Hello guys :) Another busy week in the horse rehab went by
and .... I could tell you interesting stories about how I'm getting better in preparing the horse feeds and stuff... how I started to settle in the valley and got a bit used to the work and know all "my" horses' faces and names...
But maybe I'm too lazy to do that (and convinced that most of you wouldn't find it very interesting anyway..)
So I show you pictures of some four-legged beauty here
That's Elvis!
Jock
Diva, she's such a sweetheart... my favourite girl! She gets the prize for the softest nose
In our feed room there lives a possum.. since one year he steals the horses' apples and carots every night... living the great life! Because he is so used to people, he's half-tame and took food out of my hand... and I even could carefully stroke his face! How cool and cute is he...
It came to me at last, that thing everyone was silently expecting to happen for a long time already... last week I gathered together all my stuff spread over Dom's house and moved away from Buddina - at last!
Now I'm living in a little cabin in a hidden valley near a big lake, with the edge of the forest on one side and horse paddocks on the other side. We named it "The Beaver Lodge" (don't ask why). I'm sharing the beaver lodge only with a big spider, and my closest neighbour is the horse Stigsy.
It's a rehabilitation centre for horses, owned by Wendy who knows a whole lot about training horses and all kinds of therapies for horses, like bowen therapy, laser therapy, massage, accupuncture and accupressure... together with Katie, her "apprentice", she runs the place. At the moment we are looking after 24 horses.
I just managed to memorize all their names, their habits and their feed plans, who is in which paddock and why they are here: Most of them are racing horses, being trained or being on a break right now, some are injured and here for treatment, some are just babies growing up and having their first lessons, some are pregnant, some just live here, ... most of them are really nice, some are a bit cranky, some are just so sweet, and all of them are utterly beautiful. And they all smell good. Guess who missed horses.
And when I want, I can get on this one, George, who is not only a nice dude, but maybe the most well-trained horse I've ever sat on -
I tell you, I think I scored again, big time. Ridiculously lucky, once more.
Finding the position, applying for it, being invited to check it all out, and confirming to move in and do it - it all happened within 24 hours! Before that, I had planned to go to a place near Toowoomba and do workaway, and I still feel sorry for calling this nice lady and telling her that I'm not coming because I found a better and more convenient position... but well, there is another year for me to come! ;)
Altough the first days after I moved away from Buddina were hard, I admit - I went from lazy, sunny, happy weeks in good company and comfort to a life in a cold cabin, getting up early, working, cooking for myself again, having mostly horses for company ... being lonely for my Buddina people, for my Kitty! And for the contact to the outside world via Internet.
I couldn't even watch SCHLAND win the soccer World Cup!!
(SCHLAAAAAND!!!! SCHLAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!! SCHLAAAAAAAND!!! #ausrast)
But it's all good now. When I think about it, I couldn't have found a better place - I get my 88 days for the second year working holiday visa, I can work with horses, so I'm pretty much doing something that I did as a hobby for most of my life, I can do horseback riding on a great horse, I meet new people and learn new things.... and it is not far away at all. For Aussie conditions just down the road from Dom's place, so I can visit him, Kitty and Kiwani on my work-free Sundays, and also really close to my cleaning job, which is awesome because so I can keep doing it and making money.
This is what I will be doing until September... until I go to another festival, see the Lion King Musical and then fly off to Bali, Indonesia. Don't ask me what will happen after that, I will make up my mind... but there is one thing that I definitely keep in mind all the time... the Woodford Folk Festival on Christmas... :)
.....
But before I left to work in the horse rehab, there was one more thing... not to be forgotten... the Beards concert!
Who told you to shave off your beard?!
The Beards concert!
Since I saw them playing on Bluesfest, I was a fan - listening to and singing their beard-related songs, stroking beards whenever I could get my hands on one, thinking seriously about opening up a Beard Accessory Store, trying to enlighten my beardless Dad (I know, what a shame...) because you know, if your Dad doesn't have a beard, you've got two beardless Mums..... admiring the beards of random strangers and telling them "Damn that's a nice beard!", advice all the beardless people that they should urgently grow a beard, and of course trying hard to grow a decent beard myself... but being a girl, all my efforts were in vain and I had to rely on convincing paint-on beards. What matters is that I tried!
The gig itself was of course great - very funny and beardy! And so many good bushy proudly worn beards everywhere... Beard heaven *_*
So young, full of running
Tell me, where is that taking me?
Just a great figure eight or a tiny infinity?
Love is really nothing
but a dream that keeps waking me
for all of my trying
we still end up dying
how can it be?
Don't say a word, just come over and lie here with me
'Cause I'm just about to set fire to everything I see
I want you so bad, I'd go back on the things I believe
There, I just said it, I'm scared you'll forget about me.
So young, full of running
all the way to the edge of desire
steady my breathing
silently screaming
I have to have you now.
Wired, and I'm tired
think I'll sleep in my clothes on the floor
maybe this mattress
will spin on its axis
and find me on yours.
Don't say a word, just come over and lie here with me
'Cause I'm just about to set fire to everything I see
I want you so bad, I'd go back on the things I believe
There, I just said it, I'm scared you'll forget about me.
Sunday, 13 July 2014
Too many changes, I'm a bit overwhelmed, sorry people! I'll write soon and hopefully have internet soon agaon. But I'm good, I found a new friend called George:
Alright, me! Gulping gargoyles, I feel like I just turned 17 a little while ago, and now I am seriously twenty-one? I can't believe it...
At the same time, this 30th of June marked the day when it's been exactly one year that I left a whole life behind - parents, childhood, friends - ever-available company and security - I traded it all in for what people might call "the ultimate freedom".
One can argue about that - if it was really the ultimate freedom I got or just another sort of golden cage - but no one can change it now anyway, and one thing is for sure: I don't regret a thing!
There's a little shout-out about that on the end of the post.
So my birthday: 2 cakes (one from Kiwani, one from Blair), 2 books (one from Dom and one that came per post from my Anna Blume in Germany), a pair of eco thongs from Travers, a skype date with my parents, a big dinner feast and a sunset over the sea and at least 21 hugs and cuddles and Happy Birthday wishes and countless lovely messages and wishes from good people who thought of me... I really can't complain!
Watch out for the little cute girls with the big knives! :D :D
And then... welcome to the "Curl up and dye Hairsalon"!
With Dom's and Kiwani's help I bleached some more dreadies and looked, according to Travers, like a gladwrap bride... ;)
And because the long-awaited BEARDS gig is coming up next Saturday, Dom thought he's gotta do something with his beard... and so he dyed it. I couldn't convince him to make some little beard-dreadies and bleach them, too...
And on the weekend we went for another paddle with Gombar the canoe, this time up the Mooloolah River and with Kiwani for pretty company
Just look, just have a little look on where I was at one single little year ago.
I was SO enthusiastic, young, wild, free, bursting with wanderlust and hunger for adventure and new big things. I was full of questions to big to ask anyone, too big to even put into proper words. I was reckless, I was bold, I was naive, I was scared and I was brave, I was so goddamn energetic. I felt like I could do anything, and what is true, I COULD do anything. I left a whole life behind, a whole childhood, parents, friends and safety, everything. It feels like there was no kid in the world that was more lucky and more independent and more - more in the spirit of being 20. I was sooooooo 20!
I was so happy. I forged my own luck, or I just had the fate to be so very lucky, I don't really know.
I was so grateful, I still am, sooo grateful. (OOOh sooo thaankful, OOH soo thaaankful! #Nahko)
I still feel like "Gratitude" should be my second name, I still feel almost desperate because I just don't know how to express, where to put all my happiness and gratitude.
Because I had the most awesome and wonderful year of my life - so far!
There is no other way to say it - it was filled with wonder and adventure, beautiful nature, vastness and new insights in little things, the marvels of new friendship, very special kinds of love of which I never seriously thought that they would exist in reality.
Beauty in things you can see and even greater beauty in the things you can not see.
How could I not be above all clouds with happiness and full of gratitude beyond all measure.
Dear God and Great Spirit, Buddha and Pacha Mama, all you stars and suns and moons in my universe, believe me, I am so happy and so grateful!
Don't you ever think I am not, don't you ever think I take it for granted or don't value it... I do.
I got what I asked for, and more.
Did I grow up? I'm not sure. Maybe a bit, but I'm definitely still young! Definitely still barely more than a kid.
I'm apologizing for the delayed blog post, but as a compensation I have some good pictures from our
40 km canoe trip on the Upper Noosa River :)
Dom here had been wanting a new canoe for years (his old one got stolen!) and last Tuesday, we looked up second hand canoes on Gumtree (something like ebay), just for fun - and there was one very cheap beautiful canoe for sale, just a few km away from us and in very good condition - and even in my favourite colour red! There was no big fuss about it - we called the seller, and 15 minutes later we were at his place, loading the red canoe on the roof rack of Dom's car.
So fast it goes!
We dubbed the red canoe "Gombar" - that is an aboriginal word from the Gubbi Gubbi tribe - the tribe that is native to the Sunshine Coast area here. With boyish pride Dom painted the name on the bow, together with a watchful eye, to make it look a bit like the canoe in the book about Native Americans/ Indians which we are reading at the moment :D
Of course, once we had the canoe, there was no stopping us in planning another camping trip - but this time travelling on water instead of on roads, and with our own paddeling arm power instead of a motor!
The destination was soon clear: The Noosa Everglades in the Great Sandy National Park up north, near Noosaville.
The plan: launch the canoe on Lake Cootharaba, paddle across the lake and into the mouth of the Upper Noosa River, and then onwards until we had enough, find a pretty campspot and spend the night there, and paddle back on the next day.
So off we went! The first time I sat in a canoe for me!
The whole area is just sandy and swampy, with lots of melaluca trees,
paperbark trees, massive smooth and shiny ghost gums, cyprus pines and heaps of reeds. The river flows so slow that one can hardly see the water movement, and it is pitch black and still like a perfect mirror.
Can you imagine how beautiful and peaceful it is? I stared at these ever-changing, yet always kind of the same looking banks for hours on end and never got sick of the serenity and beauty of the place.
Usually it's really quiet there - if there are no german tourists giggling and splashing their paddles...
Evening paddle
In the sunlit bush itself there were not many big animals - no kangaroos or koalas, because it's all so wet and swampy. Just birds, all kinds of birds, feral pigs (we saw just the tracks) and goanna. One was at home in the big gumtree just next to our campsite.
I left my arty fingerprints on Gombar the canoe as well
After a few gallivanting bushwalks, a pasta dinner, a night under starry clear skies, a warm kaba and a cold swim in the river on the next morning, we packed up and meandered downstream again.
Just in time to watch the sun set over the lake and spill the most amazing colours all over sky and water.
"Over there, near that beaver lodge!"
"Can you show me se weyy to ze ooshen? Ze ooshen!"
"Wouldn't you call this meeaaaaandering?"
"Bullsharks!"
Sighhh......
And now... because you can never have enough photos of the cutest little hardcore purrer in the world!
I was hopping from rock to rock in a riverbed in Conondale National Park, and not for a second I thought that I would maybe see a platypus because they are renowned for being so very shy (and mostly nocturnal). Most Australians have never seen one in the great outdoors! And yet - there I spotted one, just a few metres away, just for one second or something, a small brown furry thing with a flat tail, paddling behind a sheltering log.
In the very first nano sec I thought it's a beaver because of the flat tail (and probably because we're just reading a book about beaver), but then I reminded myself that I'm in Australia and that it must have been a real wild live platypus I just saw. Lucky :)
Dom and me had been planning to dive into a bush camping trip since weeks already, and this week we finally went, out west into a big chunk of untapped rainforest which is called Conondale National Park. Really, I don't have to go on an tell you how beautiful it is out there, you can see the pictures and get an idea
rolling hills stretching out to the horizon, densely wooded with
little crispy cold creeks in the valleys
(that was before he fell into the creek - again :D )
and calm deep green ponds and waterholes - in summer it would be a perfect haven to swim in, but now that it's Queensland winter we didn't really feel like jumping in
rocky gorges with waterfalls in the sunshine
... and the stony riverbeds where the platypus live!
Can you hear the water murmuring and rippling and the leaves rustling and whispering, and the warm rocks under bare feet in the sun, and the icy coolness of the crystal clear creek water in shadowy spots, and how your feet and legs tickle when you wade out because of your stimulated blood circulation, and how earthy-mossy-woody a rotten half overgrown log smells when you sit on it..
then you go and set up camp in some remote clearing next to a dirt road, probably going nowhere, in a remote spot in this remote big rainforest
Onions, eggs, tomatoes and rice, chocolate, guitars by the fireside, cosy sleeping bags and bright twinkling stars, just you and me and a cuppa tea :)
...and in the morning: one of Dom's dreaded migraine attacks :( So we made ourselves scarce as fast as we could. Happy hippies in the forest adventure - to be continued next week.
great view on Obi Obi valley
What else is new - ah ja!
SCHLAND OOOOH SCHLAND!!!! OEELOELOELOELOELOEEEE DEUTSCHLAND DEUTSCHLAND ES IST FUSSBAL WM!!!
Da waer ich ja keine Deutsche wenn ich nicht wenigstens zu WM Zeiten vor dem Fernseher sitzen wuerde und bei jedem Tor all die Aussies um mich rum wissen lassen wuerde, dass wirs halt in Sachen Fussball einfach drauf haben....! MUELLERRR!!!
:))) Aber oh, ich vermisse den schwarz rot goldenen Fussball Rummel! Denn hier hab ich keine farbverschmierten Backen, keine Fangesaenge in der Muttersprache, kein Rudelgucken, keine Autokorsos. Die Australier sind wenns um Fussbal geht einfach LANGWEILIG! Kein Wunder, die sind ja auch so schlecht. Spaetestens wenn die Gruppenphase rum ist, muss ich mir hier ein paar Deutsche suchen, die um 5 Uhr morgens mit mir aufstehen und sich voller Enthusiasmus vor den Fernseher hocken, um das beste Team der Welt anzufeuern.
Und Kitty? She's growing! But still just too sweet to be real, isn't she
On another sunset walk to Point Cartwright, we found dozens of little fish that had been washed on the sand... some of them were still alive and after admiring their silver-blueish beauty, we chucked them back into the waves.
That's how some more cool shots of Doofus Dom were taken
Damn damn damn that's a nice beard!
And well... sunset time on the Point is always a source of great photos.
Never boring for me!
Right now I feel just like a leaf on a breeze
who knows where it's blowin
who knows where it's goin?
I find myself somewhere I never thought I'd be
I'm going round in circles
thinking about you and me.
How do I explain it when I don't know what to say
What do I do now? So much has changed.
Nothing I have ever known has made me feel this way
Nothing I have ever seen has made me wanna stay
Here I am, ready for you
I'm torn and I'm falling, I hear my home calling
Hey, I've never felt something so strong
It's like nothing I've ever known.
You're the one I'm looking for
You're the one I need
You're the one that gives me a reason to believe
Following a star has lead to where you are
It feels so strong now
this can't be wrong now.
Nothing I have ever known has made me feel this way
