After a couple of days in Manly, Charlotte and I joined up with Lucy and headed back to Eagle Rock Farms. The girls had been working there – looking after the owners’ 2 year old son and doing housework stuff. They only had 1 week to go, so I had planned to join them and see what the Australian countryside was like.

The farm is located in an area called Joadja. It’s pretty sparse out there, with the nearest town, Mittagong, a 20 minute drive away. So walking into town to do some shopping or to have a drink with the girls was a non-starter. So we set about making our own fun; a few nice long walks, seeing all the animals lots of tea and biscuits by the fires, card games, and lots of sketching for my next animation.

It’s the middle of winter in Australia at the moment it’s actually pretty cold out here, and the cold is made much more intense by the constant, strong winds. My job at the farm is to keep the fires stocked with plenty of wood. With 3 fires, that’s no easy task! It takes 12 wheelbarrow loads to stock the log stacks either side of the main fireplace, which takes about 45 minutes a couple of times per week. Big effort.

I really enjoyed the first 3 or 4 days at the farm, but in our last couple of days, a hurricane hit the Joadja region! It was pretty mental. Trees being ripped out of the ground, powerlines coming down, smoke blowing back down the chimneys and filling the house… the lot! It did make the end of our stay pretty challenging – there was a powercut, and as the water ran on an electric pump – no power, no water, no joy. But never mind. My hosts, Ric and Jen, were very kind to let me stay, so big thanks to them.

Next stop, Sydney.