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April 12 - 22nd. Sahyma's Sanctuary, Denmark.
-Health warning - this is a long one!
(see the previous Donnybrook entry for an explanation of WWOOFing, tsk don't you know not to skip chapters!)
My introduction to Denmark was a moist one. The bus had pulled off an unheard of in England feat and arrived early and so there wasn't anybody waiting for me when I jumped off so my first mission was to find some shelter. Those 6 steps were hard, man. Any bad omens inherant in the rain were easily dispelled by the massive fully arched rainbow that dominated the skyline, I was still looking and taking pictures of it when the host, Sahyma, pulled up and took me the 15 minutes up the mountain to her farm.
...well, farm is not really the most adequate word, it brings up imahes totally inappropriate to the place I found myself at that Monday evening. True, there was an orchard with trees full of apples, pears, figs etc...and some chooks and geese but whilst on paper this would seem to be the main function of the site this place would prove to be a little different, a bit oft centre if you will. I guess 'hippy' would be the correct word...but it really doesn't do justice to the place. Take every assumption that word makes you think of, multiply it by a thousand and you might be started to approach being close. Lets just say that it was no great surprise to discover that this place was once a small part of a 'community' of people living in the mountains, its fallen a lot since those days till where just Sahyma lives there now but the overall vibe and feel of the place remains, more or less.
Whilst I occasionally fought to keep my opinion to myself as people sprouted all kinds of informed opinions about energy, gurus, goddesses and, of course, yoga (not to mention the sinister role of radio waves in cities...I'd enlighten you but I don't want to scare you) I must say that the place itself was exceedingly beautiful. The views down the mountain-side were truely beyond description, the almost didn't look real, how picture perfect it was. And then there were the birds, emerald green parrot-esque ones I've never seen before as well as a host of the usual suspects that would frequently careen inches infront of your face and the sounds of which almost, but not quite, would soon become ignored as background noise. Even the chooks were unexpectadly friendly, running up to greet you at the enterance to the orchard and then excitedly following you around...it was some contrast to the run at the sight of you type I'd come across so far!
The day to day lifestyle was also different from what I've experiences so far. For a start, Im living outside. Well, in a tent so not really outside but its different none the less, no? Its a bit of a higher quality tent than I'm used to, as in I can fully stand up in it...plus the mattress inside it is a feature I've not come across before...but one that I think should become a fixture in my tent future! Also adding to the outdoor lifestyle was the outside toilets, which were OK enough but would have been considerably better if they had a roof (more on this roof later)...not the most fun when its raining! You've got to have a sense of humour though! Taking matters even further was the outside shower...helpfully situated on a main walkway...and with not so much a piece of paper to shield youself with! Oh well when in Rome (or 'hang on how did I end up in the 60s? land)...one benefit of there only being three of us there (me, Sahyma and another WWOOFer called Taj) was that people walking down that path were rare and I survived the ten days unobserved. The shower was much warmer than I expected and it was certainly a new experience! The only cold part came once you turned off the thing and the breeze hit you, at which point I couldn't get the towel in my hands quick enough! Pity that despite its tiny quick drying benefits it provides me warmth really! And if you think this all sounds odd so far then imagine going to the shower in the heaving down rain...now that was a surreal one!
The working day was more 'make it up as you go along' than I'm used to with Sahyma saying that she didn't mind when the work was done as long as it got done and that we should just set our own schedule. Taj favoured having at least a little order in our days though so we typically met in his caravan (the perk of having arrived first!) for breakfast at 8.15 to be ready to start at 9. A couple of days we pushed it back an hour to 10 but generally stuck with it. This was much later than both the grape picking and the last WWOOF place I'd been at so the only struggle was convincing my body it didn't have to start the shutdown process at 9.30PM! We usually finished around 2, going on a bit later some days, again the finishing times was up to us deciding when we'd done enough. This was certainly not the way I'm used to working! One day I got up, worked and called it a day without even seeing Sahyma once, it feels good to be left to sort yourself out some times.
And so, the work. There was much mowing and I once more had the pleasure of whipper snipping. I didn't get to do as much of the later as I might have because the ever reliable contraption gave up the ghost and wasn't replaced untill the day I left. It was actually annoying because I was only about 15 minutes off completing what had been a big job and the remaining tall grass was within a stones throw of my tent and taunted me every time I entered the campsite.
We carried thing, blocks of wood, tipi poles, garden furniture etc...from place A to place B. Often with stop offs in places C and D, which just happened to be where they got too heavy and we felt like putting them down for a few seconds.
There was also raking. Stop me if I'm going over your head with all this highly technical terminology.
On the Friday we helped out harvesting the orchard, so it was a nice easy shift picking various trees, cutting off plus moveing dead leaves and shifting netting. It was mostly turn-off-brain stuff, enlivened briefly when Taj fell out of a tree. The crashing sound as the tree somehow expelled him horizontally away from it and the two seconds of complete bewilderment on his face would cause him to repeatadly crack up over the next few days...even though he didn't even really see it!
What else did we do...oh, we cut down some rope...that took ten minutes...
Our major task was to build a roof for the outside toilet. I vaguely remember nailing two pieces of wood together almost a decade ago at school. Taj lists 'basic building tasks' on his emails and conceeds that even that is an overstatment. We were just ever so slightly in over our heads, by which I mean we spent far more time stareing at the empty space and scratching our heads than doing anything you could actually see. Over two days we nailed up some string to mark out where to cut the poles (a task during which something went wrong every ten seconds) and ordered some wood. Then we got hopelessly stuck. Then Taj spoke to somebody more in the know on the phone, we thought we were back on track and attacked the task with renewed vigor. Then we got even more hopelessly stuck. Then even more. Then we gave up. Sahyma called a proffesional who looked at it for perhaps thirty seconds before knowing exactly how to complete it, though I'd have left before he got started so wouldn't get to see or benefit from the results. So, maybe that job was a bit over ambitious to give to us then!
We also chucked in putting my tent up as work, we'd been told it would only take ten minutes so it didn't seem like too much of a liberty. Now I can safely say I could put it up in ten minutes because I know what I'm doing. However such knowledge was lacking at the start and goes someway to explain why we were still at it an hour after we had started. Going even further to explain this is the stupid decision we made to look at the instructions, if you've ever had the pleasure of doing this then you know that they rarely corrospond to the real tent, send you off on pointless tangents and generally just lead to confusion and wasted time. Which was exactly the case here. We got it up in the end though, which was good as I didn't fancy sleeping outside all that much.
A life lesson learnt: reversing a trailer up a steep winding path is unwise. Difficult. Tricky. Not the most leisurely manner in which to end the working day. Not knowing the best way to proceed out solution (made up, of course, as we went along) had us driving it someway, detaching it, moving it out of the way a bit, driving the car around it and the back onto it so we could pull it forward again. The first big problem presented itself when we unhooked it and it proceeded to roll down the path, straight towards the plant and flower beds...and a little beyond that the edge of the mountain! It was a bit touch and go as the trailer dragged us along with it as we tryed to force it to a halt but thankfully it stopped before the ledge. And then we couldn't reattach it. Cue some more (very careful) moveing. And then some more. Eventually it relunctantly slotted in. As we drove it up the site we did our best to ignore the creaking and occasionally crashing sounds coming from behind us. Every once in a while I'd look around to make sure it was still there, thats all we were asking for by this point. Well, in the end we got it back where we found it that morning, it was a good thing it was the last task for the day as we really weren't up for doing anything else after that! All that remains is to note my sympathys to the car, which must have aed about ten years!
On the first Wednesday we needed to swing by the shops to pick up a few things, plus Sahyma needed to be that way for yoga in the evening, so the opportunity was taken to have a look at some of the beaches in the area. They're bigger in depth than the ones I've come across so far, one in particular stretching back a seemingly impossible distance. There was the possibility of tackling some of the walking tracks whilst yoga was in progress but Taj and myself were still a little broken from word (I believe this was trailer-day) and so opted to clamber out onto the rocks and collapse there a time untill the sun set over the water and it was time to collect Sahyma. Roads look different in the dark. Why did nobody tell us this? With some great map reading (I deserve praise!) we just about made it back with a minute to spare. Plus we got to see more of those lesser discovered dead end lanes that I seem to be drawn to so much.
Whilst I'm mentioning driving: Kangaroos. They don't half like those dark roads. Whilst I am becoming more accustomed to them I still find it impressive when one is illuminated by the headlights, its head props up, looks out way and then hops away into the night, I'm still caught of guard by the actual way the hoping looks...perhaps I'm not as accoustomed as I profess!
One night when we were blessed with a cloudless night (summer had ended two months had so it shouldn't be that surprising that the rain is becoming more frequent) and there was no wind in the air we got the campfire doing in the camping field. In spite of 7 years camping festival experience I must confess my fire starting skills are less than great. Taj's lesser still. Well, we're making everything else up as we go along so why not this too?! I mean what could possibily go wrong? That's not my tent over there with all my things in it or anything...clearly beginners luck plays a big role in fires as I can proudly report we got a good one going, I even had some difficulties getting some of the bigger logs to stop smoldering when I went to sleep (they eventually yielded to a combination of tonnes of water and my frantically stamping feet!) We ate out by the fire and after a while Taj went off to his caravan leaving me lying in the heat of the fire looking up at the amazingly vivid stars above, I don't think I've ever seen them so clearly. It was a bit of a reflective moment, 2 and a half months back when I left who could have predicted this instance...yet alone the thousand inbetween.
On the Friday night we headed into Denmark. Where there is a pub. So a pint or two. And a band. So music! I realise I've not seen any live music the whole time I've been in the country so far...thankfully this was great introduction! They were called Mood Swings and were a local bunch playing a king of ska, rocky mix. They were rather good. It was also interesting to see the community side of Denmark, unusual in my experience the whole remographic of the town was represented, from those who look like they have every right to look nervous they'll get asked for ID at the bar (though this seems a lot more lax than in the UK) to the grey/no hair contingent. The atmosphere was really welcoming and positive, especially the closer you got to the dance floor, that being increasingly hectic as the night wore on. With everybody dancing, some who I'd run into up the mountain during the week and still more I'd met that night, it would have been rude not to join in. Your honour.
The next night the plan was to go to some kind of open muic poetry, performance cafe thing. I clearly had been paying 100% attention when I'd been told what it was but figured I'd soon work it out once we got there. Only I wouldn't get the change because in a case of organisational breakdown we've got the wrong date and its actually happening next Saturday night. Slight failure! Denmark appears dead but we're still very much up for doing something...logical and obvious solution...drive to the next town, Albany, and see if anything is happening there. Sometimes the random, unexpected nights turn out the best...other times they fall totally on their faces and you wish you'd never bothered. Place your bets...
There's a marquee set up bang slap in the middle of town. Closer inspection reveals that several acts from the recent Fairbridge festival (that I had at one point planned on working at) are housed with. Could have worked out worse really. So, for the second night running there's music in my life. But not right away as the first thing we see is a three piece circus style act who were just the tiniest bit amazing. Anything incorportating the words 'juggling' and 'fire' usually sits well with me! The final act of the night is very much the country music cliche, all cowboy hats and boots. Just a smidge out of my usual field of experience then. But it sure looks more fun to join in the masses dancing than sit with a bemussed expression at the back...plus the excersize will be good for me! I don't really know how to dance this way (not that I really know how to dance any other way) but manage a fair approximation of those around me, it became less self-concious as the set progressed and I must hold my hands up to enjoying myself. I'm not a hardcore country music convert by any means...but most things are good in small doses you know!?
Sunday was market day, time to sell all that stuff we picked on Friday! We had to wake up a massive 15 minutes earlier than usual to have a last minute pick and get the car packed up. Hard life, grumble, grumble. This was meant to be a day of work but it didn't feel like that once it was over. The word 'market' had out images in my head that were wholely inappropriate to the coming reality, I more or less saw a busy Northampton open air style market, all hussel and bussel and shouting of fruit prices. Customer service retail work...I could swear I'd left that half a world behind. This image could not have been further from the truth, there was half a dozen stalls set up in a tranquil forest clearing, we were the only (loosely) business one there, the rest being other locals selling things they made for a hobby. Cut-throat and competitive it was not. It was also lacking in customers, we took 150 bucks over 4 hours, at first there seemed to be a customer were 5, 10 minutes but it dropped off quickly and I struggle to recall if we had a single one in the final hour.
It could have got quite boring just being sat there. There were diversions available though, at one particularly sleepy point I took a wander into the forest and down to the inlet that did a good job of waking me up. Offering more consistent help was the stage which we'd set up directly across from, on which a host of locals set about their mellow acoustic trade. It was mostly extreemly good, although at times it was best to let the lyrics fade across without notice, mostly concerning as they did spiritual energy museings and embaressingly preachy save the enviroment, respect mother earth type. Bloody hippies eh? The last bunch we saw are worth a special mention, they were instantly noticeable from the moment they pulled up with the van full of instruments. These were all made from junk...and they'd certainly found a lot of junk. They assembled it all in a giant circle in the middle of the clearing and set about half improvising for the better part of an hour. Again it was a touch preachy but the sense of fun was infectious and the insistant, pounding rhythm of it all was mezmerising. Hmm, perhaps we did have customers in the last hour but I didn't pay any attention to them...
As it was a decent day we headed straight from there to a nearby beach. I wasn't in a very collapse and relax mood so I climbed around on the rocks a bit, getting half drenched by a wave that really didn't look like it would come that far in and then watching a host of crabs scurry back to their hiding place under the rocks that the wave had swept them from. They move funny. I expect you've heard. I then followed a roughtly marked out pathway through the forest, up and down two hills, until I reached a secluded lake. It was very peacefull and free of the wind that was plagueing the beach. I collapsed there and relaxed for a half hour, clearly I just needed to get some physical activity out of my system before I could surrender. Throughout my walk there and back I saw not a soul, it felt like I was totally alone but for some reason that felt like a good thing.
We didn't stay up the mountain even a half hour before we headed back into town for a BBQ at 'the centre' (of something enviromental, it didn't seem important to ask.) It was a decent, chilled evening, with great food and even better conversation. It had been a non-stop day and I was more than ready for sleep when we finally got back. Luckily the next day was out day off so I invested it doing nothing more effortful than changing songs on my mp3 player and reaching for biscuits.
Thew, I think thats most of it covered. This has been considerably longer than usual...congratulations for getting this far! Clearly a lot happened over this ten day period! I'm sure there's more if I think for a minute or two but its probably best to settle with thats forgotten being forgotten for prosperity. My hand is screaming 'please stop wiring you fool before I fall off.' So yes, thats what I'll stick with.
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