We have spent he last two weeks in Swanbourne with our 4th WWOOF host, and the work was not exactly what we thought it would be. We actually spent the majority of our time at the host's cottage, in Yunderup, about an hour south of the city on an island in the middle of Mozzie-country. Our host was quite excited to find that Jason had been an architect back home and has such a wide construction background, so she put his skills to work! We spent a few ten-hour days renovating the cottage; tearing down walls, building kitchen units, ripping up floors, and other odd things that needed doing. Needless to say she was thrilled with the work we did, and Jason even hand-drafted some drawings that she can take to an engineer in the future!
While we were there, we were constantly under attack my mosquitos. You couldn't do anything outdoors without a swarm of mozzies following you everywhere, and we were warned to watch out for ones potentially carrying Dengue fever, or Ross River virus... not that we knew how to tell! And to escape the mozzies and the heat, we thought we would sleep in our tent which is nice, breezy mesh under normal circumstances. But, the first night we slept outside it was actually hotter at 3am than it was when we went to sleep, try 33 degrees! And humid to boot. No sleep that night, just lots of sweat. The next night was noticeably cooler, but around midnight we were wakened to the lovely sound of something screaming and squealing across the river. This went on for hours, and we still have no idea what it actually was. We played a recording that we took during our sleeplessness to a few locals, and the first said bandicoot. The next said it might have been possums. There are probably a few more it could have been, like quolls, or maybe a quenda, I guess we'll never know. Whatever the case, we were very thankful to get away from the mozzies and back to the city and the comfort of a real bed :)
Because of our long days there, we banked up enough hours to take Wednesday to Sunday off! So we spent some time relaxing, and lots of time in Fremantle, which is a very short train ride away and full of markets and interesting shops. After getting to know some of the folks employed at Didgeridoo Breath, namely a guy named Elliot, we were invited to a concert being held in the shop on Friday night featuring a didgeridoo player named Si. When we showed up a bit early for the concert, we were welcomed with some beers, some jams, and some more musicians. We had the chance to meet Si before the show, as well as his drummer, Martin, who runs a lot of the drumming and hand drumming scene around Freo. When it came for the concert, the guys at Didgeridoo Breath were opening, and they invited us to play a set with them! Of course we jumped at the chance, and after two pieces they asked us if we'd like to play a piece of our own. We played some Kuku, Jason on jembe and me on Dundun. So much fun! Then the real concert started, and Si told some great stories of how he came to play didgeridoo, and of trying to hitchhike from Fremantle to India. Once some of the serious beats started, he actually invited Jason and I back up to play again! There were so many bodies dancing and moving and sweating, it was incredible. As I stood playing Dundun, the sweat was pouring down my face, dripping from my nose and chin. It was certainly a highlight of our trip so far, and we made some amazing connections in musicians and friends. We got lots of videos, and the guys at Didge Breath took some good ones too, so we'll certainly have the link soon. We spent the next day with Si, Martin, and some of their friends, playing West African rhythms (finally!) and eating some great food. We've found our element at last :)
Yesterday we have made our way on to our 5th host, at an apiary. We've already got some photos, but for now here are some pictures from the horse farm we've finally gotten to upload. Check them out and we'll post again soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment