Cosmic planting!

Luke (centre) winning medal for best and fairest play
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G'day all, greetings from down under!

Well its our last day in Adelaide today. Have spent the past week on another organic farm WWOOFing. I will tell you about that in a bit, but first I will recap since our last entry...

Well from Sydney we headed 12 hours west to Melbourne where the sun was shining. Much needed after a week of wet weather in Sydney (come on, isn't the sun supposed to shine all the time in Oz!). There we spent one night in the city centre having abit of an explore. Melbourne is a really cool city with loads of little laneways that have heaps of cool little cafes and restaurants on. The next day we were met by my Auntie Maureen and Uncle Mick who have lived in Australia for the past 40 or so years. It was really nice to see them as I've probably only met up with them a handful of times in my lifetime. They took us back to their place in Boronia (Melbourne suburbs) and we stayed for a few days. The scenery around Melbourne is beautiful with the Dandenong mountain ranges and native forest - they took us for trips to see the sights including to the yarra valley another wine producing region and we got to sample yet more wine!! We have not turned into alcoholics I assure you! We also had a really great evening with my cousins  and their families. They made us feel really welcome and were really keen to hear all about our travels and our lives (I have only met my cousins once before in 2002). We also went along to an Aussie Rules Anzac day special football game in which Luke my cousin Dean's 22 year old son Luke was the star of the match scoring most of the goals!! It was fun to watch, a very fast game and something Andy had really wanted to see whilst we were over here.

Sorrento back beach
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From Boronia we headed down to Mick and Maureen's beach house in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula (an hour or so from their main home). Sorrento is flanked by a calm 'front beach' which has jetties and a myriad of sailing boats mored there and a tumultuous and rugged 'back beach'. Mick and Maureen let us stay in their gorgeous home with sea views for a week or so and it was just what the doctor (Dr McKechnie) ordered. We happened to hit our 'half way' point through travels whilst there (5.5 months to go!) and it was just what we needed -to rest and recuperate before heading off for more adventures. A chance to cook ourselves some good food, to sleep in comfy beds, watch TV (including Australia's big brother!!) and generally enjoy creature comforts. We also took some lovely walks along both the beaches.

Farmer Andy!
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After our time recharging we stopped briefly to say goodbye to my family before heading on once again to a new city.

We arrived in Adelaide 11 days ago and after spending a few nights in the city,  sorting out our future plans to visit the outback and meeting up with Bec's cousin Fran for a coffee (her and her husband have recently emigrated here and seem to be enjoying the sunny way of life so far). We headed up into the Adelaide hills for another week WWOOFing.

We were very apprehensive after our mixed experience in NZ and had our fingers very much crossed that our new family would be welcoming and not too slave driving. It turned out to be a really interesting week. The family were thankfully welcoming and we learnt loads! They run their farm on biodynamic principles, which in brief terms is following the teachings of an Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (who was writing in early 20th century). Who advocates farming in harmony with the environment and planting crops at certain times during the month according to the position of the moon. Steiner was also keen on building up the soil by using dead organic matter, and created a special preparation '500', that is a mixture of herbs and plants and is left to prove in cow horns for a period of time. Was all really interesting and abit mystic! Old Steiner also theorized on a whole manner of things including education, and the family's daughter attends a school based on his principles which are about letting the child develop and become more him/herself and follow their own talents and dreams without the stifling structure and curriculum of a mainstream school.

The food on the farm was amazing!! They reared cows for meat and had a veggie garden. The beef was the best we have ever tasted. They roasted off huge great joints and we enjoyed it in sandwiches for days after - yum!! Daily baked bread again which was delicious (I'm def getting a bread maker on return to the UK) and freshly ground coffee! A good reward for a days work. We spent the week digging holes (my god the ground is hard in South Australia) for fruit trees, making compost (there is an art to it), moving logs, seeding paddocks, preparing veggie beds, milking a cow by hand, amongst other things. We learnt that farm life can be really tough - especially if you are waiting for rain during a drought (although I guess this isn't something we need to worry much about living in the UK)! And think we have scaled back our organic plans for when we get home! Maybe a veggie garden, some chickens, and a few pigs would be manageable!!?

We are back in the city today before our big outback adventure. We take a train north to Alice Springs tomorrow morning - it takes 19 hours. We then have a couple of days before heading out on a 5 day 4x4 small group tour to camp in the bush and see some of the natural wonders of that region including Uluru, Kings Canyon, MacDonnell ranges and to visit some aboriginal communities and learn more about their culture and hopefully some bush craft!! Ray Mears eat your hear out!!

Anyway, will let you know how it goes and how many kangaroos we manage to spear!

Much love your poo shovelling friends, Char and Andy xxx