Still very excited we drove together down to Clifton to visit a friend and enjoy some lovely homemade dinner with family and friends. What an awesome first evening, I felt like home. The beautiful pasta dish with loads of different flavours tasted so delicious I couldn’t stop eating. The fresh fruits for dessert were fabulous. We spend some time outside on the patio talking and enjoying a glass of wine. It couldn’t be better.
Driving down the road towards Cambewarra through the night was an awesome feeling, but we had to stop for a quick nap as we both were very tired and of course I didn’t want my host to fall asleep while driving. So after a few minutes we continued and arrived at the farm. I couldn’t see much in the dark night, but it felt great to drive down the alley towards the house.
At this point I want to apologise for my last short entry, I kind of wrote it in a rush before heading to the airport, so not much feeling went in there. But now I have time again.
Because it was already 2 am we fairly quickly went to bed. I planned to get up early and join my host in some farm activities. I did wake up around 7:30 and thought I could sleep another 30 minutes or so. Before I knew it, it was already 10:30 am. I jumped out of bed and got ready. I had a great breakfast with coffee in the most amazing garden, with birds flying around me and the sound of wind bells. I haven’t had that in such a long time, it feels like being home.
I joined her for some shopping. It was amazing to watch the people and how they treat each other. Everyone seems to know everyone around here and everything is so tangled with friends and family, so amazing. Listening to some of the conversations gave me a headache because I had to pay attention to all the names and who is related to who etc. And a lot of gossip is going on, very interesting to hear all of that….
After that we visited another part of the farm and met another family member and had a lovely cup of coffee together. Before we left we tried to put some fuel into a Saab, the setup of the station was pretty poor and we had to find a hose and piece it all together, the pump wasn’t working properly and I got a lot of petrol over me, suddenly we started to laugh about the whole situation. This is probably only funny for the people that were there…
The next day I woke up early and started the day again with a great breakfast :) I joined Cici on the paddock and started finally to do some work. We first had to put up a fence and I was responsible to remove the old wire and unhook them from the posts. After that I cut some new hooks for the new fence.
I realised very quickly that in this kind of work there is no pressure or deadlines, nothing can go wrong (not much at least) or be too late. If it is not done the same day, it will be finished the next day. I really could get used to this.
This was followed by a driving lesson for the 4WD quad, which we used to drive from the field back to the house or wherever we needed to be. It was so much fun driving the bike around, like a playing with a toy. We spend all day outside and I played in between with the dogs. I was very tired by the end of the day, but felt already that this was the right decision and that the change is certainly for the best. Before we left for home we jumped on the tractor and brought a hay ball to the cows, of course I had to jump into a big flat cow shit cake. I guess I will get used to that.
The following day, Tuesday, we started our day again with breakfast (YES I had breakfast for three days in a row and to be continued) and coffee. Cici showed me how to feed the Alpacas and chickens, something I am going to take over for the next few weeks, and collecting the eggs. We headed to the other part of the farm and after a very long chat with one of the workers I kind of got bored, I wanted to do something. So I just grabbed a broom and started to clean out the garage. A few things I lifted on to the truck for later to bring to a rubbish place.
Some friends of Cici joined us for lunch (leftovers) which took 2 hours. After that we wanted to do some more work on the field, but this was interrupted by a cow giving birth to a young calf. It took her nearly an hour and it was so fascinating to watch nature happening in front of me. Unfortunately the mother kept turning away, so that I couldn’t record it without scaring her. Luckily I was able to get some shots a few seconds after the birth. We all were very excited that all went ok and no vet was needed. I have as well a video of the first steps of the calf, but the connection here is so slow that it would take 645 minutes to upload it, so I will do that another time.
After now four days on the farm I consider myself very very lucky. I don’t have to get up at a certain time (even so I try to get up together with my host Cici) and have a fantastic breakfast every morning with a great cup of coffee, loads of fruits and the kitchen is available for cooking, which I did the last three evenings. I forgot how much fun it can be standing in the kitchen and cook relaxed a dinner.
Today I worked the first time very hard picking fireweed from the paddock for 7 hours; I feel every bone in my body and can’t wait to do more work. Such a great feeling not to smile to every grumpy customer and be nice to absolute assholes.
I can’t wait for the next few weeks and all the new things I am going to learn and experience. I probably forgot to mention a few things, so much happened (IN JUST FOUR DAYS!). But I do remember that Cici has a scale in her bathroom and I couldn’t resist getting on there. WOW I actually managed to put on 10 kilos since I started traveling and somehow I am sure I am not going to lose them while I am here on the farm.
I will keep you up to date with my simple life :) Miss and love you all my friends and family (P.S. I hope all my London peeps are ok with the riots going on; hope to read some updates from you soon).
Happy Travels :)
Wow I'm jealous - lots of food and driving around on a quad bike sounds amazing!!!!!
ReplyDelete