Well, not exactly half a bee, but lots of them. The next place we stayed at was a farm near the town of Walpole and the Valley Of The Giants. The main things the farm produces are honey, and fresh water crayfish called marron, which are similar to lobster.
The reference to erik as I'm sure you all know is from a monty python song.
One more week of WWOOFing and we would be in Albany, I'd decided to go and stay in a hostel once I got there but in the mean time we had a pleasant few days with Tom and Karen Pascoe and their kids Megan and Brian.
Karen was actually a WWOOFER herself, only she forgot to leave, and shes been on the farm for around 6 years. Her and Tom got married 1 year ago and their two kids are 2.5 (Brian) and almost 4 (Megan). Interestingly, since Karen is German they decided to bring up their kids bilingually so both of the little ankle biters can demand attention in two languages.
Naoko had been very keen to learn about the bees on the farm, thats the reason we visited in actual fact. So the day after we arrived she went off for a whole day playing with the bees.
Hmmm, well, I had a hugely witty and entertaining post but the browser seems to have swallowed it so you'll have to make do with this.
Farm good. Ate Marron. Went to the Valley Of The Giants Treetop Walk, walked among the treetops. Left.
Oh alright, I'll elaborate. Karen and Tom grow most of the food they eat, so we had various bits of meat, bacon that tom killed and cured himself, chickens and best of all Marron, fresh from their dam. A marron looks very much like a sinister lobster, being quite dark in colour, but then again, I can't remember what a live lobster looks like so it might just look like a lobster. I've never eaten lobster either, but I'm assured that marron tastes like a sweeter version. I can confirm however, that it is very nice.
We actually spent most of our time on the farm with Karen and Tom, who were more than happy to blether away for hours as we did bits of work here and there, we did manage to struggle out and do a few tourist things, including a couple of scenic drives and a trip to the giant tingle tree, which is hollow and large enough to park a small car inside.
The sightseeing highlight of the stay was the Treetop walk though. Its a walkway supported by rusty(the sign assured us its supposed to be like that) metal pylons that meanders through the treetops around 40m above the ground. We had a pleasant mornign admiring the view there just looking at the scenery.
Anyway, after about a month of doing WWOOFing I had become a bit bored with weeding, so I decided to stay a few days in Albany. Naoko was going to continue WWOOFing nearby and we could still meet up and go and see stuff together but I wanted to experience the whole stereotypical backpacking lifestyle a little, oh yeah, and go to the pub. You see the problem with owning a car and living at farms miles out of town is that it makes it a bit pointless going to the pub, particularly when your travelling companion can only drive automatics. So I was looking forward to staying a hundred yards from the nearest pub.
Posted by Craig at December 16, 2003 02:07 AMYou want to get rid of your car and buy a horse instead. Just imagine, ride to the pub on your horse. Then drink as much as you want. At the end of the night, untie your horse and say "Home!", and trust that your horse doesn't have a strong sense of sarcasm.
Can you get done for being drunk in control of a horse? Do people do this already in Oz?
Posted by: Andrew Birkett at December 18, 2003 05:43 PMErik's not half a bee! *winks*
Posted by: christina at December 20, 2003 10:41 AM