A 15 minute walk from the farm we are staying on, is another farm-in-the-making, Le Mogli, where an Austrian guy called Guenther, who I am guessing is in his early 20s, lives and works in a 300 year old stone ruin. Bit by bit he's fixing it up, sleeping on the roof in the meantime, and he's experimenting with permaculture gardens, building clay pizza ovens, and getting to know the wild herbs and vegetables in the surrounding forest. I have never seen anything as beautiful as that forest, where you can walk along and pick wild asparagus to munch on, and every time I ask Guenther what this plant is, he seems to have an answer. 'That's plantane, a medicinal herb used to make cough syrup,' he tells me.
The day was magical not just because of Guenther's amazing stories and tour of the farm, but because of the people. I had a long and involved chat with a traveller called Volcan, who is recovering from a nasty parasite he ingested in Columbia, resulting in 13 days in hospital in Rome. The poor guy didn't have any travel insurance, but happily he didn't have to pay thanks to public health care. We covered all aspects of nutrition, one of my favourite topics, especially for how he should rebuild his health. We also covered about a thousand other topics which held me gripped for hours, and this is a big deal for me as without sign language I don't really expect to get much more than a superficial conversation in here and there when I'm travelling.
Jesse too found a soul-mate, a 20 or so year old called Glen who has 7 brothers and sisters. I tell people I have 7 brothers and sisters, and that there are 8 of us altogether. Glen, it turns out, has 7 brothers AND 7 sisters! He is number 3, which could explain why he was so good with kids. He took Jesse off into the bush and made him a bow & arrow out of sticks and vines, and a tube of bamboo slung over his shoulder where he stored them. Jesse felt like a warrior and led us all home through the forest at the end of the day. He told me when he's grown up he's going to go and live with Glen. Until now he's been adament he'll live with Paula and me his whole life.
Above is a snapshot of the house Guenther lives in. You can see Guenther on the left, working on the pizza in the wood fired oven, and Glenn standing up on the right with a bandana over his head.
This is a snap of another abandoned ruin near by, built 300 years ago. You can buy ruins like this for just 12,000 euro, which got me fantasising, I tell you... maybe I'll come and live here with Jesse and Glen!
this holiday sounds like a dream!
Fixie: Oh Eilis it really is.. we are so lucky :) I think this is the best trip I've ever been on, and I've travelled a lot, believe me!
Posted by: Eilis | 24 June 2009 at 08:41 PM