Thursday, July 2, 2009

Once you hear about the friendly neighborhood python, EVERYTHING looks like a snake

First off, I’d like to apologize for not blogging sooner. Our Australian hostels have been lacking in the internet/Wi-Fi department though, so it’s only 99.9% my fault. That being said, Australia is AMAZING!!

Right now I’m sitting in Laura’s and my double bed we share in our own little guest cottage on our Wwoof hosts’ 150 acre property located in Cooroy/Eumundi, Queensland. The property is unbelievable and offers picturesque views wherever you look. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning…

Tuesday, June 30th- July 9th (?) : Wwoofing in Cooroy/Eumundi
Our first day of wwoofing started with our bus ride to Cooroy. (Wwoof, by the way, stands for willing workers on organic farms and is a program designed to set up wwoofers with meals and accommodations in exchange for working 4-6 hours each day doing various tasks such as weeding, gardening, farming, tending to animals, cooking, or any other household chore.)Our host, Sandra, picked us up from the bus stop off a strip of an ordinary ugly highway, which was not at all predictive of the property we would arrive at just 10 minutes later. Sandra first dropped us off at our own cottage on the bottom of a hill, which led up to the main house, so we could drop off our HEAVY backpacks. She told us to take our time unpacking and invited us up to the house for some cake and fresh squeezed juice when we were ready. After snack time she showed us around the main house which consists of the house Sandra and her husband live in now and the attached cottage which used to be the main vacation house until they built their addition. Woofers normally stay in this cottage but we are staying in a different cottage bc Sandra’s daughter and another wwoofer are both coming to stay at the house this week in addition to Laura and me. So… Laura and I get the cottage at the bottom of the hill and with it come our own bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. (pictures soon to come on fb)

The most exciting part of the tour was when we went to feed the colt. On our walk down we noticed TWO KANGAROOS in the neighboring field!! So naturally after feeding the horse, Laura and I went to get our cameras and when we got back to take pictures they were gone :(

Just kidding! Not only were they still there, but they started boxing while we walked up, as if right on cue! I have a really poor quality video of it but hey, a crappy video of two kangaroos boxing the very first time you see them in the wild is better than none! (video also soon to come on fb)

Did I mention I had a panic attack on the first night after hearing stories all day about the many snake encounters on the property? Oh yes, there is an 8 foot python roaming the land (who has been known to like our porch), some poisonous brown snakes and black snakes (which, by the way, can kill you), and various other “friendly” snakes… Now you know how nice this house and family must be for me to have lasted more than 1 hour here, let alone 2 nights.
More to come…

Cheers!
Lindsay

The flight w-OZ AUS-some!

Wednesday, June 17th 2009: Laura and I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to catch our 7:25 flight from ft Lauderdale to Los Angeles. When we arrived in the LAX airport at 10am western time we were both well rested and ready to explore California for the day. (Our flight to Brisbane was at 11:30pm so we had plenty of time.) Laura’s sister Becky lives in Cali so she kindly picked us up from the airport and showed us around Santa Monica and Venice beach. We had BEAUTIFUL weather and I had a really great day sightseeing. After showing us around, Becky took us back to her boyfriend Franklin’s house where he graciously let us hang out, shower, and most importantly make our pre-flight mojitos with the fresh ingredients we had picked up at the Santa Monica farmers market earlier that day. The whole day made for a great start to our journey and we were excited to continue on to the next leg of our trip!

We had a quick bite to eat at In and Out burger (my first time eating there. YUMMMMM!) on the way to the airport. When we checked in at the counter the guy told us we were two of the last 10 ppl to check in for our flight so he couldn’t seat us together :/ But then he gave us hope by telling us we could ask the worker at the gate check-in counter, and so we did… Not only did we get to sit next to each other, but we also got to sit behind the bulkhead in the middle row which meant we had twice as much leg room as any other seat! WOOHOO! We slept, we ate, we watched a bad/not TOO bad movie (Confessions of a Shopoholic, starring the ever so wonderful Isla Fisher) and the time just FLEW by! ;)
Lookout Oz, here we come!!

(Itinerary thus far and for the upcoming weeks)
Friday, June 19th-24th 2009: Brisbane
Tuesday, June 24th-26th: Mooloolaba
Thursday, June 26th-30th: Noosa
Tuesday, June 30th-??? : Wwoofing in Cooroy/Eumundi
Sunday, July 12th: Coop arrives!! Stay in Gold Coast through 17th
Friday, July 17th-23rd: Cairns, Great Barrier Reef and Cape tribulation w/ coop.

To be continued… [maybe I’ll go back and talk about the places we’ve been so far but for now you can check out Laura’s blog for details: Laurastreitinaustralia.blogspot.com ]

Cheers,
Lindsay