En Vrac

(Helene speaks, now – because I have no longer any time to write this diary. Indeed, I prefer writing my French work in progress book, a blend of short stories, poems, screenplays, mundane and philosophical thoughts and so on...)

Monday 15

We took the bus to Kangaroo Valley. Three hours. I slept.

When I opened my eyes, the forest was everywhere around the bus. Some hills and even some cliffs. Joy welcomed us. An old and dynamic woman. She lives in a big house. She “built” it herself. Most of walls are windows. The place is fantastic. There are cows which graze in front of the house and kangaroos which jump behind. Birds fly around the house.

Our work : feeding fishes in the pond and parrots on the trees.

The house is always open. You'll welcome if you find it !

Tuesday 16

First days of Woofing.

We pruned the trees. We swept up the terrace. We washed the bird's shits and hung up the washing. And we repaired the fences. It was not too hard. We observed each ant and each grass on our way.

Wednesday 17

A bath in the ocean.

Joy is talkative. It's interesting.

Thursday 18

Joy spends a part of her day to talk with animals (birds, calfs, cows, fish, etc.). Today we did a ride with bicycle.


Joy is talkative. It's good for our English.

Friday 19

Joy is talkative. It's tired.

Saturday 20

Joy is talkative. It's awful.

Sunday 21

Joy is talkative. Help. Shut up !

It's time to go.

During one weeks we fed birds that wasn't hungry, we fed fishes in a pond full of natural eat, we dried the cloth in the microwave in a country with the temperature is around 25 degrees each day ...

It's was our first W.W.O.O.F (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) experience !

Monday 22

We took the bus for Canberra. We had a new plan to be more free!

First we stopped at the Jeff's house. It's a member of “Warm shower”, the web site for bikes riders.

Tuesday 23

We had to find two second hand bikes in Canberra.

It's impossible!

We had to find two racks and two saddlebags.

It's impossible!

We went from bike shop to bike shop ...

Nothing. Nowhere.

At least, we meat a Jeff's friend who rents bicycles. He sold us two old mountain bikes, racks, saddlebags and lights and pump and tools and more that we imagined in our dreams !

Wednesday 24

We had again one day before Christmas to find a tent, map and to prepare a french meal fort our hosts. Let's go! Sylvain bought food and became to prepare the lunch while I was buying camping stuffs.

Thursday 25

It's time to go. But we are a little lazy. We get up too late. As we hadn't finished to pack everything, we were welcomed to stay here one day more, for a delicious and family Christmas meal...

Friday 26

Just we had to find a post to send our rucksacks with ten kilos too many.

At midday, we left Canberra and his very friendly family.

So far, so good. We stopped after a bath in a river.

Wild place but not too much, a few spiders but not too big.

Saturday 27

After one hour on a little road we found a short cut to go to our target. The sky was blue. The name of the short cut was “flat doctor road”, closed by a fence. So we had all the road for us. At first we needed to push the bikes to go up the hill. In our map, no altitude at all but the name of the road contained the word “flat”, so we was optimistic and we pushed.

Sylvain began to think this way was too sloping, too long, too bad. We pushed again and again and the sun went away...

A few moment later it was raining and the way wasn't better.

Sylvain groaned more and more. It was difficult but not dangerous. But Sylvain was anxious.

“It's impossible! Where we'll sleep? And the storm ? And the rain ? We'll be take away by the water, or drowned, or lightninged!”

“But more probably I 'll abandon you if you don't shut up”, I said.

The hill never finished.

But there was not a good storm to make Sylvain be quiet.

So we went again.

After a long long way, at least, the road went down. It's an horrible way with soil and stones. We took it around twenty minutes. At the bottom there is a enormous herd which seemed to charge at us. They just stopped with the fences. Phew!

When the clouds looked like to go away, the millions of flies arrived. So Sylvain could continue to groan. He seems like my famous Uncle Bernard, the best grumpy in the world.

We checked the map. 4 hours. We had just do 2 cm and we had again ... 20 cm to do on the “flat road”! Sylvain is tired and nervous. The flies too.

We meet a big car. The driver said the road was like that during 30 km again. And he said ... good luck!

We decided to come back to camp somewhere.

We returned. We went back to the awful way. Sylvain was always groaning. The rain always falling. More and more.

And Sylvain said “STOP, no one step more!” in the middle of the way in the middle of the hill.

I imagined what Sylvain B will do in this situation ...

And I dug a long hole around the place for the tent. To stop the water.

We waited and the rain stopped enough to put the tent.

When we were inside the tent it was raining again and Sylvain said : “if we survive I'll write a book about how you rescued my life !” I thought : “if we survive I will give him to feed the kangaroos ! When we waked up in the morning, it was raining yet...

Sunday 28

The pessimist predictions to go down the way by Sylvain are 4 hours. The rain stopped. We came back in half hour ! When we arrived at the good road, Sylvain smiled for the first time since ... I can't remember !

We had a long road to do.

And I have to said I was a little tired.

The sun began to cook us lovingly.

We had our solar cream in one hand and our raincoat in the other hand. And we used one and other in accordance with the caprice of the weather.

Finally, the sun won. And we pedalled in the horrible rain of sunbeams. UVA, UVB and probably UVC and UVZ ...

When we met our first kangaroo he said Sylvain looks overdone and that muscle seemed not enough tender to be cooked... So I had to keep him again.

60 km later, we crossed our first village. I was so head ache than we decided to stop here. There was a Tavern where we met a man with a long beard. Sylvain spoke with him. I couldn't understand nothing, I was too tired. Like in a dream. Just I would like to sleep. I didn't know exactly what happening. The man paid us an orange juice and we put our bikes in this car with her two young girls and his wife. And after 18 km on a slopping and twisting road we arrived in the hut of back of beyond. A hut built with piece of wood, plastic and iron for this friendly and original family. We sleep in a caravan with lot of spiders but these one are kind ! And we have a paper with pictures and descriptions about all dangerous spiders. So we can said if we meet them “Oh, you're dangerous, you're on my black list, I'm sorry, I have to kill you!”

So far, so good!