Hi everyone from Holland and Norway!
On sunday the 6th of april my friends Tom and Marieke brought me early in the morning to Schiphol Airport for my flight to Perth via London and Singapore. I got some hours of delay in London because of snowfall and therefore missed my plane from Singapore. But we were brought to a luxurious hotel with delicious food were we had some rest before we took the next flight to Perth.
Rolan took me from the airport and drove us to Scarborough Beach. There we had to wait two days because my guitar hadn't arrived yet. We enjoyed the nice weather, waves and laziness and went to Geraldton (my first impression was that of a Wild West city, without the shooting). Rolan has lived there for about half a year and knows the place and a lot of people. Some of them I met on a festival on an organic farm a little bit outside of the small city. This was a very cozy happening in a beautiful place with some nice music. Especially the Western Australian (WA) band Blue Shaddy gave a strong and impressive performance which made a lot of people, including us, dance (actually a lot of people were kind of waiting for this band). It was a good opportunity for me to test dancing with a cowboy hat (I bought this the day before and I use it everyday, sunglasses too)! The day after we spent on the farm, eating some nice food of the owners and laying in a hot tube under the stars.
Although the first days were relaxed I didn't feel completely 'home' yet. I had to get used to the people and the new country (which has a lot of 'in-the-middle-of-nowhere places).
After some days on a farm of woodworker Max Royce, in a place called Greenough (south of Geraldton) I felt much more grounded in this beautiful and rough country. We and the 20-year old Sara from Belgium(a WWOOF-er, Willing Worker On Organic Farm) helped Max with the building of his fish farm (making cement and placing rocks), putting appletrees in the soil, making compost out of the wormfarm and weeding the Walkaway Burrs (a plant with sticky seeds that spread easily and are not fun to have on your farm). We had an enjoyable weekend together, going in the dunes on a sandboard which we had connected with a rope to Max' quad, swimming in the wavy sea and visiting a local pub in the evening. Max is a friendly and handy man with a lot of 'crazy' ideas. He has built his own house and makes beautiful furniture. His 80-year-old parents live in another house on the land and Tim a young twentier works as an apprentice in Max' workplace Max father gave me a driving lesson in a old four wheel drive which he bought the day before for just 200 dollars (150 euro?). I got the feeling a bit (the good and the bad!).
The last days we worked on putting a roofrack that Max didn't use anymore on Rolan's buss. Max made a deck of wood for us and we gave it some paint. At the end it looked quite professional. Tomorrow, monday, we leave the farm (afther two weeks) and I will start sleeping on the roof of the buss in a doublesize swag we bought. Rolan continues sleeping in the buss. I like the idea!
Our plan is first to have a two-week holiday in Exmouth, a place along the coast with beautiful coral, then to drive north to Port Hedland where I will start working in a muffin shop while Rolan travels to Perth (1800km south again) to get a machine that meausures sigarette smoke particles and starts to do some research (for the university in Geraldton) with it in Port Hedland. After these three weeks we will maybe look for some fruit picking work.
In the meantime we make some music with Rolan's didgeridoo and my beautiful Furch guitar (I'm very happy with it because the sound is so beautiful, I really enjoy playing again!)
Till now I like being here in WA. I can be outside all day smelling the country and hearing the birds. Norway feels far away already (which is in fact true) but I have a lot of positive memories there and am glad I've met so many good people in such a short time. Thanks and till later!
A dutch 'kus' and a norwegian 'klem' to everyone!
