My time at Leon and Cathy's was fun. Leon was quite knowledgeable about birds and when he found out I was interested in birds he didn't waste an opportunity to identify a bird or a bird call. The work wasn't too bad either, general gardening/farming work. For the first five days I was the only WWOOFer they had. Then I was joined by another WWOOFer from Italy. After spending my first month in Oz wandering around Sydney and Melbourne by myself and then going out to the middle of nowhere it was quite nice to have someone to hang out with. So nice in fact that when the other WWOOFer, Giulia, told me she was leaving I joined her and went back to Melbourne. Working on the farm was an enjoyable experience, but I sort of felt trapped being there. It was about an hour from the nearest thing that could be called a town and their closest neighbors lived 4 km away. It was just a bit too isolated for me to be the only WWOOFer there. But I did get to see a lot of wildlife, including a couple venomous snakes. Wallabies, an echidna, a koala, blue-tongued lizards, red-bellied black snake, and tiger snake were among the animals that I spotted. The bird count was even greater and I even learned to identify a few birds by their songs.
The past 5 or 6 days we've seen nothing but rain. There has been a constant light rain with few breaks. Though things are beginning to look better. I finally saw the sun for the first time in several days yesterday afternoon and it ended up being a beautiful afternoon and evening. Today has started off sunny and it's supposed to be that way all day. The rains around Melbourne have been nothing compared to the rains that have fallen in parts of Queensland. The extent of the flooding up north is incredible. House have been lifted from their stumps and carried away by the torrent of water, towns have been turned into islands with floodwaters cutting off access to them.
For now the plan is to find another host to WWOOF at for a week or so, and then spend a few more days in Melbourne. It's been nice having a traveling companion, I am enjoying Giulia's company and getting lessons in Italian as well. I have learned that if I add a vowel to the end of a word and say it with an Italian accent I have about an 80% chance of saying it correctly in Italian. I don't know where I'll go after I leave Melbourne. Could be Adelaide. Could be Tasmania. Could be Perth. Who knows. I probably won't know until I buy the bus or train ticket to take me there.
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