Ware's Jewellsy?: A holiday, a change of scene and lots and lots of mud!

Following our last WWOOF we spent 4 days being complete tourists in Barcelona which was just lovely. There was quite a bit of rain on the first day which was a bit of a pain (although Tegan is happy as she got a Mini mouse umbrella from the experience) but we found ourselves a cheap hotel outside the city and a short bus trip each day took us to the centre. We pottered around the sites and discovered that paying 10 Euro a day for the menu of the day option in a restaurant was the way to eat cheaply – this only went wrong once when we made a bad choice of restaurant. Tegan enjoyed running around the Parc Guell while we managed to get a fairly good look at the Gaudi architecture. This amazing architectural style is all over the city and quite incredible.

Such a lovely pink colour…..

Through the arch in Parc Guelle

Some Gaudi inspired buildings

After absorbing the culture and recharging our batteries for a few days it was time to go to a new place – too much free time is never such a good idea when you are WWOOFING! As is usual with trying to find new places to go, it takes a bit of time to find somewhere that is right for us, and to find people that want us. It usually involves a bit of rejection on both sides and after we had decided not to contact the “Roody Noodies” as we called them (the nudist colony that only wanted 2 hours of work a day), and turned down an offer to deconstruct bread ovens we settled on Can Santosha near Pamplona. It took us quite a while to make the decision to go here though as the host sounded interesting, a bit bonkers, kind of fun, but above all was brutally honest about the conditions of the place, an eco build. I quote from his e-mail:

“The project is in the first times, a few incomodities are here (small place for all the people, uncovered toilet outside, shower with heated water in the kitchen). In winter, water is available in only one tap outside (when not iced; if iced, in the same water tank, breaking the ice layer!). Electricity only when generator is on (short times on day, while working). Here, winter is cold outdoors (where must of the job should be done), except inside the kitchen, where we are comfortably warm. Outdoors is moody, too, when raining, and sometimes snowed.”

But the project sounded so interesting – building a house out of straw bales! So we decided that we could cope with at least some of these “incommodities” for a week at least and decided to give it a go………..

Well, we have had the most amazing week so far, it is cold, but the scenery is stunning and mostly it is that crisp sunny cold rather than miserable grey. We did have to break ice on the water tank every morning for the first few days, the toilet is a bucket surrounded by straw bales, and there is only occasional electricity (when we need to turn the generator on to use the tools for work). But we have used the washing machine, and the bizarre internet connection (via 3G for those in the know???) and there have been lots of new foods to try, including sea weed – very nutritious apparently. I think above all the host is quite a character who seems to be positive about everything, enjoys having Tegan around and is happy for us to get stuck in. There are three other WWOOFERS here (a guy from Bulgaria who was here when we got here, and a Spanish couple who arrived after us and have been WWOOFING in Spain for 2 years). Our room is a snuggy attic room above the kitchen – really warm and cosy (although at only 1.5 m high at the highest point only Tegan can stand up in it!). We have even managed to wash in a giant plastic bowl – a definite achievement, since the water had to be heated on the gas stove first, and, well, Tegan was the only one that actually fitted in the bucket!

We have done a load of different things…………I "plastered” one of the walls (with straw and mud) and we both did something similar with some of the floor, spreading barbatine (a mud/clay mix) and straw 5cms thick. Andy also had to clean some of the bee hives (and discovered quite a bit of honey!) and chopped wood with a chain saw. Tegan has been entertaining everyone and doing a bit of painting (pictures) in her spare time.

So below are a few photos of the crazy experiences we have been having – mud everywhere! We are now in Pamplona for the day chilling out and being tourists again. Tomorrow we are visiting a deserted village that has become a famous squat, with our host and the other WWOOFERS. There are several deserted villages around as there was a dam and reservoir built about 40 years ago and apparently the government bought up the villages and evacuated the people as most of their farm land had been used for the project. It seems they have stayed empty ever since. We are staying here at least another week and then plan to go back to France.