[EN] Kangaroo Valley, Terrewah Farm and Brogo Permaculture Gardens

Off to our next wwoofing ! Kangaroo Valley is our next destination. We are from aware at that point that we are driving towards a beautiful lush green valley, inhabited by my all time favourite aussie animal, the wombat, and by amazing people to whom the idea of being self-sufficient isn't just up in the air but an actual practical and economical daily way of living.

We decide to stop first by the Eight Pools in the Royal National Park. It looks beautiful ! Already the road crossing the park into the forest immerses us right into the Nature, a welcomed feeling of serenity after all the hustle and bustle of urban Sydney. Then the trek itself is superb. Stroke of luck for us as we hadn't checked, the tides are good for us to get onto the flattened and nature-carved rocks, sizzeled by the relentless waves. We are alone, the tide is coming up again, threatening to close the pathway with its oncoming waves, we feel pretty small. Hurrying up we finally reach the beach safely. We cross path with beautiful lezards which are not so afraid of us as well as indifferent little wallabys watching us curiously from the side of the path. We come back in half the time indidated on the starting sign, pretty proud of it !

We get back on the road, leave the coast behind and start driving inland. The road starts to wind around the hills. Suddenly, we brake, something is crossing the road. It is an echidnea ! This little animal, all spiky and as cute as its european cousin, dugs its nose into the soil as we approach it. No way to see its little snout again so we leave.

The forest is magical. The sun plays with the leaves, lighting them in all shades of green, sometimes falling in straight golden rays. We feel like we are reaching so kind of enchanted valley, as we would in a fairy tale. We cross the little village and start towards Terrewah, our destination, about 10min away from the village.

Tom sees his first wombat, unfortunately, it is with its 4-feet in the air, dead alongside the road. Lucky for us the next wombat has its feet on the ground and we pass by really close. Wombats are little vegetarian bears with a big black snout and a very hairy round face, as if coming straight out of a cartoon. I am crazy about them but we are arriving so i need to pull it together a bit.

Kirsty, Andrew and Jayden, their 8 year old son, welcome us into their home, on top of a small hill. We let you discover above through some aerial views their beautiful farm.

We discover a family and a community incredibly self-sufficient. It is both born out of awareness about our planet of course but also because it is simply a less expensive life-style ! Getting pluged into the electrical network for instance is done nowadays by private companies and has become extremely expensive. Moreover they provide quotes which are merely indications and mostly always come out more expensive than planned. It used to be cheaper to get pluged in when the service was public, and at least it was a fixed amount. Anyhow, nowadays, several homes in this valley are therefor equipped with solar pannels that make them self-sufficient in energy but also using rainwater tanks for their water supply and either geothermia or wood boilers or solar boilers and properly oriented houses to fulfill their heating or cooling needs, most have a veggie patch and some chickens too.

At Terrrewah, we live the daily life of the family, market gardening preparing for the weekly farmer's market, sheep moving and lamb care for those little lambs that require feeding everyday as they have been rejected by their mother,etc. Kirsty and Andrew also present to us their project as they have imagined it some years ago and are currently implementing every year a little further. Their design is centered around two sheds of which one is a welcome center for the visitors and the other, already existing, remains for the preparation and storage of the veggetables. There will be several self-contained units which will be spread out in between the planted trees on the cleared side of the hill in order to host tourists who will be able to enjoy fresh products from the farm. It reminds us of our own project ! It is really interesting and we learn a lot discussing their project as well as their adventures during the implementation. On Thursday, it is market day and we help with the preparation and then we are free to wander around the market. We meet an organic vegetable farmer who is an absolute fan of compost, it is nice to meet such enthusiastic people. We also talk with a lady who makes pickles and another who sales micro-greens.

During the week we visit Jamie who explains us how he built his strawbale house. His adventure is recounted HERE. We also take an appointment with Peter, the brother in law of Duncan from Bombah Point, who built a small mudbricks business. You can find him on our website to learn a bit more this technique which we will see again applied to various houses we'll visit later on. On a hunch, we also decide to call the local blacksmith, Mark, who accepts straight away to welcome us in his shop to discover how to work metal step-by-step. Working with fire is fascinating and we are captivated by the serenity of working with metal, the meditative regularity and the huge physical effort, all this vital energy transfered into the created object. It is truly poetic. Find out his explanations and his universe in this article here below. We also discover the incrEDIBLE Gardens of Peter Brandis, who provides some veggetables to Terrewah for the market and experiments a lot of different gardenning styles. We learn a lot there in such little time, we recommend the articles about him and some of his techniques below.

We take our leave from Terrewah and the Kangaroo Valley after a very educative experience. There is here a real sense of community and environmental protection values that are translating into real life concrete and adapted lifestyles. This is a place, we think, that is going in the right direction. Next we are passing through Jervis Bay, which we are told is great. It actually is, Mermaid's Inlet is breathtaking, and not only because of the strong wind there.

Jervis Bay's beaches of which some are beautiful white sand are equally beautiful too but the coastal development with all its high-end houses and its « no camping » and other « no something » signs give us the feeling of not being particularly welcome there.

Off to Bega Valley, the little more rustic sister of Kangaroo Valley, where we have a meeting with John Champagne, of Brogo Permaculture Gardens. He practices permaculture for more than 20 years and his place is a good reflection of what this concept represents. At its center, the house, built by the Champgane family and their friends, mud-brick based. It is beautiful.

You cannot imagine the serenity of the round-angled house which gives a special nice and cosy atmosphere. Light enters bu golden rays and illuminates here some stained glass window, here a green plant, some shelves are molded into the walls and one can seat by the window on the sun warmed mudbrick. The ceiling is high and the wood beams visible. The vegetable garden is close to the house, the way from garden to fork is the most efficient. Then comes the orchard divided into several zones.

I am not redoing the article on his place, you will find it here below, and don't forget to look up his various technical videos which are talking about a few very interesting garden design techniques !