Gingin, WA

Here's a video illustrating some of the experiences we had while staying with our first WWOOF host in Gingin, West Australia. It features some chooks (which are what they call chickens, for all you Canadians), some Demera sheep which we had the pleasure of feeding and also witnessed the new male lambs getting the chop. Our trip to the Moore River Park is also here, a beautiful beach area where the Moore River breaks into the Indian Ocean. Hope you enjoy it, and keep a look out for some more videos that include Chloe the Joey!

Click Here for the Vid!

This is a vid from when we first got to Australia, the audio is not good.. I will try to figure out why butyou can at least see what it was like sleeping in the Sydney Airport!

Click Here

Finally, some Hippies!

I'm definitely starting to feel like a traveler, and really sinking in to this laid back life style. So far at the olive grove, we've been doing something different every day, which is really refreshing and never gets too tedious. The first couple days we were picking caper berries and tomatoes, then we spent a few hours for a couple more days tying up the tomato plants and pruning them. We've been feeding the many birds nearly every morning, we've done some vegetable planting, some weeding, some composting, and making lots of sun dried tomatoes. There's always more to do, but it doesn't feel rushed or stressful at all.
Yesterday being Saturday, we took a half day and walked to the ocean for a bit of an adventure. It was about an hour to get there, but there's something about the red dirt, the sparse greenery and the vastness of the landscape that makes it very relaxing. We traversed the sand dunes on the way to the beach, taking care to watch for snakes and things along the way, of which we saw only one, minding his own business in the bush. We made sure to take our time to take in all the beautiful scenery, and the scale of the Indian Ocean in the distance on our way to the water. As we got closer the weather started to change to the overcast and rainy side, so we didn't linger long, but stopped to notice some beautiful sea shells and coral skeletons that had washed up on the shore. It still seems so bizarre to me to look out at the ocean and see giant ships in the distance, the kind that would carry some sort of cargo, not just fishing boats any more. The waters are very deep out there, and we hear it's a pretty healthy ecosystem full of fish and reefs and sharks.

When we arrived back at the olive grove, Eric the German informed us that we had been invited to a local party that night! He was working at the Farmer's Market in the morning, and got to talking to someone going to this get-together. When he mentioned that there were two Canadian musicians back at the farm with him, they extended us an invitation to come and hang out, play some music and meet some people. And we did! There were actually two other Canadians there, one from Caledon East believe it or not, and the other from Vancouver. We met some Kiwis, a South African, and a lot of people local to Geraldton. We made a connection with a Dutch didgeridoo player who had brought a nice instrument with him, and got to know a bit more about the area and the people from it. It was such a nice relaxing atmosphere, that we kind of lost track of time and didn't leave until 1am. Well worth being a bit tired today.

This morning we tried our luck at busking for the first time here in Oz! Managed to rack in enough coin in three hours to cover one of our bus fares that we paid to get up here, I'd say it was pretty good. So many people were really interested in the Oscar Drum, and I think we may have managed to get some business in Oscar's direction. The didgeridoo is something most people here are more used to, but the combination worked well and it was nice to just sit and meet some people and make some music together for a few hours. To get there, we had to borrow our host's car... which means Jason got to drive on the left side of the road for first time today! We're still alive, so all was successful. We've been slowly getting used to it from the passenger seat, so it really wasn't that bad a transition.

So it's been a week full of firsts! We're currently in the process of figuring out where to head next. If we are still in this area in a couple weekends, we've been lucky enough to have been invited to go to Kalbarri a bit further North with some new friends, so we'll see what happens. The plan now is to start heading south, back towards Perth to hopefully collect our drum really soon! Fingers crossed. We'll also have to find someone who wouldn't mind having us for the Christmas season as well, so we'll see how it goes! Worst case scenario, our host now is super grateful to have us, so we could stay put. We'll let you know.

Hunt For Sea Turtles

So I managed to get the last vid from Maui uploaded and its probably my fave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SepzKUzZU8M&feature=youtu.be

Update!

Hello All! So we were trying to wait to get the videos to put with the posts, but due to the fact that we are working on remote farms in WA it can take hours to upload a 3 minute video. So we are going to continue with the posts then add the vids when we get some better internet access. So to update....... We had a great time staying with our first WWOOF host; we spent 2 weeks there and learned a lot about the Australian culture and history, also a lot about how precious water really is. Every place we have visited has had extensive rain water harvesting systems, as well as well water, and there is still always the risk of running out of water. We took a 4.5 hour bus ride up the west coast to Geraldton, where our current host met us and gave us a tour. We are currently staying at a farm that has 800 olive trees as well as caper berry plants, carob trees and a couple organic veggie patches. On top of this they have chooks, (chickens) some goats and around 500 different birds including about 35 different types of parrots. So far the majority of our work has consisted of taking care of the birds and making sun-dried tomatoes by the bucket loads. The host has a booth at the local farmers market where he sells olives, olive oil, capers, and starting this week, sun-dried tomatoes. The host is going to take us to the market this weekend so we can try our first attempt at Australian busking. Then on Monday we will be going into a local all ages school to spend the day with the music teacher working with the different ages of kids, (the wife of the host couple is the principal). The whole time I will be thinking about our former music teacher and good friend, Brett, we will make you proud! So that's pretty much the update, other than that we have just had the sad realization of all the stuff we forgot at the last host's house, but we have been in contact and we will be getting all that stuff back.

Hope all is well in Canada, so far every day is at least in the 30 degree range and I have an awesome farmers tan forming! Enjoy your snow.

Aussie Update

Hello All! Jason and I are currently WWOOFing in Gingin, West Australia, and things are goin amazingly. We have been working hard, doing lots of sightseeing, but haven't got the greatest internet situation at the moment. Videos will definitely be coming soon! We've got lots to share with you, we've been doing our best to record our experiences and take lots of photos. We'll post more as soon as we can :)

Lanai snorkeling!

So we finally got to do some snorkeling and it was an awesome experience! We took a 1.5 hour drive to Lahaina (the other side of the island) which is where the tourist side of Maui is. Once there we boarded a boat tour to Lanai where we got to get out and start snorkeling. There were so many different types of fish and beautiful reef to be found. After about an hour in the water we got back on the boat and set back to Lahaina. Both Laurin and I (as well all most the people in the boat) were fighting back sea sickness when we came across a big pod of spinner dolphins, about 60 individuals we guessed. We followed them for a bit then got back on our way. Once back on shore we saw the sites for a bit longer, had the most amazing sorbetto, then made our way back to the retreat! Personally my favorite day in Maui!

Here is the vid of our adventures:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hGsEwre7Wh8