29 Nov - 8 Dec 2016: Oranje Tractor Albany - Part1

So now I went to Albany to the winery 'Oranje Tractor'. The owners Pam and Murray welcomed me with a fantastic dinner. But that was not exceptional, the meals were consistently outstanding. I clearly landed in a more refined gastronomy here (as mentioned, even Prince Charles has been a guest here). The great thing was that about half of the food (almost all fruits and vegetables) was grown on their own farm. That's really healthy eating. But the hosts were not uptight at all, they were pretty laid-back. Murray immediately gave me some instructions about Australian idioms. When asked if I wanted a glass of wine, a simple 'yes' was apparently too boring.

The improvement suggestions were:

'Does the pope have a balcony?'

'Is the pope catholic?' (I already knew that one)

'Does the pope shit in the woods?'

All of them clearly mean 'YES'. And apparently the people in this region have some special connection to the pope.

And with a 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth', we even found the English equivalent to our Bavarian saying 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'.

To get the required work done for the first night and the following day, we started the next morning with an 8-hour day. I helped with planting the offshoots. However, this job was done by an external company. The 'graftor' or 'grafting expert' was named Steve. He was very communicative and actually managed - this is no joke - to talk even more than me. Nevertheless, it was a fun time and I gained some more or less useful new knowledge about Australia.

I want to highlight one of them. For this, we jump back two weeks to the time of my departure from Cottesloe. I wanted to treat myself to an ice cream at the hostel. In the refrigerator, for example, there was the variety 'Golden Gaytime' (from the Australian Langnese branch). I honestly found that incredibly funny and had to buy it. Especially the advertising slogan comes across, how should I say, somehow a bit unfavorable.

Now back to Steve. He explained to me that 'gay' used to be a common word for 'happy' or 'cheerful' during his childhood in Australia. The current context only emerged in recent years, but the ice cream name remained. We also have something similar in the section of the Kookaburra song '...Kookaburra gay your life must be...' if anyone still remembers that from school. Steve always found a new topic to discuss. This led to conversations about Donald Trump, Australian beer, Diego Armando Maradona (Steve's favorite soccer player), and ultimately beer again.

When we weren't chatting, Steve's dog followed me every step of the way. After throwing the ball three times, he apparently thought it would continue all day long.

However, you couldn't really ignore this look:

The following days, the grapevines were tended to daily, sparkling wine was filled and labeled, fruits were picked, and on Sunday, I helped with the wine tasting. The latter was the most beautiful working day. The wine tavern was really nicely furnished in a rustic style and very cozy.

The sight of the prepared food was a delight and it excited me completely. Anchovies wrapped in vine leaves, mussels, nut and herring spread, or chicken breast fillet were just a part of it. And of course, almost all of it was homemade. A nice side effect of this was that the leftovers were our dinner after the wine tasting event. If I were to stay here for more than 2 weeks, it would certainly be no problem to aim for a three-digit body weight. It is impossible to stop eating such good stuff.

However, the highlight of the wine tasting was an addition to the guests. They recently ran over a kangaroo mother (apparently this happens here constantly) and they are raising the baby, also called a joey. As joey's are used to being carried around in a pouch, they really like it. For half an hour, I got the job of taking a walk with the little kangaroo in a 'substitute pouch'. That was really cool and at the same time my first encounter with a 'real' kangaroo.

On a free afternoon, I finally bought an Akubra or 'Crocodile Dundee' hat. These things are really handy for outdoor work and, in my opinion, have real style. Whether it's tending to the grapevines or bottling the sparkling wine... I actually don't want to take off this hat anymore.

Furthermore, two more guests arrived on December 5th. They are a Dutch couple named Mattijs and Anne. But they are not older than 25. As he is studying winemaking and his wine expertise has rubbed off on his wife a bit, the two of them were able to have incredibly knowledgeable conversations with our hosts. 'With this red wine, you can clearly taste the aroma of French oak' or 'the 2007 vintage is definitely sweeter than the 2009. That must have been a drier year' were the simpler descriptions. As a Franconian farm child, I sat there like a complete idiot and could at least prove my sharp taste with a 'this wine is sweet and that one is sour'.

But in general, it was a good thing to have two people of the same age with us. Especially since we coincidentally needed a voice with a Dutch accent for our men's ballet intro. After briefly explaining to them what we do in men's ballet, Mattijs immediately agreed to lend his voice. A really cool coincidence.

Since the winery is a bit remote and it takes some time to get to the city or the beach by bike, we mainly enjoyed the nature and tranquility on the property. But one day we went by bike to Albany to Mount Clarence. With its 100 meters, it is actually already called a mountain here. Despite its relatively low height, there were quite nice viewpoints.

The eucalyptus avenue that leads to the mountain was also quite nice to see.

The lifestyle that is lived here has something really appealing. You can live isolated and still quite comfortably. I really enjoy the peace and quiet and at the moment I find an incredible amount of time for things that I always plan but never do. However, the stay here will end no later than December 16th. Since Pam and Murray have already promised accommodation to a French guy several weeks in advance and there is only room for 3 people, the return to Denmark will therefore happen a bit earlier. But that's not a bad thing at all...