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.