Dungay Creek, AUS (pt 3)

Our last post finished on Day 9, which makes this sort of awkward, since there’s only one day left.  We’ll split this into two posts, one covering our last day and departure, then another which continues our journey and arrival at Surfer’s Paradise.

Day 10. Our last work day at the Thomas farm did not allow us to complete our mulching project, unfortunately, due to a lack of newspaper with which to cover our weeded area. Some other lucky helper will have to see that one through to completion. Instead we spent the day with Lindy, weeding behind the house where she hangs her laundry, cleaning the path to the dam, and regular animal chores. It was a nice relaxing day to finish our time. Phil came home in the evening with his sucessfully re-registered yellow convertable Morris Minor.

This is the second Morris mentioned, but there are three more Morris cars, in various condition, around the farm. Our dinner this evening was chili, from last night, remixed as wraps, with the addition of tortilla shells, lettuce, sliced avocado, grated cheese, and steamed pumpkin. Dessert was an uncannily familiar crisp, very similar to what Mom would make, but for the fruit, it was guava & apple. During and after dessert we chatted with Alice and Melanie, discussing various Australian slang, with distant interjections from both Lindy and Phil. At this point, nearly at the moment of our departure, I could say that it would be easy to stay another week. If, however, we were staying on and tomorrow was another work day, I might sing a different tune. It feels appropriate to be moving on at this point, to our next adventure.

We left the Thomas’ farm with a mixture of excitement for our next destination, and sadness at leaving our new friends.  Christina and I both felt that it was time very well spent, learning many things about farming, and also many things about each other.  Christina found that the conditions (working with animals, dirt, bugs, and gross farm stuff) did not hinder her as much as she had feared, and we both learned to work with each other again since our Guest-tek days.  After getting to know the Thomas family it would be very easy to go back to the farm for another round of work.  Laying in our hostel beds, smelling the smoke waft from the shared patio, listening to traffic drone past our windows and the noise of the masses outside, it was easy to fondly reminisce about our stay in the TARDIS where each morning we’d be waken up by our neighborly young rooster who couldn’t quite make a proper call yet.  In town we ended up waiting an extra hour for the late bus, exactly as forecasted by Lindy on our way in, and had an uneventful ride away from Murwillumbah.