Cambewarra, New South Wales

G'day mate!

The electrified fences chirp

People really do say that here! So I got my first wwoofing job.  I took the train from Kings Cross to Central, transferred to a South Coast train to the end of the line, transferred to a local train to the end of its line and arrived, after 3 hours, in Bomaderry/ Nowra about 180 km (110 miles) away.  All for $7.80, not bad.  They've got some beautiful coastline here! Also, there's not much once you get out of the greater Sydney area.

So this wwoofing thing is whatever you make of it.  It really depends on the attitude of the host and the attitude of the wwoofer. The basic rules are clear:  the wwoofer works 4-6 hours in exchange for room and board.  While all of the listings have some kind of gardening work including swale building, bush regeneration or  bush track clearing, rainforest restoration, etc., farms include animals and so animal care features prominantly.  Other duties may include construction projects, property maintenance, child care, cooking, and household chores. OMG!  I might have to break my lifelong record of never mowing a lawn.  I hope not!

A nice resting spot

Well, as it turns out, my primary job is summarizing marketing books the host doesn't have time to read.  Apparently, I'm the most educated wwoofer he's ever met.  So far, I've read Marketing in the Age of Google and How to make money while you sleep!  Next up is ProBlogger.  I love to read, the books are interesting, and who knows, maybe I'll actually do what the books say and become rich off (on) the internet!  


You know that every job has it's not so good parts. Well, most of the other work I've done here is housework.  Laundry (on the line), vacuuming, bathroom cleaning, and believe it or not, I did windows!  As I wrote last time, it's rained a lot.  The ground is saturated and muddy.  I don't like mud.  I don't like getting dirty.  I know, I know.  YES, I AM a gardener.  Anyway, although I would like to do some gardening, I'm glad not to slog in the mud.

Flooded creek causeway

This is my first wwoofing job.  I have nothing to compare it to.  Not quite what I expected and learning as I go.  I sorta thought that I would work 5-6 days and get at least 1 day free.  Well, my host asked if I wanted to work 6 hours/day 7 days/week or if I wanted to work 8 hours/5 days.  So I guess nothing is really free.  My accommodations are great with my own room since I'm the only wwoofer staying at the house right now.  They have room for 3.  Food is ok but with lots of "white" starches; my cholesterol is suffering, I'm sure.

On my day off, I started walking, determined to see something of the area.  Got the address wrong (the host has 2 properties) and Google Maps showed me in the middle of nowhere. Signage is terrible.  Signs are only where the road intersects with another and if it's a T, only the offshoot part is signed.  (I walked 40 minutes before I discovered the name of the road I was walking on, "Hockeys Road".) So I drew a little map for myself so I could find my way back.

Traffic calming device (S)

 I had a nice peaceful walk pass cows and horses in their pastures and through, literally, a flooded creek causeway before figuring out that I could walk back on the cement blocks on one side if I was careful. This is a small road through fairly flat countryside but they have traffic calming devices just before several 75* - 120* curves.  The little "S"s are planted with trees protected by electrified wire and padlocked. Actually, a lot of the fences seemed to be electrified.  They have little knobs on them that chirp to warn the horses?  the cattle?  passersby?  cattle rustlers?  idk.  After walking past a winery, I decided to turn around since even the major road I was on had only a muddy and sometimes flooded path for pedestrians.  Plus, I didn't know what was ahead anyway.



So I backtracked and found Cambewarra Village 5 minutes past where I had entered the road to begin with!  I stopped into the village shop/post office. Not too much there.  It's a small village.

More later. G'nite!
Cyn