Moora Moora

G'day!

I'm at Moora Moora, a co-operative community on 250 hectares on top on Mt Toole-be-wong near Healesville, Victoria about 70 km from Melbourne.  I will be mostly quoting or paraphrasing from their brochures for a bit here.  The community is a diverse group of people choosing to live together with three aims:  To live with nature, to live together co-operatively, and to integrate education into all aspects of life.  Decision making occurs at monthly meetings and members participate in a monthly community work day.  Other co-op committees include land management, works, renewable energy, learning centre, social, membership, and finance.

Skink

3/4 of the land is Eucalypt forest maintained as a wildlife reserve.  Dogs and cats are not allowed on the property to protect the abundant native birds and animals.  The remaining land is used for pasture,  woodlots, permaculture, organic farming, and horticulture.  Moora Moora's plan is for 30 homes, most of which are already built, in 6 clusters.  Each cluster has a distinct style with 4 - 6 house sites, common facilities, a vegetable garden and an orchard.

Solar electricity batteries to hold charge

Most of the homes are owner built from natural materials including earth and stone, timber, and strawbales and with salvaged fixtures.  (Three strawbale homes are in different stages of completion.  I will probably be able to work on at least one of them.)   Energy is from solar panels with a backup generator using some kind of gas; Moora Moora is not connected to mains electricity.  Use of fossil fuels is minimized where possible.  Firewood is grown and harvested for heating and hot water.  Water is from rain and springs on the property.

Joining the community is a matter of time.  Interested parties become a Friend by loaning the Co-op $200 interest free for 3 months.  After a minimum of 2 months, a Friend may be nominated for membership.  After 4 months of nomination, membership is voted on.  The new member then buys shares in the Co-op.  Tours are available with tea afterwards.  Wanna join?

Circuit panel, AC/DC, 12 Volt to 24 Volt Inverter, etc.

So that's Moora Moora in a nutshell.  About 40 adults and 20 children currently live here.  Wwoofs, as we are called here, stay at The Lodge, a 2 story brick building that is also the community and learning center.  We will have to vacate next weekend as there will be a conference on Ritual Breathwork and Relational Spirit.  We will be billeted in members' homes.

I'm staying in one of the two large dorms with 5 sets of bunks.  There are at least 3 other rooms that sleep between 2 - 6 each.  There are 2 toilets and 2 showers and a full bathroom (toilet, sink, and shower) inside and an additional toilet accessible from outside.
There's a large lounge (living room) with a wood stove, a small playroom/media room, and a large all-purpose room (with ping pong table).


Jumping Jack ant

The large kitchen has 3 deep sinks, a 6 burner gas stove that must be lit with a flame each time, a small full size freezer/refrigerator, a small wood stove, and lots of counter space and cabinets.  We eat at a trestle table on 2 benches. That's it.  No microwave, no toaster, not even a hot water heater.  All of those would use electricity.  The boiler/wood stove that heats the water is fired at 4 pm daily by the caretaker, Russell, or by a wwoof if he is not available.  Then we can have hot showers and hot water for washing dishes, otherwise the hot water is tepid or cooler.  The boiler room is underneath the caretaker's quarters.  I helped to stack firewood there after banging on the wood with a long stick to make sure any snakes go away.  I can handle the spiders if they aren't huge, but I just can't handle the snakes.

Bull Ant

Speaking of wildlife, apparently there are lots of snakes here, all of them venomous.  Tiger, copperhead, red-bellied black and another snake that I can't remember all live here.  Then there are the March flies; the 1/2" long flies have a long proboscus that they can stick through even denim to suck at your blood.  And the ants; the 1/2" bull ants and the slightly smaller jumping jack ants both have huge jaws and bite.  I have a picture of an ant with the orange jaws in an earlier post; now I know that it's a jumping jack ant.  There's also a biting wasp with 3/4" blue/black body and orange legs and no wings; it looks like an enormous ant but I'm told it is a wasp.  And of course there are the Huntsman spiders and mossies, but they are tame stuff compared to the rest!  And Jon, an English wwoofer, said he was "rat wrangling" after finding a pair of rats with a nest full of babies.  Although they could've, they did not catch any of the rats.

March Fly- look at the proboscus!

There's supposed to be nice wildlife here as well.  I've seen 2 kookaburras fairly close up  and the other wwoofers saw a wombat by the lodge the night I arrived.  I am eager to see a lyrebird with its feathers up.

Cheers!
Cyn

Pottsy's Organic Vegies

G'day!

Cataract Gorge - Launceston's primary attraction

When I was in Sydney and New South Wales in general, I usually had reasonable to good satellite or dial up internet connections in homes and hostels.  When I was in Tasmania, the internet connection was dial up and very slow.  Apparently the Tassie government connected everyone up 4 - 5 years ago and gave everyone a free year.  Since then, households are billed $40/month for 1 GB of upload/download.  If the household uses up the 1 GB, they can only get internet service between 11 pm and 8 am daily until the first of the next month.   My last host has only had that happen twice; the second time being this month.  Hey, it wasn't me!  Now, I'm about 70 km outside Melbourne and the internet plan here is pay as you go.  You pay for X GBs and when they're used up, you lose access.  You're still connected; you just can't do anything until the account is reloaded with more GBs.  Wwoofers spend time on the computer looking for jobs - paid or wwoofing, communicating with family and friends, figuring out transportation, and for recreation or pleasure.  And with 4 or 5 wwoofers, even just doing basic stuff, you run through MBs very quickly.  I took so many things for granted in America.

View from Eagles View at Gorge

Anyway, I spent a week and a half at Pottsy's Organic Vegies farm.  In addition to my host and his daughter, 4 French wwoofers (aged 20 -27) were there.  Coline and I worked together a lot which made working much more pleasant.   Although I know all about vegies and growing vegies (that's how veggies is spelled here and it makes more sense since there's only 1 g in vegetables) from reading and working at Sloat, I've only grown a few types and very few plants at a time.  So, I got some valuable practical experience.



Coline hunting for zucchini



On this farm, I had to plant new leek seedlings from purchased punnets (cell or pony packs), thin lettuce, rocket (a spicy lettuce/green), kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprout, and cabbage seedlings, weeding as I go; transplant the thinned seedlings into new beds; weed the parsley and silverbeet (swiss chard) beds, as well as the beetroot, carrots, and parsnip beds;  harvest tomatoes, zucchini/summer squash and Lebanese cukes.   Sweet corn, Jerusaelum artichokes, eggplant, capsicum (bell peppers), the new batch of spring (green) onions and several type of apples and pears were not ready yet.  Green beans and basil were just finishing up.  Globe artichokes, potatoes, red onions, shallots, garlic, and raspberries were done before  I arrived.   Nashi pears, an Asian apple/pear were ripe and we ate lots of them.  Parsnip seedlings are hard to distinguish from weedy grass seedlings and we may have pulled some of them by accident.  Cabbage and brussel sprouts are very difficult to tell apart when they are seedlings.  Good thing we do each vegie separately.

Philippe,David, Jeremy, Romain building pizza oven patio 

I mulched lettuce beds with an aged mixture of seaweed, chook manure (AKA chick poo), grass clippings and ??.    It might have been aged, but it wasn't mixed.  I had to break up chunks and mix as we shoveled it into the wheelbarrow, not pleasant.   David, my host, harvests the seaweed from a nearby beach which I had to pitchfork from the back of the ute (pickup truck).  I got to drive the ute (twice) in from the paddocks where we loaded the back with firewood that had been cut a while ago from fallen or dead trees.  Then we had to unload and stack the firewood.  The ute was manual transmission and I managed not to stall it, nor drive into the fences nor the dam.  The brush in the paddocks, mostly grasses, bracken (fern), thistles and tree seedlings, is about 2 - 3 feet high, so it's not as easy as it sounds.

I helped set up and sell at the Sunday morning market that is David's primary distribution method but also helped deliver to several restaurants around Launceston.  Other chores included lots and lots of weeding, and dead heading spent flowers and dock, a noxious weed.  Luckily , I didn't have to do anything with the chooks.  I don't really like the chooks and there was a really nasty hen that attacked humans. David will be building a pizza oven and the guys cleared and prepped the area for it, amongst some heavier garden duties.

The farm is in Lefroy, a tiny town (no services at all) about 70 km from Launceston (Lawn cess tin), the second largest city in Tasmania.  I was dropped off and hiked around Cataract Gorge, Launceston's primary attraction.  I had a great time especially with the French wwoofers who let me tag along while they were hunting for apple picking jobs (too late for blueberries, early March for apples and pears), and a trip into Low Head (5 minutes past Georgetown) for the lovely beach and Georgetown (15 minutes from Lefroy) for groceries and the library to use the internet.

Romain, David, Nina, Philippe, Jeremy, Coline

I learned a few French phrases and how to count to ten.  I'll probably forget unless I meet more Frenchies.  I probably won't forget the cuss words though.  I learned some history and geography from Coline and Philippe from Caen, Romain from Cherbourg, and  Jeremy from Orlean.  We played card games and Times Up, a notable people guessing/mime game and listened to a lot of music. We also had wonderful dinners including homemade pizza, a sausage stew, chicken tagine, crepes, and a potato gratin, always with lots of fresh vegies.

I must be memorable.  I don't know very many people in Aussie, but several times, I've bumped into acquaintances who recognized me.  In January, I was sitting on a bench in Circular Quay train station in Sydney using my 20 minutes of free wifi when Leonie, a German wwoofer I met at Road Ends jumped in front of me and said, "Hi!"  I knew she was in Sydney and had tried unsuccessfully to contact her by email and phone. (She hadn't gotten to McDonald's for wifi to check her email and didn't recognize the phone # on her mobile phone.)  We went to the Friday market and free concert at The Rocks with her brother Jacob and did more Sydney exploring a few days later. When I got to Bruny Island, the Japanese girl, Kana, said that she recognized me from the airplane and airport shuttle we had ridden on coming into Hobart 2 weeks earlier.  And while I was sitting in front of the cafe, a customer came and asked if I had been wwoofing at the blueberry farm last week.  We had met very briefly because she was wwoofing at the farm next door.  That was more than 1 1/2 hours away by car and ferry!

Art installation on Gorge walk

After touring around Hobart, I caught the bus to Launceston (3 hours, $33).  As I was waiting to get on the bus, Pete, the Englishman from the blueberrry farm, popped up and said, "Remember me?!"  After 4 weeks there, he was on his way to the airport.  And finally, on Wednesday (Feb 23), I flew from Launceston to Melbourne, Victoria (1 hour, $75 on Jetstar).  After getting off a  Skybus (20 minutes, $16) from the airport to Southern Cross train station, a young Malaysian man asked me if I remembered him.  I did.  I shared a Tassie's, The Brunswick Hotel ($28/4 bed mixed) hostel room with him and his brother.  He was getting his younger brother settled into Uni(versity) in Hobart.  He had just arrived from Hobart to start his own Uni in Melbourne.  I must admit that I would not have noticed any of these people had they not approached me.  But I did recognized each and every one of them and was glad that they said hi.

Lefroy, Tasmania summer sky

I took a train (1 hour, $5.80) and a bus (30 minutes, included in Metro fare) to Healesville where Jolanda, the wwoof co-ordinator for Moora Moora, an intentional community met me.  More on Moora Moora next time.

Cheers!

Cyn

Port Arthur, MONA, etc.

G'day!

Sarah and me in the Separate Prison chapel - hoods off

Sarah, the English wwoofer, and I stayed at Hobart's YHA Montgomery Hostel and met at least 10 other Americans.  It was sort of weird cuz most of us had seen other American travelers very infrequently previous to this.  We ended up on a 11 hour tour ($70) to Port Arthur with two ex-Chicagoans who most recently lived in Colorado (Paul) and ... San Francisco (Andrew)!

Richmond  Bridge (1823) - oldest bridge in use

Australia and America have a lot in common.  Both countries were British colonies where convicts were sent to allieve overcrowding in English gaols (pronounced jails).  After America won its independence, England started sending its convicts to Australia.    Men, women, and children as young as 8 years old were imprisoned for all sorts of crimes, some very petty and some major.  And since Australia needed people with specific skills such as architecture, supposedly some people were imprisoned on trumped up charges.  Beginning in 1787, convicts were transported to Australia where they could work to serve their sentences, typically a minimum of 7 years.  However, since most convicts were not expected to be able to afford passage back to England, transportation was basically a lifelong exile.  Convict labor built much of Australia's infrastructure and churches and government buildings.  We visited the historic town of Richmond where many convict-built structures still stand.

The Penitentiary at Port Arthur

An aside:  A Sydney man joined the California gold rush in 1849.  After digging for 2 years and finding nothing but dirt, he noticed that the California terrain was very similar to that at home.  He quickly (for that era) returned home and starting digging in the New South Wales creek sides and ....   Eureka! He found gold!  Thus began the 1850s Australian gold rush.  Two effects of the gold rush were that prisoners in England wanted to be transported to Australia at the British government's expense so transportation ended soon after.  And Australia adopted the White Australian policy in the 1860s in response to prejudice against Chinese gold miners that forbade the immigration of non-Europeans until the 1970s.


Australia's Port Arthur Penitentiary was America's Alcatraz, an island prison used as a punishment station for repeat and worst offenders.  Port Arthur was considered inescapable with sharks in the water and half starved dogs guarding Eaglehawk Neck access road to the island.   Port Arthur is the most visited site in Tasmania and served a significant part in the settlement of Australia.  Nowadays, it is fashionable to be descendents of convicts; many Tasmanians can make that claim.

Port Arthur Penitentiary operated as a penal colony for men and women from 1833 until 1877.  Unlike Alcatraz, Port Arthur was a complete community.  It was home to military personnel, their families, and free settlers who lived lives in stark contrast to the prisoners with garden parties, regattas, and literary evenings.  The Penitentiary used the new radical Pentonville (England) Penitentiary model designed to "grind rogues into honest men" by including discipline and punishment, religious and moral instruction, classification and separation, and training and education.  Many prisoners left Port Arthur as skilled blacksmiths, shoemakers, or ironically, as shipbuilders.

There were more than 30 buildings to tour.  One of the most interesting was the Separate Prison.  Some prisoners were enrolled in a scientific experiment called the Separate Prison where complete isolation and silence were enforced.  Violators were treated to the "Dark Room".  Prisoners ate, slept, and worked in their individual cells 23 hours/day with 1 hour/day solitary exercise in a high walled yard. The prisoners placed hoods over their heads whenever they left their cells.  The chapel pews had door/dividers that had to be closed before their hoods came off.  Total isolation and silence 24/7!!!  Some prisoners went nuts. Two nearby islands served as a boys prison and Isle of the Dead cemetery.

MONA with rooftop gardens and ferry pier at right

I also visited several museums.  The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery was terrific.  It had a very wide range of natural science exhibits.  Most of them specified which species/specimens were endemic and which were indigenous.  The term Aborigine covers more than 400 tribes of indigenous Australian cultures.   The museum's Palawa exhibit showed and explained ancient tribal culture and its evolution to today's efforts to retain some of of those traditions.

MONA is the Museum of Old and New Art that just opened 21 January 2011.  A Tasmanian professional gambler, David Walsh, got rich when he developed a system for gambling.  He spent $75-80 million to open Australia's largest private museum and make entry free to the public.  At least 250,000 people (Tasmania's population is 500,000) are expected to visit this year; it was packed when I was there.  The museum is controversial; Walsh intends MONA to be "a subversive adult Disneyland".  Themes of sex and death touch on bestiality, euthanasia, sadomasochism, religion, and rebellion.  Two of the exhibit areas were rated PG-15 on the visitor's guide.  I think that was being pretty liberal.  All I can say is that the whole place is different, very different.

Rooftop gardens surrounded by patio walls - inaccessible

Patrons are encouraged to take a 30 minute ferry ride ($15 roundtrip) to the museum as the parking is extremely limited.  The museum is on 3 levels, all underground.   The main access to the exhibits is via a narrow spiral staircase, barely wide enough for one person going up and one person going down.  A  very small glass lift (elevator) is encircled by the staircase.  There's one other lift near the back of the museum.  This place is definitely not for wheel chairs or strollers.  One of the walls near the staircase is a 4 story sandstone rock face.  Long suspended walkways connect some of the exhibit areas.  Never mind the art; the architecture is something to see.  The rooftop gardens were gorgeous.

The Fat Car - for today's over - inflated culture

But onward....    The exhibits are not labelled.  Each visitor is issued an iPhone and earphones upon arrival.  You press the X key so it can locate where you are and load information about the exhibits that you are near.  When you click on the image of what you're looking at, basic info such as the title, artist, medium, and creation date come up.  Additional info may be available including ideas, curator's explanation, art wonk's comments, and/or audio commentary or music.  Sort of cool if you really like technology but at times you spend a lot of time scrolling because of the open architecture.  Apparently some of the iPhones are disappearing....

The 400 exhibits (Walsh's favorites) range from traditional art and artifacts to really, really weird stuff.  One exhibit entitled "Cunts" is 150 plaster casts of women's private parts, women of all sizes, ages, and races.  "Cloaca" is nicknamed the "poo machine" because it represents the human digestive system.  It is fed twice a day and poops everyday at 3 pm.  There were many multimedia exhibits (mostly having to do with some form of sex or nudity), some shown on ceilings with bean bag chairs for viewers' comfort.  A cool exhibit "Bit.fall" featured a 2-story waterfall that spells out random words.

Hobart is the biggest city in Tasmania with about 200,000 population.  It's also the last stop before Antartica and many expeditions pick up their last provisions here.  Despite its small size, there's a lot happening here.  Fleet Week coincided with the Wooden Boat Festival.  Visitors were able to tour a Navy ship, view scores of wooden boats both life-sized and miniature, learn how to build and maintain a wooden boat, and enjoy food booths and live music.  The weeky Salamanca Market on Saturday added to the festive atmosphere.


I had a great time in Hobart.  Cheers!
Cyn

Aussie sailors at attention 

Australian industry

G'day!

Resting elephant seal

I forgot to mention earlier that a female (or juvenile male) elephant seal beached itself on our beach for 48 hours.  We went to visit it several times as did the Conservation Park ranger who also put a sign up advising onlookers not to get too close.  It was about 10' long and its right eye was very bloodshot.  We thought maybe it was sick and dying but after 1 day, it moved itself further onto the beach and into the grassy area.  The next day it moved back onto the sand and a few hours later, it was off the beach.  I guess it just needed a rest.  Apparently it is very unusual for any seals to beach themselves here.

 Well, gotta keep movin' on.   I was fortunate that our host helped me and Sarah, the English wwoofer, hitch a shuttle bus and catamaran tourboat ride all the way into Hobart so that I could do some sightseeing before traveling to Northern Tasmania.   Looked for dolphins but didn't see any.

Tasman Bridge - closest 2 pylons replaced after 1975 disaster

Interesting piece of history:  on a foggy January 1975 night, a bulk carrier with 10,000 tons of zinc ore aboard hit 2 of the pylons supporting the Tasman Bridge.  A 127 meter section, 3 spans, fell into the river and onto the deck.  Seven crew were trapped and killed when the ship sank within 35 minutes.  Four cars drove over the edge killing 5 people.  Two cars hung over the lip; after reaching safety, the occupants warned other drivers saving several lives.   The carrier remains underwater.  It took almost 3 years to restore the bridge; the pile caps supporting the 18th and 19th pylons are larger than the original ones.  We were lucky with the Oakland Bridge incident a few years ago.

Zinc ore carrier being unloaded

Zinc processing plant

We passed the zinc processing plant that the carrier was headed toward.  Australia is very rich in minerals and is the world's top, second, or third producer and/or exporter of opals (95%), coal, lead, gold, nickel, uranium, zinc, iron ore, copper, bauxite/aluminum, and silver. It also has the third largest commercially-viable deposits of diamonds (after Russia and Botswana) and produces oil shale, petroleum, and natural gas.

We also passed the long boathouses of International Catamarans Tasmania, the market leader builder of high speed ferries, the ferries that I've been riding on.  With all the islands around here and most Aussies living close to the coasts, there's a high need for high speed car and passenger ferries for work and for pleasure.

I spent a few days in Hobart just relaxing and siteseeing.  More about that in my next post.

Cheers!
Cyn

All around the world

Graham, our host, with his wwoofers

G'day!
We currently have 5 female wwoofers here. Each of us came on different days. We have an Englishwoman, 2 Germans, 1 Japanese and me. Two Taiwanese girls as well as a Spanish guy with his Dutch girlfriend, all ex-wwoofers, live nearby and wwoof informally here. (They are all 26-29 years old except me and a 22 year old.) One night with our hosts and their son, we were 11 at table representing 8 different countries. Learning about other cultures takes a lot of time, especially when you have to repeat your words slowly and/or have to find different words to convey your meaning. We have concluded that Australian and English are more similar than American, Asian languages are very difficult to learn, and Asians have a harder time learning Australian/English/American. 

Cloudy Bay and Lagoon

I've also learned a lot of history. Here's a synopsis. Bruny Island is named after Bruni D'Entrecasteaux, the French explorer who discovered in 1792 that it was an island and not part of the mainland of Van Diemen's Land (Dutch), now Tasmania. He also has the D'Entrecasteaux Channel named after him. Adventure Bay, where I am staying, was named by Captain Furneaux (English) in 1773 after his ship, the Adventure. Captain Cook (on the Resolution 1777) and Captain Bligh (on the Bounty 1788, on the Providence and Assistant 1792) are among early visitors here. Both have numerous landmarks and memorials named after them. The berry farm is right across the street from a Conservation Area called Two Tree Point with a wonderful beach, the outlet of Resolution Creek, giant kelp beds, and great tidepooling rocks. The two trees are in a picture drawn during Captain Cook's first landing; the two trees are thought to be at least 300 years old.

Can you find the seastars and anemone?
The seastars have more than 6 arms each.

Being so close to the beach is great. After work, all I have to do is go over the road (cross the street) and I'm at the tidepools where I can find anemone (including the red Actinia tenebrosa and the shell-grit Oulactis muscosa), sea stars, sea squirts, sponges, little crabs, shrimp, chitons, various snails/screws/whelks, limpets, barnacles (including gooseneck), mussels, periwinkles, encrusting sponges and lichen, Neptune's necklace, etc. I can spend hours tidepooling. And I'm not collecting shells cuz I don't want to carry them for 9 months and risk them breaking.

Watarah anemone - Actinia tenebrosa

One night, we walked over the road at 9:30 pm to see the fairy penguins (Udyptula minor novaehollandiae). The 12" high penguins spend the day in the water. At dusk, they waddle from the water and across the beach to where their chicks await in their burrows in the sand dunes and among the rocks. We waited a little while and sure enough, the penguins braved the beach gauntlet to go regurgitate for their chicks. We had 2 torches for our group of 7. Red cellophane over the light seems to affect the penguins less and we couldn't take pictures because the flashes would disturb them. Pretty cool!

Nudibranch?  Looks like one to me.

Bruny Island really is gorgeous. White sand beaches, sheer cliffs, numerous coves and bays, tiny and large islands, sand bars and rocky outcrops and some of the cleanest water in the world. On Sunday we went to the Bruny Island Lighthouse, about an hours' drive away. The Lighthouse was built in 1836 using convict labor. The light was decommissioned in 1996 and replaced with a solar powered automatic light. We stopped at Cloudy Bay at the entrance to Cloudy Lagoon. If it weren't only 50*, it could have been a tropical island Paradise. We clambered onto the rocks and tidepooled. The water is so clear that I had to double check what was under water and what wasn't. I've gotten my shoes wet several times. I saw what I think is a nudibranch. I need one of my Marine Biology classmates to confirm this.

The weather's a little weird though. Wait 5 minutes and the weather will change. At one point, it was 8* C (46*ish F) when we were in the rainforest area of the island. Later, we had hail. Lucky for us, each time we got to a scenic turnout, it wasn't raining. It's supposed to be summer here! The weather really does change constantly. Most days we have sun, clouds, sprinkles, and downpours. One day we even got a huge rainbow that lasted a very long time. Temps have ranged from highs in the teens (50 - 60s F) to upper 20's (lower 80s F).

An ideal South Pacific island beach if the temps get above 75*

I'm staying in a caravan about 150' from the main building. The caravan has a double bed on one end (mine) and a set of bunks with a banquette and table opposite. The other end has a small kitchen. However, the caravan doesn't have electricity. We don't spend much time there and we have a couple of candles and the torches we use to light our way from the main building. Although the caravan's supposed to be insulated, it's been really cold at night. Socks and sweats over PJs cold. But when I'm snuggled and warm, I can listen to the sound of the surf, the wind howling, or the cow chewing its cud.  Mostly its the sound of the surf, thankfully.  Good thing, too, that my roomies don't snore.

The water is cold, looks like a blue rainbow, and is so clear!

Mainland Australia has been dealing with extensive massive flooding since December, a cyclone last week, and now huge bushfires in 2 states. Australia truly is a land of extremes. Hope all is calm in your neck of the woods.


Cheers!
Cyn

Bruny Island

G'day!

Beach at Adventure Bay

I'm wwoofing at Bruny Island Berry Farm.  It's the only berry farm on Bruny Island and it's a pick your own as well so it is very popular.  The cafe makes and serves berry parfaits, champagne jelly (jello) with berries, berry cake,  scones (what we would call biscuits) and pancakes topped with whipped cream and berries, and other berry goodies.  Valhalla ice cream and sorbets are yummy; I have chocolate and a different berry flavor every day.   Berry milkshakes and smoothies and toasted croissants with cheese are also served.  The only thing I have to do with the cafe is pick the berries they use.  And eat and drink its wares.

Low tide between South Bruny Island and Penguin Rock

The hosts, Graham and Kathryn, are terrific.  I arrived on Sunday, 31 January and immediately got involved in preparations for a tapas party to say goodbye to a Spanish wwoofer/employee, Johnny, who is leaving after 2 1/2 months.   Johnny and his Dutch girlfriend, Lotta, prepared a feast of tapas for 20 people, including gazpacho that was heavenly.  My first wwoofing job was to go gather mussels with Johnny.  You just walk along the rocks looking for large mussels and twist them off the rocks.  There were oysters too but they require hammers and screwdrivers to open.  My second job was to clean the mussels.  Not quite as fun and there were a lot of 'em. 

On Tuesday morning we got up at 7 am to go fishing.  We were out on Adventure Bay for about 2 hours and caught 18 squid and one couta, a long thin bony fish.  We were trawling with squid lures on fishing poles and didn't have to wait very long in between bites.  Kana, a Japanese wwoofer, got squirted right in the face as Graham was warning her to not bring it in too quickly. Luckily, they mostly squirted water at this stage.  Apparently most of their ink was expelled while we were reeling them in.   After that, we let them dangle a rod's length away until they squirted, then we brought them in and put them in the bucket.  The largest squid we caught had a body with iridescent skin that was about 14" long with tentacles at least that long again.  Then we had to clean them.  Again, not quite as fun and there were a lot of 'em.  But what an experience!! 

We also saw albatross, cormorants, and oystercatchers.  Did I mention that it rained on and off beginning when we arrived at the beach to launch the boat?  And that the boat's motor quit suddenly?  I thought perhaps my bad luck with boats was continuing, but the engine did restart so we didn't have to paddle.  And although I was slightly nauseous, it was manageable.  Warm showers and hot tea warmed us up nicely.

White wallaby - abound here

Today, Wednesday, we went walkabout on the Grassy Point track parallel to the coast.  We walked out to Penguin Rock, which doesn't have any penguins (any more?).   Beyond Penguin Rock and Adventure Bay is open ocean.   We saw kelp and sea lettuce in the water; we saw a black tiger snake and 2 brown wallabies along the track.  Apparently all snakes in Tasmania are venomous and there are no kangaroos on Bruny Island, only different species of wallabies.  We were on the lookout for white wallabies, a species endemic only to Bruny Island.  We didn't see any but Graham took us to where we saw several.  These wallabies are not albino; they would hold still until we crept to within 10 feet of them and then hop away when we got a step or two closer.  I've also seen heaps of black rabbits and brown rabbits.

Wwoofing work includes picking strawberries, boysenberries, and youngberries each morning.   The raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and other berries are done.  The only problem with picking  strawberries is that they are very low plants and it's hard on my back (and on the others' too even though they are much younger than me).  And the cane berries are prickly. Weeding is another regular chore.  However,  we don't work at any job for more than 90 minutes and garden less than 4 hours per day.  Pretty easy gig. 

Each of us were able to drive the tractor around the property.  I don't know if it's true with all of this type of equipment but it didn't seem to mind driving in second gear from a full stop.  And the other girls never stalled it despite never having driven manual gears before and barely ever driving anything at all.  So now I've driven a tractor and a ride-on mower.  And I still haven't had to mow grass!  I'm trying to keep to my goal of never mowing a lawn my whole life.

View from front of Berry Farm- Duck pond, road, then beach

Internet service is really slow here as well.  So I will be loading minimal pix until I get to where reception is better.   Gung Hay Fot Choy!!!  Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit.  We are having potstickers tonight thanks to 2 girls from Taiwan.  They are making the wrappers by hand because there are no wrappers at the general store (although it has seemingly everything else imaginable).  I will be helping to fill them.

Cheers!

Cyn