Today was difficult riding. It was even more repetitive then yesterday.
I woke up feeling great after a good sleep in the hut. I went to sleep whilst the fire was slowly burning out, keeping the hut nice and warm. I woke up around 0630 and had a big bowl of oats (or big drink bottle full I should say) giving me enough energy to get all my gear packed and ready to go nice and early.
Despite the energy I had early on, I felt very heavy on the bike. The constant repetitiveness, up hill then down hill, made it very boring and monotonous. It felt much longer then what I actually cycled. The roads were so annoying that I thought if I wasn't riding towards the organic farm then I probably would've camped half way. On the ride I had many short steep hills, followed by even shorter and steeper descents. The first five or so times I was looking forward to the descents, but after this I started becoming frustrated. After a few hours I started cursing every time I come down a sharp descent, as I knew it would be followed by an even longer incline. I couldn't get any consistency with my speed up the hills, as the first half of a climb was spent getting momentum and the second trying to get a comfortable speed up the hill, before I knew it I was down hill again. The next hill I'd have to take a different approach. As every incline varied in length and gradient my legs and upper body were utilising many different muscles.
By late afternoon I ended up getting into Nannup. I had to ride about 3km away from the town to get to the farm. I was fortunate for this as I was so hungry I would've spent unnecessary money in the grocer in Nannup. I didn't want to eat the farm empty but figured they'd have a bit of food spare, being a permaculture property with plenty of produce.
The property didn't have any signage so I found it by chance. I pulled into a drive way and yelled out to a man close by. He didn't answer so I went went closer. I was literally standing behind him and asking even louder if it was the Merri-Bee farm. I figured he must of had hearing difficulties, so I waited for him to turn around and asked again. I did kind of realise this was the right place by noticing a few fruit trees around. It definitely has that typical first impression you get with most permaculture properties, disorderly from a conventional perspective.
He walked me down to the house and I put my bike along the back wall. I should mention there doesn't really seem to be a back or front of the house, as it is all surrounded by flora of some sort. The plants and trees disguise the house within the surrounding environment, giving it a very earthly feel.
Every one has been running around as they are collecting produce for tomorrow's market in Perth. Perth is about 350km from here, and is the biggest market the farm has each month. I felt useless a I saw everybody running around and didn't know how I could help. I didn't want to keep getting in the way by asking what I could do, so I put my bags inside and waited for the others to slow down a bit. The lady who runs the farm is named Bee and her partner Stuart. Bee asked me to collect some figs for the market so I went along and picked away. I was actually excited to do this as the whole trip I've kept my eyes open for a fresh fig tree yet haven't seen many. I suppressed my hunger a bit by picking one or two for my self.
I wasn't sure what to do for dinner, as nobody mentioned it and I didn't want to appear rude. Being quite hungry and the night getting on, I thought perhaps I should set my cooker up. I didn't want to insult Bee and Stuart, so I stayed patient and snacked on my remaining peanuts. Eventually Bee made up some fresh vegetable soup. This was delicious, perhaps made tastier by knowing how wholesome it was.
On the farm is two German wwoofers, Max and Julia. They have been volunteering here for the last two weeks. Bee also has a son here, Lee who is 13 years old and seems to be a character. Ive also noticed a tension between Lee and Stuart, with Stuart being the Step dad. It feels like I'm going to be in for an interesting few days...
Tomorrow morning the German couple will show me a few things around the farm, while the others go to the market.
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