camping again

well here we are again. i think im getting the hang of this camping thing. shit im also begining to like it. its funny when you compair places. take our 2 different camp sites. the 1st one : very closely spaced and well just read the last post. the 2nd place is actually a caravan park with a little space for tents. fine, not a problem. we set up and i notice the tent next to us is watching tv. great camping with a tv. the only thing is is that the tv doesnt go off. why in the hell would you take a vacation and walk tv for the whole thing. nevermind the fact that you are camping in a tent watching tv. if any of you out there have ever camped, you know how hot the tent gets when the sun starts beating down on it. so how is this guy staying in his tent all day long. the heat has got to be killing him.

in other news, we havent left our camp site in 4 days. the reason for this is sams feet. she somehow got some freak feet cramp. were not talking 1 foot were talking both feet and the cramp is in the same place on both feet. well we saw a doctor and all he said we thats weird and gave us a perscription for some cream that sams says doesnt work. the upside of the visit was we walked though the door of the clinic and not 5 minutes later sam was in the doctors office getting great advice from him about what rainforests to visit. thats exactly why we saw a doctor, to get advice on where next to hike when sam can barely walk. suffice it to say sam is doing much better and today we left the camp site for a visit to the internet cafe.

oh right, we have been camping in brisbane, which is funny b/c its a city.

so tomorrow we are going to be wwoofing again till monday the 3rd. so if you dont hear from us...

michael and renate cretney
gypsy acres, lot 63 yingani road
brooloo 4570
phone: 07 5488 6123

peace out

jen + sam

out of wine country into weed country

so we finally left broke. i have to say that it was a wonderful 2.5 weeks but it was time to go. i managed to gain 10 pounds because of all the wine and bread i ate. so back to the strict diet of pasta and sauce. hehe, strict diet. sam and i are now camping in byron bay. byron bay is a big surfer/hippie town, so not even being in our camp site for more that an hour the smell of weed came creeping over from the tent next to us. now, mind you, this is like extreme camping, everyone is on top of everyone else. we all know the amount of personal space you can get on the green line during a soxs game, right? well thats spacious compared to our new home for the next couple of days. but we are having a great time and loving the beach. we actually woke up at 4:30 this morning to catch the sunrise. who are we? who does that? it was fucking great. there were whales and dolphins, although i didnt see any dolphins, but ill believe them if they said there were.

thanks for everyones contributions with the blog, it really makes me feel good :)

love everyone and miss you all.

jen + sam

Why did we quit our jobs?

Because we were sick of waiting on people. So, what did we do today? Wait on people. How did this happen? I don't know, but we should have known better. We were convinced to stay in Broke through the weekend to help out at Marion's sons 30th birthday party. We're suckers, but we were lured with money. Of course we were more than welcome to stay at the party (after the lunch had been served) and drink ourselves silly, but after waiting on people for a few hours, even if they're nice, good people, all I want to do is go somewhere quiet. And so here we are at Liz and Joes house, the first time we've had alone since we left the states. It's wonderful.

Salty enchilada anyone?

Cooking for a dozen people is no fun. Too much work. It becomes even more no fun when the top of the salt shaker falls off into your giant batch of enchilada sauce pouring obscene amounts of salt in. Right... After adding another can of tomato sauce and several shakes of cumin, the enchiladas were nearly saved. It's a good thing most of t he Australians that we were feeding had never had enchiladas before. We were cooking them at Marion's house, with whom we've been staying for the past week. Someone is always invited to dinner at Marion's house, so dinner is never a quiet affair. Acutally, nothing in Broke is a quiet affair. And so we need some alone time. Tonight, after working a party at Marion's house, Jen and I are housesitting for Joe and Liz for the night. They are a wonderful couple that we've meet here in Broke, and they're aiding us with getting one night of alone time, so they're even more wonderful. I can't wait.

The time we've had at Marions has been good. She has a very clean house and her cooking is simple and satisfying. Our work has including lots of weeding (including more green ant bites) and fertilizing 2 olive groves. When fertilizing, 2 of us sat in a trailor full of fertilizer throwing out cups full as one person drove us very very slow. My right arm has been sore for days now, and I'm sort of over the whole beautiful olive grove thing.

Monday we will leave the blackhole of Broke (hopefully, Tuesday at the latest). We're heading north and taking a short break from WWOOFing. After being around people constantly for the last 2 weeks, I'm ready to do some camping and sit quietly to myself. I can't wait.

Oh, and thanks for the comments. Good to know you're reading. (Jill, I think you are summarizing our trip better than we can!)

I've got a sock tan

We've pruned for 8 days now, and we've all got some very sexy sock tans. I know you're all quite jealous, and all I can say is that getting a sock tan is hard work. You have to really want it, work hard and it will come to you. Our pruning outfits got more and more curious everyday. We started out in shorts, flip-flops and raincoats. They've got these damn weeds here that stick to everything. If you were cotton, you're doomed. Day 2 there was no pruning because there was a faint drizzle and Roy made us go back to bed and sleep in. On day 3 we gave up the flip-flops and started wearing our boots. This continued for a couple more days before we desperately needed to do some laundry. At this point Jen started wearing Roys clothes for pruning, and I doned a skirt and one of Roys t-shirts. Roy is 64 years old, maybe 5' 10" and you wouldn't call him skinny. Needless to say, we looked ridiculous. But we continued to wear these things for the rest of the week, and they were great. Then I had a bought of stupidity and reverted back to my flip-flops, which resulted in an ant bite on my left big toe. Now, I didn't think ant bites hurt that much, but my toe was stinging for the next 2 hours. Won't do that again. Overall our experience has been great. We pruned nearly Roys whole vineyard inluding Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif and Chambourcin.

Today we worked at the Broke Fair. Roy hosted a Wine and Tapas event where he as the winemarker talked about all the wines. He had the easy job. Jen and I worked liked crazy people. The food was created, cooked and prepped by an absolutely wonderful and organized woman named Wendy. But we swtill had alot to do to get the food ready to be served and to serve it at the event. We've been washing our hands and dishes for the last 24 hours. I think we need a vacation now :) The downside to all of this work is that we virtually missed the Broke Fair. Australia is crazy. The fair really started going around 11:00 am, but it finished up very promptly at 3:00. Wierd. But we did see some really cool vintage cars. Maybe next year...

We're now off to our next host. In Broke. This little town has the ability to suck any body in. Everyone is so nice, and they all invite you to dinner. How can you say no to that? Marion, our next host, who happened to already have us over for dinner (great cook!) will be putting us the work in her gardens and at her sons 30th birthday party. We'll let you know how it is.

And I keep mentioning food, so I'll share a little bit about Australian food with you. If somebody uses Australian as an adjective for a dish or food item, what they are really saying is "with beets." Like so:"
"Would you like to try an Australian salad?" "Why, what is an Australian salad?" "Ay it's just a regular salad with beets." Right.
"Would you like to try an Australian Big Mac?" I think, no. But say "Why, waht is an Australian Big Mac?" "Ay, it's just a regualr Big Mac with beets!" Right. Of course it is.
Jen is in beet heaven. This country was made for her.

And as a last note, we had so many comments in the beginning, and it was so nice! Now we don't know if nobody is reading or you've all just stopped commenting... Just so you know (if you're reading) we really like the comments. They make us feel loved :)

we are in a happy place

just to give every one peace of mind, we are safe. in fact i dont think we could have gone from one extreme to the other. the man we are staying with is a 64 year old flaming queen. excentic as hell. he has an organic wine farm which = not much work getting done and a lot of drinking does.

all we have been hearing about on the news is how poorly the states are reacting to hurricane katarina. i feel that austalian news is very bias like the states but this is out of control.

we hope everyone is ok and doing well. good luck.

By the way, we posted more pictures.

I'm not 18 anymore

Lots and lots of things are happening to remind me that I'm not 18 anymore. Indeed it's happening every day. After we fled from our crazy host (we powerwalked to the bus station franticly looking at the passing cars to make sure one wasn't hers), we went back to Sydney. We were so happy to leave Sydney in the first place and where do we end back up? Sydney. It's some sort of black hole that sucks you in is my conclusion. We stay at this huge hostel called Wake Up!. It was like 8 floors, had a bar underground and we got hotel style swipe keys with a thing to put them around our necks. We go into our room to find that the floor is absolutely covered. It was a ten person dorm room and it looked like every person got there, hit the bar and then just dumped out their packs onto the floor. I had to climb through piles of shit to get to my bunk. I'm pretty sure every room in the place was like this. I was like holy christ, can't these kids tidy up a bit? And you all probably know that I am no neat freak, but I will keep my mess to myself. We were talking to Roody, a travel agent, the next and when he asked what we thought of Wake Up!, I had to tell him that it made me feel like I was sixty.

And now last night I got to feel old again. After talking to Roody yesterday about possible ways to travel around Australia, we decide that we'll travel north along the coast, like most people and go back down the coast straight through the middle. Our first stop is Newcastle, where we stayed only last night and we're leaving today. We stayed at Backpackers Newcastle, where all the beds suck. No sleep number beds there. At about 2:00 AM I got woken up. What woke me up you ask? Sex. In a 14 bed dorm room, two people were having sex. Disgusting. I don't want to see it, I don't want to hear it. Especially straight sex. Disgusting. I couldn't see anything, but I could certainly hear it. I heard this sleazy guy say "I just want to make you feel good" and a lot of slurping on her part. Yeah, I'm sure she left satisfied. And of course Jen never woke up, slept like a log. This incident worried me that our decision to do the route up the coast would be filled with 18 year olds with no respect for other people and lots of dreadful sighs. I'm so not 18 anymore. Not even close.

where we are now

in light of what happened that last time we went to a strangers house we have decided to give you the address of where we are staying.

Roy Meyer
Millhill Cottage
Cobcroft Road
Broke, Australia 2330
p: 02 6579 1105

everyone keep there fingers crossed!

has any one seen the movie misery?

well that was our last host experience. the crazy bitch owns a house that was built in 1818, which all in itself can be scary. but the thing is, is she didnt let us see the house until the second day of being there. thats fine for the fact that she lives alone with her 2 lhasa apso that havent been brushed in months. poor dumb and dirty dogs, we felt really bad for them. we arrived there just as the sun went down so we really didnt get to see what the house looked like. she fed us dinner then showed us to our room which wasnt attached to the house. as soon as we stepped into the room we where sleeping in it hit me, that familar smell we all come to love and hate. cat piss. it was freezing in this place and we had these small floor heaters to keep us warm. you know the kind that start house fires. thank god that we had to keep ours on all night to stay warm. wouldnt want to start a fire while we are sleeping. the reason it was so cold was because there werent any windows in this barn/room. there were spots for them just no glass. there were 2 floors to this place. first floor cat piss, second floor unfinished barn looking attic with no windows. oh, with 4 sets of bunk beds and sheets that we had to shake out, because of nesting spiders, before we slept on them. im going to say the sheets were not clean, but im trying not to think about that. that should have been warning number 1 but i was going to give this lady a chance.

after not sleeping very well the first night it was time to start our day. we walked across the court yard to the house, which was locked. that should have been warning number 2. we didnt think about it then but we were actually locked in the house. she had this crazy alarm that was all over the house and if any door was touched, including the door out of the court house, the alarm would have gone off. when she opened the door she informed us that we had to take the dogs for a 1/2 walk. fine, just have breakfast waiting for me when i get back. thats what i was thinking.

back from the dog walk and onto breakfast which lasted an hour. after that hour both me and sam knew something wasnt right. this lady, Dianne Austin, if anyone wants to know, loves to 1:talk about her self
2:name drop like she is important
3:lives off her mothers money, who is 95 years old and di is 66 years old
4:avoids paying bills
5:uses the wwoofers as her social life
6:and the list goes on.

as we are trying to get our work done that day he was out there trying to talk to us ever 30 minutes. im thinking im not going to get anything done if this lady keeps talking to me. as im working she gives me this weed killer, which i am not obligated to use. im not supposed to use chemicals as a wwoofer. she sat there and tried to convince me there was no chemicals in this product even though it said in on the front. warning number 3, not understanding the obvious.

got through the first day, which i asked her if we could have more of a routine where we worked in the morning and then had free time to our selves in the afternoon. she said that was fine, but the next day she proved that was a lie. the whole next day we were never out of her sight and didnt start working until 3 in the afternoon. at that point she finally left us alone at the because she had to do other errons. a car pulled in the drive way about an hour later and we started talking to the woman. she was waiting for payment of a bill that was a year and a half old from dianne. at that point we told our new friend that we are going to skip out of the house and walk to the bus stop before she got home.

has anyone given you really creepy feelings, like they had dead people under their house? well this lady gave us those. note to self, listen to your instincts.