk and mingle with the people as they came and went. In saying that I realize how I really need to get out of my career as a draftsman as the social contact is pretty much nil. Nursing was right on top of my list when I left home, for a future career and as time goes by it only seems to cement itself as what I would like to do someday. Perhaps I have a bit of a romantic view on it all but the idea of getting to work with and help people really draws me in, plus it’s got to do with health and to an extent fitness, which I could talk even longer about than even farming. I sort of view the meeting of the people almost like meeting other travellers; one day they’re there and the next they’ve made a full recovery and are heading back home or up to Cains to work on a banana farm.
Sarah
We had another wwoofer come by for a short stay so it was nice to have some company, plus she was a great worker and her and I got lots of stuff done on the veggie garden. Her name was Sarah and she was from, guess guess, Germany, regardless of that fact she was pretty cool. I feel really shitty though because I know I was bossing her around way too much on what to do and how to do it but at times I felt she looked a little lost. She eventually snapped at me and my only regret is that she didn’t do it sooner. Again Sarah I’m sorry for being such a bossy asshole and I’m glad you said something. In that little confrontation I feel I learnt a valuable lesson in working and dealing with others. Not everyone wants to hear how you do something or a certain task and everyone has their own way of doing things. I myself don’t mind being told how to do things and appreciate the input as I feel it can be a way to improve myself but I can easily see how it can come across as that we being the right way and another way wrong. A lesson lived, a lesson learned.
The Sights
Outside of work I’ve been privy to going out and seeing a lot of the tourist attractions at a nice leisurely pace. There’s loads of national parks and conservation projects on the island so with Kate letting Sarah drive her car around, we got to see a lot of the tourist sights.
Seal Bay – A Seal colony on the south coast., one of the few remaining colonies left on the island and it’s unfortunately shrinking as the females are pregnant for something like 18 months and they don’t migrate form place to place like the seals back home.
Little Sahara – There’s lots of things like this Australia where you’ll be driving around and out in the middle of nowhere there’ll suddenly be some weird object like for instance a whole lot of dessert.
Remarkable Rocks – Again, another weirdly insane object in the middle of nowhere. There’s lots and lots of rocks in Australia that a lot of people come far distances to see and take pictures of, this was another one of them but I felt that this one was pretty cool; a lot cooler than Ayers Rock, which I still want my money back for.
Vivonne Bay – A pretty nice little bay that we stopped at for a bit.
Stokes Bay – This was a pretty cool place as to get to the really nice beach you had to go through this cool tunnel of rocks and cliffs.
Now these were some the tourist spots that we went to around the island but as far as I’m concerned the entire island is a tourist spot with amazing views and scenic spots just about everywhere. Another place that we went to was Kate’s friend William’s rare breed farm, which I must say was a lot more interesting than all the other tourist spots we went to, odd that I’d find talking and seeing a bunch of farm animals interesting. As I mentioned before he collects and shows rare breeds of farm animals that are on they’re way out. He was telling me something that like every two weeks a species of farm animals (chicken, duck, cow) goes extinct, pretty crazy numbers. One of the breeds of chooks that he had, that was originally bred as a meat producer, took 9 months to be fully grown where as the modern “hybrid” chooks that are bred for meat take only 4-6 weeks. Again, I’m sure it’s all boring stuff for many of you but for some reason I’m sure I could have stood there and talked farm animals with the guy for hours.
Doing Over Seeing
I’m finding that I’m enjoying doing things over seeing things. Sure I enjoyed Seal Bay, the rocks and all the other tourist stuff but I must say I would rather have gone fishing or something like that instead, and I think this whole wwoofing thing is a good indication of that. I look back at before I started wwoofing heavily and it seems all very bizarre and transparent the way that I was travelling in fact I don’t even want to call it travelling, touring seems to be a more appropriate word for it. I’d go around to hostel to hostel, sitting around, maybe going on a tour or something, hanging out with other travellers and jumping town to town always seeming to be in a rush to be someplace or go somewhere. When going around like this I really didn’t see myself staying in Australia for too long where as now I know I will stay the whole year, or at least until my family comes down here in October.
Anyways, I’d rather of gone fishing than seeing all those tourist spots. The last day that Torran and I went out, we hiked about 2-3km on some pretty steep rocks along the shore, it was really cool and in some instances, really dangerous. We were trying to get to this fishing hole we could see in the distance but we couldn’t quite make it to it because the rocks just got too steep so we turned back and headed back to our regular spot. A little after we got there I looked over and about 10 meters out from the rocks we were on was a pod of about a dozen dolphins swimming by jumping in and out of the water, it was rad, I didn’t have my camera with me but I really don’t care. The bad thing about the dolphins though is that they scared away a lot of the fish so things were pretty rough that day, the only fish we caught was a sweep that I pulled in, luckily it was a pretty decent size. To attract more fish Torran threw in a bunch of fish guts and left overs a.k.a burley, which instead of bring in a bunch of fish brought in a bunch of sharks, there was probably about 6 of them swimming around the rocks we were on. We tried and tried to catch one but they kept biting through all of the lines when they got a hold and we didn’t have any wire lines so we had to go home empty handed. It was probably for the best that we catch one as the hike back home was up some major steep hills and carry a 20kg fish would have sucked big time no matter how good it might have tasted, plus we would have to have gutted, de-finned, and beheaded it all in the dark. That said we were punching ourselves for not catching one the whole way home.
Dogs in Australia
People here in Australia hardcore spoil there dogs, you can go to any grocery store and find a section in the cold food isle dedicated solely to dogs and cats with all the food being of a real meat variety. Now of all the places that I’ve stayed at pretty much all of them fed their dogs this stuff. They would literally cook dinner for their dogs, whether in the for of a mince or kangaroo leg and of all these dogs, they had one thing in common; they were all fat asses. Now some of the dogs were inside dogs but most were farm dogs which makes me think how sad it is that there’s such thing as a fat farm dog. Now the only dogs that were in good shape were at the West’s farm and here at Kate’s place with Willow, both places they just fed the dogs regular kibble.
More Dogs
Torran, Kate’s boyfriend, and I dogs. We’re both very obsessive when we start something and seem rather relentless about it. The compost heap for example, I pretty much worked a full 8 hour day on Saturday when we were working on it but I really didn’t care simply because I was right into it. Another case in point, fishing and fig picking.
Figs
So there’s this huge old fig tree down by the retreat that Kate works at part time. It’s a pretty nice tree and they have an area under it with table and chairs for people to have candle lit dinners under it. Anyways, this year the figs were exceptionally good because of the unusual large amounts of rain this summer (weather is weird everywhere, I’m finding and hearing), so Torran and I reckon we’ll go down there and grab a bunch. Two big ass bags later we’re on our way back to Kate’s with one thing on our minds; what the hell are we going to do with all these figs? I came up with a pretty decent recipe but Torran got his hands on a recipe to dry them so he cooks them all and sets up this drying rack and sets it so no ants can get at it. We kind of thought that the crows were going to go after them and put them outside in the sun on blind faith. Everything was going fine and dandy until I noticed about mid afternoon a strange buzzing sound. I poked my head around the corner of the house at where the figs were sitting and found hundreds of bees swarming the figs. Didn’t plan for that one. Fortunately the bees seem to have just gone after the juice and syrup form the cooking process and they’re actually turning out quite nice.
Pure Bone-headedness
As I mentioned before Kate and Torran have great patiens with me and all my clumsy little accidents and such that I seem to be having out here. I don’t know what it is but this place is bring out the worst in me when it comes to that kind of stuff, I’m normally not very clumsy but out here I seem to be breaking plates and glasses left and right and everyday I seem to do some other stupid move. Take for instance today’s little misadventure; As I had also mentioned previously, I had collected all this wood and branches that were laying around the area into a huge pile to burn in a couple months time as there’s currently a total fire ban in effect. It was a pretty dam big pile of wood; was being the key word. It was raining today so Kate just got me to clean out the Cafe & Gallery giving it a good fall cleaning while she was at work so it was just me out here. It’s fall here and it’s getting a bit cool some nights and this morning we had a fire in the fire place. We also burn all of the millipedes during our morning sweep of the gallery so there was bunch of ash collected from the last couple day’s and I decided to clean out the fire place. I’m sure we can all see where this is going, but I’ll relate it anyways. Since the burn pile was all wet I threw all the ashes from the fireplace onto the burn pile thinking no worries. I guess there was some hot coals left in the ash but I didn’t notice them and I didn’t see any sign of smoke or fire at all and I was in sight of the pile for about an hour and a half after I threw the ash out. Well I went away for about an hour to take a phone call from my mom and when I came back outside I found a huge fire and ball of smoke where the burn pile had been. Smooth move Arch. I tried to put it out but it was just big and way to hot to even get close enough to do much. Fortunately there was really nothing to burn around is so it didn’t have a chance to spread and the ground was pretty wet too so that helped out. So much for the full fire ban. I wish I could of had a picture taken of my face when I first saw that fire though, it would have been worth a pretty penny.
Parents
So Kate’s parents came out here all the way from Columbus, Georgia to visit Kate and see her new cafe, which she only put up last year. Now to start off Kate’s adopted and she’s very unlike her parents, in fact they’re pretty much opposites. She also hasn’t seen them in 4 years so she’s a bit stressed and such but all is good. They’re both really good people and I thought her dad was a good guy, he’s someone who you could talk with for hours on end about just about anything so long as it doesn’t have anything to do with religion, social or political undertones. I talked farming and dogs with him for a good while. He was telling me that it only takes 6 weeks before a rabbit is fully grown to slaughter and that like one buck and two sows could produce easily 200lbs of meat a year; lots a lot of good eating. Well I’m way off track now, so anyways, a couple weeks ago was my dad’s birthday, he turned 61. Now I didn’t have the best relationship with my dad before I left but since I’ve left home it’s been dramatically changing for the better. Before we didn’t talk that much and when we did it was all just small talk. I usually went to my mom for advice and to someone to talk to but now I’m going more and more to my dad and it’s been great. So for my dad’s birthday I sat down and wrote him a letter. This letter basically covered exactly how I felt about him now and in the past. It was one of those letters that write and then tear up or burn but instead I sent it out. I guess he wasn’t having the best of day’s up to that point but it brightened up his day and I hope his life. I think it has and will open up our relationship and get things out between us. Afterwards he emailed me and told me how great the letter was and something else that really stuck with me. He said that it was great that I had wrote that letter and told him all that because most people never get the chance to or when they do, it’s while they’re parent is lying in a hospital bed dieing or worse, to an open casket. That got me thinking that how right he is and that I think everyone should take the time out of their life and do that, even if it’s in the form of a letter, just to get it out there. I think can help lots of people with bring their family members closer. Hell even if you’re really close with you’re parents do it anyways, tell them what you think of them and you’re relationship in the past and where it’s going, there’s a good chance that it’ll get you over that parent/child role that so many families play to the people/loving person role that we should play. I went the other day to drop off Torran at his parents place and to meet them. Now Torran lives with his parents on the weekdays and with Kate on the weekends because of driving distances and because his house just got building approval. So it had been 3 day’s since he had last saw his parents yet when he go to their place he hugged and kissed them both like he hadn’t seen them in like 3 years. I found the whole scene to be pretty interesting and quite touching, I don’t know why exactly but I did and it’s made me realize, even more so, just how important family is.
Food
One thing that I think is kind of funny is how Australia is not know for it’s food, yet how much I’ve learned about cooking, preparing and food in general so far down here. Makes me wonder what I’ll learn and be exposed to when I get to countries like Thailand, Vietnam or India that are known for their great foods. Kate’s parents go to France like 2-3 times a year simply for the food, I respect that so much and think it’s the coolest. I’m thinking that when I get up to Asia the food will be a major experience I’m after.
I was talking to Sarah about this but I think you can equate food and the preparation of it as an art: There’s no right or wrong, just too much and too little and it’s all about opinion. I think the same can be said about coffee and tea preparation too.
As for spices that I’ve discovered lately:
Coriander Seed – I discovered this at Maslin house, it’s good with pumpkin and zucchini both a little bit of lime/lemon. It also goes well with potatoes. I know most people eat potatoes on a regular basis so try sprinkling in a bit with your next serving of mashed potatoes.
Sea Salt – Kate’s got sea salt at all the tables in the cafe and It’s so much better than regular salt.
Garam Marsala – A mix of spices like curry but with a completely different taste, almost a little bit more on the sweet side.
The Best Things in Life are Free
The last night at my stay at Maslin House I went out to see the sunset at the beach, the clothed one and I must say it was the best sunset that I have seen. Now why I brought this up is because I have to laugh at all the people, myself included, that filled up the parking lot in nice little perfect rows and all the buses that were loaded with people at Ayers Rock to see the sunset. There was probably a good couple hundred people there that night I was there just to watch the sunset on it and this was the low season, I’m told during high season you can get up to 1000 people out there a night no problem. Now this doesn’t included all the other people around the general area doing guided tours by either bush-walks or camel back or even the people that were ripping around on ATV’s to see it. Now what did they get? A big pile of crap as far as I was concerned. Millions of people each year go out to watch the sunset there and pay dam good cash to see the sunset there and as far as I’m concerned we all got ripped off big time. Instead, on a casual night, in a much more temperate climate, I went out for a leisurely walk and saw the best sunset I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately I forgot my camera because I wasn’t expecting it at all but I think it just might be for the best as I don’t know if a picture could do it any justice. Now if they’re raking in millions of people each to go to Ayers Rock to see the sunset, which sucked, I wonder how many they could rake in down at Maslin which had an amazing sunset, plus they get to see some pure unadulterated nudity while they’re down there…That experience there made me realize that while travelling, you NEED to get off the tourist trail. I want my money back.
And speaking about sunsets and amazing skies, here on Kangaroo Island I have been privy to some of the most amazing spectacles of nature that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen some great sunsets and skies and I know everyone talks about how great the skies are back in Alberta, but home’s got nothing on this place. You’re pretty much guaranteed at least twice a week to see an amazing light show when the sun starts to set. It’s unreal just how consistent it is.
Mom and Brad
Just thought I’d give a congratulations to my mom and Brad for their recent marriage. The two crazy kids flew off to Maui and got married on March 21. I was told that they had gotten “unofficially engaged” a few weeks earlier and got an email a couple day’s before they were married that they were in Maui. I managed to put one and one together and kind of had a rough idea of what might be happening. Sure enough they ran off to Maui and tied the not. I was thrilled when I got the official news and am extremely happy for the both of them. Brad’s a great guy and the way I see it I only gain more family out of it all and that’s great.
Smelly Feet
I’m finding that my feet have a distinct odour, an almost salty smell. I seem to be the only one who notices it, fortunately and I’ve yet to have any complaints even when asking. Anyways, I think it’s kind of cool that my feet have this odd smell and kind of enjoy it. Why? Well I think that one day when I’m back home back at the old daily grind, I’ll get the odd whiff of that smell and be reminded of my trips and travels, odd I know but most things are when travelling it seems, you just don’t know it.
Music
Music that I’ve been exposed to lately out here at Kate’s:
Xavier Rudd – I got a bit of a sample of his new stuff on the radio when I was in Adelaide and at Maslin house and thought he was alright. End up Kate’s got two of his albums and I haven’t been able to put them down since I got here. Amazing stuff, check out the songs “To Let” & “9 Times a Day” for starters and then go out and buy the album “To Let”, great stuff.
Swiss Cheese Incident – Kate’s got a burnt copy of these guy’s from one of their live shows. I guess they’re from Colorado and a friend sent it to her so I don’t know how easily it is to find them. They’re very bluegrass sounding and are a definite festival band.
Ozomatli – A Latin band that I think Jurassic 5 does some stuff with. The album Kate has is just of them and it’s a in Spanish and is very Latino, I rather enjoyed it.
Jack Johnson – Was not a fan of Jack for the longest time but since coming out here to Wind in Wings I’ve started to appreciate him, very rainy day music.
John Butler Trio – These guys are from down under here I think, very alt-country with a pretty good sound.
Readings
I finished off When the War Was over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution a while ago but never wrote anything about it. It was a pretty good book I’d give it 3.5 out 5. It was basically a history into Cambodia, the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge, how 3 million people died in the country and how, again, no other country seemed to do anything about it because of pointless politics. Give it a read if you’re into world history and life in other parts of the world.
When I got out to Kate’s place I picked up a book she had laying around called “The Celestine Prophecy”. It was a quick little read but pretty interesting. It was about the discovery of this manuscript somewhere in Peru that was to help bring mankind to the next level of evolution by helping us understand human nature more and how we interact with one another. It was written like an adventure book, kind of a cheesy adventure book, but with a lot of basic philosophy, psychology and human nature in general into it. Some of the stuff was pretty interesting how it described how people acted towards one another and why. I’d give it 4 out 5. Now it’s not better than When the War Was over but I think because it was such a short read and because the author kept it simple, it got that extra .5. I’d reccomend it to someone who’s into philosophy, and human nature who wants to have a fun little side book on the go.
I traded in When the War Was over for a book called “Reading Lolita in Tehran” a couple weeks before I came out to the Island. It took me a while to pick it up and start reading it and I got side tracked with The Celestine Prophecy but the last week or so I haven’t been able to put it down. It’s about a group of women that start a reading group in Tehran, Iran reading and discussing books that are banned and cencored by the government and “Morality Squad”. They relate and find similarities and parallels in their own lives with the characters in the novels, of which are mainly stories of tragedy. I haven’t finished it yet but so far I’d highly recommend it to just about anyone thus far, especially people who are interested in life in other parts of the world and women in general.
Enjoying Good Things
One thing that I’ve discovered lately about the things that I enjoy, coffee, tea, food, good chocolate, is that you need to spend time and energy on them in order to truly enjoy them. I’m thinking right now that I could quit coffee and caffeine in general with no problems as I’m finding that I’m not addicted to the caffeine but the art and culture of it all. I love the sounds of the water boiling, the smell of the coffee when it brews, the clinking of the cup with the spoon, and most importunately, the simple act of sitting down and drinking that cup of coffee/tea. I used to run around and have a cup of tea or coffee somewhere in reach but I’ve stopped that now, when I have a cup I devote my time and energy to that cup and really enjoy it, same goes with chocolate. I’ll set myself up in front of a nice window, play some music in the background and maybe even have a good book at hand to read and simple put energy and time into enjoying it all. Now you’re probably thinking that I’m sounding insane as usual so I’ll put it in good old boy, working class terms; beer. I kow lots and lots of people love to come home from a hard day’s work to an ice cold beer. Now instead of coming home to some generic beer like Molson’s or worse, Black Label, come home to a nice bottle of a dam good beer, something that might cost a little bit more but something that you really love. Maybe you’ll only have 4 in the fridge at most but so long as they’re drank with you spending energy and time enjoying them it’ll all be worth that extra cash, and again, turn off the TV, put some music on and really enjoy it. Keep those bottles of Molson’s & Black Label for when you’re buddies are over or you’re at a party and save the great stuff for occasions when you can really enjoy it.
I’m finding that this is and should be the same way that you approach food. Yeah not all meals are worth doing it to as they might be just quickie meals, but I think that if you spend the energy preparing a good meal, you should spend the energy to really enjoy it. Don’t eat it in front of the TV or even while reading, maybe have some good music in the background but that’s it. Also with food that I’m finding is great is being in good company. Most dinners out here at Kate’s we would pull out this big box of spices that she has, empty the fridge of all the food and come up with whatever we could; experimenting and playing around with what we had. We’d then sit back, eat, having great conversation and great laughs. That actually has got to be one of my best memories of my stay here. I must remember to get together with good friends and family more often for dinners when I get back home.
So yeah, those are some of the things going through my mind currently as I slowly go insane in Australia. I am having way too much fun down here, it’s amazing the way this trip has turned out and how it’s continuing to progress. I arrived here with stories of what others had done and seen of the country, their experiences and wanted a piece of it. I wanted those same experiences but instead I’ve found my own experiences and my have my own stories that are quite different from what my friends and others had experienced and related to me and quite frankly I’m glad for it. I’m sure a couple of you out there that had been to Australia must think that I’m off my rockers for what I’m doing out here but I’m loving it and couldn’t imagine seeing this country any other way.
I’m heading off to Melbourne now and looking for another farm stay down there for a couple weeks. At the end of April I will be heading back to Kangaroo Island and back to Wind in Wings Gallery to housesit & animal sit for Kate while her and Torran, and his parents, head out to South Africa to visit his sister who’s living over there; It’s “down there” for you guys but “over there” for me. They’ll be gone for 5 weeks but I’ll get there a couple day’s before they go and probably stick around for a day or two when they get back just to hear stories. Kate will have a list of jobs for me to work on plus I’ve got 2 joey kangaroos, 3 cockatoos, 3 possums, an owl, 4 ducks, 2 chooks and Willow to take care of. Hehe, I have to laugh at how seemingly bizarre that all is but it seems that while you’re travelling, what seems to be the strangest of situations and predicaments (taking care of strange and exotic animals, house sitting for someone you just met), while you’re at home, seems like no big deal and nothing out of the norm while you’re on the road but that’s a whole other monologue unto itself.
It’s starting to get a bit cool down here and I have a feeling most of the other backpackers are starting to make the migration north up to places like Cains, Darwin and Broome as that’s where Sarah was heading. I on the other hand will be staying down here for the fall and a bit of the winter, sticking around for the “cold” and I’m happy about that. Already things are so much more green here and I can see grass changing from the dead brown, of which I’m so accustomed, to a lush green, I can almost see a change on a daily basis. It’s kind of nice, the cooler weather and the rain, it’s a lot like the west coast back home and what I’d imagine the UK to be like. It’ll be a nice change of pace, as like I say I’m accustomed to what I call “outback brown” as far as the eye can see.
So I’ll be out here at the farm with Kate’s room mate and her boyfriend here periodically plus I’ll have people dropping by to check on me, I’m sure too many people actually. Kate also said that if I wanted to I could go work for some of the other people around the area if they need the help so I’m sure I’ll end up at Williams place for a couple day’s. He sounds like he’s got lots of work and I’m sure I could talk farm animals with him for days, lots to learn from him I reckon. As for food, I order it buy fax and it gets dropped off with the mail and I’ll probably catch a ride into town once a week for precious nuts, Lavazza Il Perfect Espresso (delicious coffee) and Lindt 85% extra dark chocolate, oh and I guess to wash clothes but that’ll be a side venture. Other then that those are my general plans as of now and if anyone wants to send me a little care package or letter from home you can send it to:
Kate Venable
RSD 29-FCS Snellings Beach Via Kingscote, Kangaroo Island SA 5223 Australia
I’ll be here from the end of April to the beginning of June but just make sure it’s something that I won’t have to lug around with me.
Enjoy the massive amounts of pictures that I took and until next time:
Safe Travels
Troy
misfittroy