Hello everyone!

its been about a month or so since i last wrote a blog and i feel like i havent shared some really fun stuff from Malaysia and Singapore such as our pilgrimage to tea in the Cameron Highlands, the amazing Malaysian food we've eaten and some seriously weird encounters with wildlife. no time to write about all that as we are now in Australia.

after missing our flight from Singapore to Brisbane (got the times mixed up and arrived a day late at the airport!) we arrived in Australia only to be greeted by freezing weather, which i was not expecting. We spent enough time in Brisbane to sort out purchasing ourselves some sweet clothing (also found a few sweet hoodies in lost property) and get the wwoof book. sick of the hostel scene already (full of drunk people) we contacted The Wild Mountain trust which is up a mountain somewhere near Beau Desert and Rathdowney.

The journey to wild mountain was brilliant, first we took a local bus from Brisbane which took 1 and half hours and then waited outside a school for the next bus which turned out to be the school bus full of school kids. we drove for ages through the desert learning all about the school hunk, Darcy and why he had punched another boy. grew slightly worried when we spotted a car that had been tied up a tree and hoped that we werent being driven to our deaths (ive watched too many horror films). we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere and immediatly picked up by Joan, a lovely woman with a background working for NGO's and a great sense of humour. as we drove higher up into the mountain she pointed out birds, trees and talked to us about burning off and what the aim of wild mountains is.

NGO that was started by Richard and Susan Zoomers (also another man who lives elsewhere but supports the trust financially) with an aim to educate children and run volunteer programmes to teach people about sustainable living, etc.

when we reached our destination it was almost dark, we began preparing dinner with joan and were later joined by a group of about 10 American students plus a family from Brisbane (Fiona, Jim and Ollie) all there to volunteer for the weekend. had a brilliant time with them all, working together, preparing and eating meals and playing games after dinner. Richard (one of the founders of wild mountains) played a game called mafia with us which was basically a simple version of a murder mystery, it was actually quite scary sitting there in the wooden house in the middle of the woods with your eyes closed being told graphically how you had been murdered.

We were sleeping in the main house which was built by Richard and has a dining room/kitchen on the ground floor and a mezzanine floor for sleeping. every night we would hear the rustlings of small mammals in the kitchen and see them running across the beams. we also saw wallabies, crimson rosellas, and a koala.

when the volunteers left it was just the two of us and Richard, his amazing wife Susan and Joan. the next four days where the best i have had in Australila, we felt totally welcomed into their way of life and home. Susan took us on walks, cooked us amazing meals and was so lovely to us, Richard gave us some really great jobs to do and entertained us all the time and Joan told us about all the native 'critters' and took us ut for pizza at a local families house. it was the best and i was practically crying when we said goodbye :(

Fiona had offered to have us at her house for the night before we headed off to our next wwoofing place which was so nice of her and really great that we didnt have to stay in a hostel. Joan drove us to Brisbane and after another tearful goodbye we settled into Fiona's house and spent the evening chatting to her and her two wonderful sons, Jim and Ollie who are two of the most charming, intelligent, funny kids i have ever met. we all sat with our dooners and hot chocolates and watched Anchorman, it was really sad leaving the next day after having such a great experience, its somewhere i would love to go back to and volunteer for longer.

our next wwoofing host lived in Brunswick heads which is about 20 mins north of Byron Bay. when she picked us up she basically told us that she used to live on a organic farm but had since moved and for some reason wwoof had continued her membership despite her not paying. we arrived at her suburban house and our first job at about 7pm was to clean up the garage which was to be our room. over the next 3 days she gave us really silly jobs like loading the laundry, weeding her tiny veg patch and cutting up grapefruit. after spending the day correcting a job she said a proffesional builder had done we decided to leave, her lodger drove us to Byron Bay the next day where we walked the beach and felt really glad we hadnt stayed any longer.

our third wwoofing place was about an hours drive from Kempsey. naganaga is a buddhist community made up of 4 woman who are all ordained buddhists. they live on top of a hill with a main house and a number of caravans (one of which we stayed in), they also have an amazing yurt in which they meditate and taught us to do so.

Satyagandhi, Padmalaya and Viryadana were so much fun and really interesting to talk to. Satyagandhi took us under her wing and taught us how to mulch, prune the passion fruit, plant asparagus, make lime pickle, cumquat jam and banana muffins and also took us to meditate each evening. we had a great time made even better by gorgeous Maitri, an orphaned baby wallaby who would hop around us while we worked.

so two really great experiences and one not so good but overall i feel that we have been so lucky to meet the people we have and see the wildlife that most people only see in the zoo's.

hope everyone is well and happy

love Jenna xxx