WEEK EIGHTEEN

My final days in Tassie were upon me, and my first task for Monday was to pick more boysenberries – that hadn’t got boring yet?! I got a good few more buckets from it, but there were still loads more to collect, but that was a job for the next Wwfooer, who was arriving the day after I was leaving, lucky them! My host took the kids into Deloraine in the afternoon, and I was given the task of shelling the beans that I had collected before, and the washing up. I also gave myself the job of setting a fire, it was a chilly day and I thought I would at least try it so the house was warm when my host came back, and the range was hot enough to cook some dinner in. After a bit of playing, I had actually created a decent fire, so decided to try and bake a pie in my newly warmed cooker. So I set to work making a berry pie, and popped it in the oven when it was ready. I knew the cooker wasn’t as hot as it was meant to be, but I just figured I could leave it in for longer. My plan kind of worked, but it took slightly longer than I first predicted, and five hours later the pie was cooked, well, it was cooked enough to eat anyway! Stupid bloody solid-wood fire rayburn – there is no way to regulate the temperature! But, it did taste pretty bloody good, so I suppose it was a success in the end. That was pretty much all I did during the day, apart from a couple of rounds of washing up – ahhh, life in the country, always a party!

Tuesday was my final day there, and I decided to finish up some stuff I had started, so went back to the berry picking, just one more time. I was pretty chuffed it was my final time I was going to be doing this again, and once again my mind wandered to the thought of having to do it for three months, and I was pretty grateful I had managed to get most of it out the way, and hadn’t had to completely bore myself to tears! And with one more thing playing on my mind, before it got too hot, I got the lawnmower out again and finished cutting the grass. A ride on mower really would make the job so much easier, but, I knuckled down and did it the old fashioned way, but with my i-pod blasting in my ear, I hadn’t quite managed to avoid the time when the sun really comes out, but with so little left to do I just got on with it. I did see a wild kangaroo though, in the field behind the ne I was mowing, and got very excited and just watched it for while and it bounced off into the distance. God I love them! To reward myself once I had finished I lay out in the sun, and had a cup of tea and just enjoyed where I was. I also did some boring things like put some washing on, as I was going to have to wear most of them on the plane, and I thought it might make the experience slightly less terrible if the clothes were at least clean! Before it got dark I went around and took some photos of the farm and the animals as I realised I hardly had any at all, so set off across the field to see the goats and take some photos. I made dinner that night, as it was the final night I was there, and created some kind of bake thing, with pumpkin mash and cheese on top. It really was just quite random, but it turned out to be really tasty, so had that and the rest of the berry pie. We didn’t last long after we finished that, so I finished the night writing in his ‘Wwoofing Guest Book’ which was actually a really nice idea, so I wrote my little bit, and finished packing my stuff so I was ready to go in the morning. I had managed to survive my time here, and had really enjoyed myself in the process, which is nice too! Oh, and, as I was writing in his guest book he did the most important thing of my whole time there, and signed off on my form for my new visa. Hurray! Only a fortnight left to go and then I can apply for it!

It was an early start the next day, but it didn’t seem so bad as I knew it was the start of my journey back to Melbourne. By 9am my host had dropped my off in Deloraine, ready to get the bus into Launceston. With my ticket bought, I still had a while to wait so decided to go and get some brekkie from Woolworths – this didn’t rally turn out to be very good breakfast food, and I indulged in an iced coffee (the first one for a fortnight) and some freshly baked cookies. Ahhh, how I love junk food! I had missed sugar so much! As the bus got closer to the city I stared to get phone reception, which was the first time in quite a while, and when we got there I called Ross to say Happy Birthday, and to actually get some use out of my phone – oh how I missed it! I had a good few hours to waste before I had to go to the airport, so off I pottered to the tourist information to find out what I could do. As soon as I explained my situation the guy behind the counter told me to go to Cataract Gorge. Me, Will and Toni had tired to go there before but as we had the dogs we couldn’t, so I decided this was my chance, and I would go there. With a little map of directions I dumped my bags at the left luggage at the bus station ad headed off. The guy told e it was only a 15 minute walk to the gorge, I didn’t quite believe him as at the point we were in the middle of a city, but, after about 20 minutes (I stopped off at a sweet shop on the way!) I had got to the start of the walk. Awesome. No one had actually mentioned to me that there were 2 different walks, so when I got to the first sign pointing off the path I took it. And so I walked. And walked. And was glad I didn’t have my bags with me. And walked. And then it got hot and I still seemed to be scrambling over rocks. On more than one occasion I thought about just turning round, and giving up, but I kept going, and after about 40 minutes I arrived at the actual gorge. I had no idea it was going to be so developed, and it had swimming pools off the water, and a café, and a gift shop. The best thing of all though was the chair lift from one side of the water to the other. So, I went for a little look around the gift shop, and went a bit silly getting people souvenirs – Emily got a cuddly toy Tasmanian devil, and a book about them, I got a dodgy sew-on patch with a Tassie devil, and Mum got a pin badge with one on it – god they’re onto a winner there! With that done, I got an ice-cream, and contemplated getting the chair lift across, and walking back the other way. I really wasn’t sure as you can walk across too, but I decided I was on my holiday, and I may as well spend the $12 and get carried across. As I was discussing it with the man in the ticket booth, he told me that the walk on the other side of the river was much easier than the one I had just done, as it is flat and tarmacked. Well, I felt quite proud of myself for going the tricky way and not giving up, and with that I got my ticket and got in the line. As I was on my own I had to be in the chair on my own, which I have to say scared me a little bit as the whole thing was leaning to one side with me in it, but I was assured that it was safe, and got buckled in. It truly was the best way to travel across the water, and I got a great view along the river both ways, and as there had been so much rain over the last week or so it was thrashing through the rocks, and there were proper white water rapids, and as I admired these I wondered what would happen if the wire broke and I fell into it! Not the best thought, but I put it to the back of my mind, and proceeded to try and take a photo of myself, without dropping anything into the water. So, when I got to the other side I got off, and went for an explore of the beautiful old pagodas and bandstands, and seemed to keep going the long way as there were lots of peacocks everywhere, and my dislike of birds meant I couldn’t just walk past them I just had to turn around and go back the long way, only to be greeted by another one on another path. Damn you giant scary birds! I then decided it was time to go back to the City to I could have a beer before getting the bus to the airport and all that rubbish. So, I collected my bags form the station, and then went to get the bus, at which point I was accosted by Launceston’s resident weirdo. Awesome. And he was waiting for the bus too, I had no way to get away. And the obligatory small talk was made from there, until the bus arrived, and I had a chance to put my earphones in and get away. Once we got to the airport I had the fun task of trying to get my bag to under 7kg. which meant I had to wear a lot of clothes, and I went to prepare. So, a pair of leggings, a pair of shorts, a pair of thin trousers, a pair of jeans, four t-shirts, a cardigan, and a hoodie later I went to check in. Then I found out my bag only weighed 4kg, so I was wearing 3kg too much. Impressive! Then I got my bag searched for explosives – lovely – and funnily enough they didn’t find any. Then I got to enjoy an hour on a plane. Nothing more to say. When I eventually got back to Melbourne I had been travelling for 10 hours – insane! I could have gotten the boat in that time! I basically had a beer and when to bed, and enjoyed it, thinking that the next night I was going to be back in a tent.

The next morning I unpacked my stuff form Tassie, and packed my new bag, ready to go to Rainbow Serpent Festival. I ha no idea what it was, or what I was going to be doing there, but I was going to sell dumplings, and that’s all I knew. I also went to get some food to take with me, and avoided anything that would have to be cooked, or had the possibility of melting, as the next few days were meant to be pretty hot. Good festival weather though! Eventually I got the call that Tony was round the corner, and I grabbed all my stuff ready to go. It took two hours to get there, but when we did the whole set up of the festival was still going on, and it was all starting to look pretty good. I helped unpack the Ute when we got back to our spot, and then went to set up my tent. Sadly, the spot we had, right behind the catering, had no shade at all. Slightly rubbish. But, I got a good spot, and sorted everything out. The tent seemed much bigger than it did before, as it only had me in it. Once all that was sorted I went for a look about with two other people who were going to be working at the dumpling place too. To be honest they were quite annoying, and kept just wandering off, and made no attempt to speak English. Boring! Then the whole group of us, about 10 in total, headed into the nearest town to have a pub dinner. Once again had the joys of one choice, so found myself eating pasta and tomato sauce, not exciting, but not bad either. We also demolished a good few pitchers of beer. When we go back to the festival site we all went along to the Chai Tent, with some more beer (and then chai tea afterward s- I can’t resist!) and sat and watched the open mic stuff they had, until the early hours of the morning. It seemed pretty full even then, and at this point there were no punters on site at all! And then we went to bed, to enjoy the final night of silence before the 24 hour Sci-Trance started. Oh god, what had I got myself in for?!

As we had now got our roster for the next few days, I was free to go for a walk in the morning and go and have a look at everything now it was all set up. And, my first thought was that it was nowhere near as organized as Falls! It was all a bit chaotic, but worked in it’s own way, and the clothes and food stalls all seemed pretty bloody good. I already had my eye on a few things, but as it was only really the first proper day I was good, and didn’t buy anything. One of the more interesting points of this festival was that there were lots of workshops, and even a place you could go to get a massage. So, I went there straight away! All you had to do was wait in line, and then you got to chose what kind of massage, and got a number. All very easy. And, it wasn’t even crazy new-age hippies doing the sports massages, it was proper doctors. So I chose that, and sat down to wait. So, when I got called I was asked what part of my body was troubling me. And, when I replied ‘my lower back’ (probably what most people say) she started poking and prodding me, and getting me to try and touch me toes, and then came up with an explanation as to why my back was so knackered. Apparently my pelvis isn’t straight, so, it twists my whole spine out of whack. I wasn’t really convinced of it, - especially when she brought up ‘manipulation’ - doesn’t sound too comfy. But she got me to lie down on the bed, and tied me in a knot – at which point she applied some pressure to my shoulders and hips, and my back cracked in a way I have never heard it do before. And then she turned me round, and did it the other way, and I cracked again. And then I could touch my toes. Magic! It was absolutely incredible! So, with my new lease of life, I went back to our camp, and did a couple of hours of work. It is safe to say, at this point that all of the punters had taken a lot of drugs and were in no mood to eat. So, really I did very little, and just chopped some salad for a few hours. Can’t complain. Once I had finished my arduous shift I went for a bit of a dance, and headed in the direction of the ‘Playground Stage’ where Volgagrad (sp?) and the Space Cowboy were both on. These two acts were the only two I was really interested in for the whole weekend, so, I was going there for the whole night, and wasn’t planning on moving! And it was a great night, there were a few bands on, who were amazing, and then a few good old fashioned carnies. And, just to make the tent that little bit more homey, they had armchairs on a platform at the back, so once The Space Cowboy was on I went to sit down and enjoy his show, and, it seems, have my mind blown. Anyone who can bend a spoon with their mind, on stage, has my vote! Fantastic work! There is a reason he has a special place in my heart. And then, at some time in the early hours of the next day, I wandered back to my tent, past the ‘Market Stage’ which had started it’s music – some kind of techno stuff, I have no idea! – and it wasn’t going to stop for 72 hours. So I drifted off to sleep with the thumping bass of yet another annoying beat.

I actually slept surprisingly well, and felt well rested by the time I got up. As I didn’t have to work until that night my plan was to explore, and maybe get another massage! And once I was ready to go I was told about a pool party that the festival organised and decided that was a much better idea as it was already pretty hot! SO, I got my stuff, and headed to where the bus would pick us up, and take us to the pool. And, it seemed lots of other people had the same idea, so we all piled into the bus, and headed off. When we got to the little town, we all got chucked out the bus before we got to the pool, so had to try and figure out where we were to go from there. This did give me a chance to go to IGA and get some supplied for the day. So, I spent the afternoon swimming and lying in the sun, listening to music and eating watermelon – absolutely beautiful way to spend the day. I was having slightly too much fun to realise how stupidly hot it was, and by the time I was on the bus back to site, I had turned a rather interesting shade of red. Bugger. When I got back I had missed my chance to get another massage, so instead went to the Chai Tent and had an Iced Chai – dangerous! Bad combination, with my already existing obsessions with iced coffee and chai tea – combining the two could be fatal! And then I went to work, and once again did very little for a few hours , apart from stand around chatting and drinking beer, until Tony decided to close up, so we sat around and drank beer until it was bedtime. And the thumping music was still going.

I actually had a morning shift on Sunday, so I actually had to set my alarm and get up, which was fine, because it turned out that I did very little for the next few hours, apart from go and get breakfast for everyone, and drink far too many free coffees. Once again, no complaints here! I also gave in and bought some pretty awesome black trousers, which are lovely, but far to thick to even think about wearing in the heat, so I also bought some nice ¾ length trousers to wear then. So, for the rest of the day I just indulged myself. I went for another massage, and this time chose ‘Deep Tissue’ and then instructed the guy to do it ‘As hard as possible’. Normally this would have been a very good choice, however, when you have pretty intense sunburn developing, believe me, it is just like torture. Not so good. I felt like I had been beaten up. So, I then decided to get my face read – something I had never heard of, but was completely up for, and it was free, which is even better. And this is what they had to say:

Forehead - Creative

Hairline – Attention to detail but prone to daydreaming

Eyes – Welcoming

Eyelashes – Something happened in my past that affected me

Nose (shape)– Easily manipulated

Nose (width) – Need to listen to positive things people day about me

Philtrum (Bit between nose and mouth) – Have a negative image of myself

Mouth – Welcoming, but piercing means I keep people at a distance

Chin – Sensitive, but I put on a brave face

Ears – Good communication, but piercings mean I keep people at a distance

So, I’ll let someone else decide how accurate they are! Once the witchdoctors had done their work I headed off to the Chai tent again drinking too much Chai and listening to the music, I even got offered acid when I was there and politely declined it! But, I did had a little nap as I lay there, until I eventually gave in, and went to my tent. And the thumping music was still going, and driving me slightly mental. Just 5 minutes of silence would have been incredible, but it wasn’t possible, so I tried to get into the beat and fall asleep.