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| June 11th-16th (in progress!) |
| 06.15.04 (6:17 pm) [edit] |
June 11th-16th
Thursday the 10th of June, 2004
Good Camp-Murdoch-Hamilton Hill
17C Sunny, then overcast, then very rainy. Lots of wind.
Sorry kids, but this will be brief—I’ve been fairly incommunicado and also very busy so I’ll have to do a sketch of my last few days… perhaps, in the future, I’ll make the time to review what I’ve written and expand upon it. The weekend was a good one, so it’ll be worth the effort.
Okay, today I went to school with Patsy and Peter—they were going up north to Kilbarri for a long weekend with Peter’s son’s family. This is about a seven hour drive due north along the Northern Highway (Number 1).
I did my email and journal then went off and hung out at Kat’s place—the Pinakarrey community co-op. A hippy place, kids running in through the house, neighbours running through the house, and three roommates all doing their thing. The co-op is in Hamilton Hill, just outside of South Freo, which makes it easier for me to catch the ferry to Rottnest tomorrow morning.
A note on kangaroo meat: very lean, very tender—so tender, that when you stir-fry it, Chinese style, it turns out very well indeed. I gave this a go tonite and it worked beautifully—something to note for the future.
We also baked a cake (well Kat did that, and I just at half of it) and then we baked some cookies while the storm blew and blew and rained and rained. They were ok—just very rich: so much butter, so much sugar…
I also met Pete Stone—a musician from the WAMI show—at his house on Solomon St. that night, picking up some organic vegetables with Kat. Nice guy.
Friday the 11th of June,
Freo-Rottnest
Blustery—sunny, getting ready for a big storm.
Went to Express Ferry Shed ‘C’ to catch the 1130am to ‘Rotto’—Australians love their abbreviations—and met Caroline, a Canadian exchange student in Patsy’s EP class, who was also doing the Rotto tree plant. The ride over was exciting—3.5m swells—and the ferry crashed over the waves with lots of energy during the 35 min ride.
This ride left me a bit nauseous but I recovered after a couple hours on the island; we were settled at the Kingstown Barracks, in the officer’s quarters, and then went for a long walk of the southern side of the island. Caroline and I had met Selena (www.fotki.com look under her name, ‘Selena’ for her online photos of the trip) an American on exchange at Murdoch, and we all walked together. Unfortunately, we were caught by showers three times during the 8.8km walk; twice we avoided the showers by hiding under trees (which later turned out to be from tree plants done in years gone by) but the views were beautiful—but not the typical sunny sunny Rotto that is the norm, 8-10 months of the year. I swam in Little Salmon Bay, albeit very briefly.
That evening we had a scalloped potato made with campbell’s pumpkin soup, milk, salt, pepper, and ‘Tasty’ cheese… we had paid 45$ for the trip, and usually the ferry ride alone is that much. With out tree planting, though, we had received a discount—24$ return—leaving 13$ for groceries per head and $8 for a dinner at the barrack cafeteria on Saturday night. To say the least, I had been suspicious of the ‘all food and accommodations paid for’ bit of this tree plant. Our accommodations were very nice—two bunk beds per room, a kitchen, a dining room, living room, backyard, clothes line, the standard flat grill ‘bar-b’ and a bathroom. Ten of us in the house.
In any case, we had bbq sausages, grilled onions, and some vegetables that one of the ladies from the Friends of Rottnest Society had brought for herself—I basically stole the vegetables and cooked them and she joined us for dinner. My attitude was that I was happier to cook the food and prevent a crappy meal.
The bartender, whose name was ‘Cliff,’ was die-hard Kiss fan, including his hair style. We had a few jugs, then hit the road for the 1.2km walk back to the barracks.
Saturday the 12th of June
Rottnest
Overcast with sunny breaks—17C, with brieft intermittent showers.
We were supposed to start work at 930am today, but things were delayed twice because the ferries were unable to leave Freo: apparently the storm last night had blown out the windows of the ferry. Very worrisome, because a ship’s windows are usually the most sturdy things onboard… and we had rode on the ferry the day before.
This meant that the trees were still in Freo; as it also turns out the trees are grown from seeds taken from the only native trees on Rotto—the Rottnest Tea Tree and the Rottnest Pine—and grown at the Bulberri (?) prison by the prisoners. Much better than stamping license plates, right?
So the morning was a bit of a write off, as we spent a whole lot of time waiting around only to learn about delays… eventually, around noon, we all got on a bus (the Murdoch volunteers, 10 of us, and the 45 adults, kids, and retirees who were part of the Friends of Rottnest Society) and drove into the centre of the island and did some work.
We worked in teams of three—one digging, using a two-handed extractor (you love that, Etienne?), the other two following, planting the trees. Slightly taller and with bigger root pods than the trees I’ve planted back home, the work was pretty casual –and the spacing horrendous: every four feet, officially, but when you throw 55 adults and kids into a 3 or 4 acre fenced-in plot, spacing drops to about two feet between trees. Oh well—the trees grow up to look like “mushrooms” (as Peter says) and aren’t more than 15-20 feet tall, at best.
We quit work at 3pm; we had finished the first plot and moved to a second, called “Thompson farm” a few hundred meters away. This second plot overlooked a beautiful lake and was quite picturesque, although we did get some heavy rain for a few minutes. Overall, a pretty laid back kind of plant.
The reason that the plots are fenced off is because of Rotto’s local inhabitants, the quokkas. These little creatures are like little kangaroos, pouches and hind legs, but with an armadillo’s tail, not to mention that they are about the size of a mid-sized cat. Friendly, tame, and totally vegetarian, if they come across the saplings, they’ll much away all the green leaves…
Back at home, we rested up and then went to the barracks for an absolutely wretched meal—the highlight of the meal was the liquid candy dispenser that you used to decorate your ice cream: it was covered with the most awesome display of fungi you could ever imagine. Most people went back to our quarters and made themselves more to eat—the rest of us went off to the Quokka Arms in Thompson bay for a drink.
Nothing going there, so we went to the Grosvenor—the alternate bar—and did some karaoke and good drinking. I sang Young MC’s ‘Bust a Move’—and was lauded by the MC for doing a very good job on a ‘mediocre song.’ Not a mediocre song at all, by the way.
Sunday the 13th of June
Rotto-Freo-South Freo
Sunny day, 22C at the height of the day. A light breeze. Idyllic.
I got up this morning with the resolve to go for a good swim—which I did, and it was cold. Caroline braved the water as well, but the sun wasn’t yet shining—did I mention that it was cold?
We went planting from 930 to 1200 and finished the Thompson farm.
Most of us returned to the barracks afterwards and hit the beach (which was right next to the house) and really went for a swim. Rottnest must be really beautiful during the summer—because thesunshine made all the world of difference.
I caught the 230pm ferry back to Freo and slept the whole way, thanks to some Gravol.
Met Seth at his new pad in South Freo after having some coffee in Freo—then went and saw Epicure at the Newport, supported by Four Floor Collapse. I wasn’t feeling too well and went to bed immediately after the show.
Monday the 14th of June
South Freo—South Yunderup
Woke up with
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