Watson’s and WWOOFing

Due to the high cost of living in Sydney over the festive season I have decided to try my hand at WWOOFing, where I will be working on a farm/whatever for bed and board. I decided to ask some actual people about it, as the website looks like it was made by a guy who just downloaded a 6 year old copy of Dreamweaver.

Comic Sans + Over9000 hours in Dreamweaver = That'll do

I started with a place called ‘Travel and Travel’ and was not overly surprised to find that none of the notices are in English and they have instead opted for some kind of moonspeak.

What a deal! Buy 3 pancakes and get a free crispy duck! 

I left before entering the office and went to ‘Work ‘n’ Travel’ a few doors down where a German girl gave me a little more info (in English) on the whole WWOOFing thing (not to be confused with DOGGing, which for the non-British readers is NSFW, so don’t Google it (notice how I avoided a joke about WWANKing, I’m much more mature now, see)). It turns out that they fob you off with some hippy non-sense about ‘exchanging’, basically I see it as working for food and shelter, which I have no problem with, but apparently to WWOOF means exchanging your time for accommodation and growing, developing skills, getting sunburnt, etc.

The same way the girls at Kings Cross are developing their skills in ‘exchange’ for their time and about $180 (negotiable). 

Seriously, I’m in it for the free food, the skills and experience are fine and all but I just need somewhere to stay that isn’t going to rid me of all my money like the thieving hostels around here want to.

Funnily enough, to join WWOOFing you need to pay $65. I should have suggested I exchange my time for my membership in the form of reading my blog to needy children or something, but I soon realised I write at a higher reading age than the needy kids would understand. 

You must be at least 5 years old to read this blog, dumbass.

I paid the $65, got a book full of names and numbers of farms/whatever and left with a good bye which was answered with a ‘good luck’, um... ok? I went on my merry way to Watson Bay with Camille, Aisseta and Pauline, because it was around 31oC and WWOOFing can wait, plus beaches kick ass! 

We went to a place called Cove something for some baking and swimming, you know, because it’s a beach (To my British readers, 31oC is quite warm and a nice sandy beach is one of those things you have to get a flight to). Later we wondered around the South Head Walk, past ‘Lady Bay’ which is the most ironic name for a nudist beach I have ever seen, considering only men go to nudist beaches in the hope of working the ‘naked man’ angle. 

It works 2/3 times. 

“At least I still have my dignity and my hat” – Eric (I guess his name was Eric as when we walked back later he was sporting a full on erection as he looked out to sea, which made us and a couple of Chinese girls laugh as we walked by)

We managed to miss the last ferry back to Circular Quay because they stopped coming at 3:50, which is the dumbest timetable ever. Although it was a minor cock up, it did give us time to walk up to Bluff Gap and look out to the Tasman Sea. 

I don’t get what Eric sees in it, must be an Aussie thing.

Also, flowers

Then it was down the hill for a quick cold beer before grabbing the bus back to the hostel. A very nice day indeed.

That was Tuesday. Today (Wednesday) I researched a few WWOOFing places and gave a few of them a ring. I got one answer but not much good as it would only be for a week and I left a couple of answer phone messages on other places.

As I write this I just got off the phone from a reply from one place, basically I’ll be gardening in the Hunter Valley area for a while and helping out with some horses, you never know I may even learn to ride one,

Like a BAAWS!

Sadly I might not be there for too long as there may not be enough to do until January, but that’s cool, at least I’ll get some experience, develop some skills and exchange my time for... Oh no! I sound like one of ‘them’! So it seems I’ll be saying goodbye to the Elephant Backpacker on Monday, forever! But we've all got to go sometime, as those who don’t are eaten by roaches eventually. 

They grow up so fast 

‘Tis the dawning of a new chapter in my Awesome Australian Adventure, and I can’t wait to get started! So I’ll have to get some gardening gloves, long sleeve tees and a hat, lest I succumb to the relentless scorching of the sun.

Screw you, Sun!

EDIT: I just remembered what the naked man picture reminded me of...

When The Simpsons was good.