It's good to eat fruit!

Today I catch a bus to Hobart, well, Huonville actually. Saves a few days riding! If I'd organised myself earlier I could have ridden down, but alas, I did not! Nevermind!

I stayed at Windermere for four days. Was lovely. Very relaxing compared to the next Woofer! Judy had a lot of Grass Roots magazines. Have you seen it in the shops? I thought it was only a recent-ish magazine... and I was reading copies from the early '80's. Wow. Was very cool to read about all these people's experiences about buying a farm/property out in the country and starting their life there, growing veggies and fruit, DIY stuff, just kinda living the "simple life"! Gave me lots and lots of ideas and some inspiration and some motivation. But even know I still don't know what to do. But I do know that the idea of living in the country, in Tasmania somewhere, in the future, sounds very, very appealing to me!! My Woofing quest/journey will enable me to see how all these different country-folk live and I can add to the list of what would be an ideal home!

I ate lots of plums at Judy's, especially those small yellow ones! Yummo!! Her neighbour had a massive, massive tree full of 'em, all falling to the ground! One night I went for a walk and I was still a bit hungry. I said to myself, "Damn, I wish there was a plum tree right here". A few houses down, and there was a big yellow plum tree!

After I left Judy's place I rode to Hillwood and stayed the night. I camped at a park near the jetty. I was sleeping well until I got woken about 11am by some young guys around my age. They were trying to go fishing but had forgotten their bait. They were a bit drunken and well, didn't make me feel safe at all. I stayed in my tent and quickly messaged my aunt to let her know exactly where I was. I didn't want to get out of my tent so the guys would know I was a female alone. They hovered around a while, and then came back later and were a bit curious as to who was in the tent. I made some noise to let them know someone was in there but didn't talk, to reveal my gender. Eek. I'm sure they would have done no harm, but still, I didn't feel safe at that moment at all.

Prior to setting up camp a local had advised that it wasn't really a good camping spot and had suggested a place further down the road, which was practically in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't about to set up camp in the middle of nowhere where only one man knew where I was! So I had decided instead on the park near the jetty, where at least there would be people around. The young guys left and then I was woken at 3am by a father yelling abuse at his young teenage daughter, who was apparantly doing drugs or something. He was trying to knock some "sense" into her. Damn abusive man!

Makes me feel so grateful for my life. I have the best parents, well, the best mother and had the best upbringing ever. A very safe home, warm, loving environment. The best. I feel so sorry for children who have to put up with some cold, negative parents and you know, basically just feel unsafe.

Left Hillwood and rode up to George Town and spent the day there. Nice town, quite big, lots of tourists around (as usual!). Relunctuntly bought some veggies from the supermarket, and bought some yummy dates and macadamia nuts.

Spent the night down at Batman Bridge. Wow! Beautiful, beautiful location. Gorgeous river, gorgeous mountains, everything was perfect. I met several other people camping there, some families in their campervans, a young guy on his motorbike, all really nice people. There was even a fruit stall there! They had the most amazing apricots ever!!!! Seriously, wow!!

I went to bed and thought, wow, life can't get any better. Went to sleep and was awoken during the night to hear some scrambling about. Someone trying to break into my tent! I soon worked out it was some local possums, trying to get to my fruit!!! Argh! I pulled the fruit into my tent (it was under the cover of my tent) but the possums were still trying to get through my tent, to the fruit. They stayed for hmm, an hour or so possibly... and then left. Damn! Scared me! haha They're only possums, but I was still scared!

A few days before I had bought a copy of Fit For Life, a great book, even though I don't agree with everything they say. I had bought it on the intention of giving it to someone but I couldn't think of who.

So the next morning I bought more fruit at the stall and the lady tells me, "The cherries are really nice! I can't eat them though, cos I'm on a diet". It puzzled me as to why she couldn't eat fruit when she was on a diet, so then I remembered I had my Fit For Life book. As I left the bridge I gave it to her and she was surprised but thankful. Yay. I hope she reads it and learns lots from it! And starts eating some fruit!!

Okay, I wanna talk about the organic farm I went to at Yorktown but I have to pack my things and get the bus down to Huonville. Yay, I can't wait!! There's a festival of sorts I'm going to. Check it out at http://www.huon.org/

Eat fruit!

P.