Monday 30 November 2015

Giving, taking and making (from Jingellic to Goulburn)

Thank the stars we rested at Jingellic and ate the bounty of local critters the Upper Murray offered,


an idle few days cooking carp on walked-for wood coals and playing songs around the campfire prepared us for the 44 km slog all up hill,


to Tumbarumba. Hello cows! We guerrilla camped for three nights beside the town's creek,


kinda hidden, kinda not.


We were invited to dinner at Geoff and Karen's, who are fourth generation farmers we'd met on the first trip. Respectful debate concerning land use, economies and politics continued from where we'd left off in 2013. Back then Geoff was a climate change skeptic. But no longer.


We held a free foraging class, and identified around twenty species of autonomous edibles,


gathered up the best of what we found and demonstrated how to turn these free gems into desirable food.


We then gave a reading at Nest, and sold a swag of books. Yippee!


We'd heard the ranger was keen to catch up with us in Tumba, so we hightailed it to Batlow and hung out in the library where we met Robert, the town's librarian, who went home at lunch time and picked us a bunch of his glorious asparagus. Thanks Robert!


We were offered a free camp at Greg Mouat's apple orchard with permission to fish out the redfin from his dam. Thanks Greg!


We caught 5 mid-sized ones and added them to Robert's asparagus for dinner, before bunking down for the night.


We stopped in Tumut for a little reading at Night Owl Books,


and took off along the Brungle Road to Gundagai where flashes of the old Wiradjuri spirits collided with newcomer glimmer.


We rode on to Jugiong, made camp again along the Murrumbidgee River where the water was clear enough to go spearing for fish.


Woody and Zero watched from the pebbly bank,


while Meg took a skinny dip.


Patrick was unsuccessful catching fish, but we did harvest stinging nettle and cooked up a bag of this rich-in-iron free medicine with pasta, olive oil, salt and lemon.


We woke to a billy of porridge and hit the Hume Highway.


A tedious, roadkill-marred ride brought us to Bookham for a rest, where two years earlier Patrick had pruned this little feral apple tree. He gave it another prune to encourage a habit for greater fruiting in the years to come. Go little tree, grow!


We schlepped into Yass after a deafening and hot 60 kms, pulled up outside the local land council and had a yarn to Brad, a Ngunnawal man. He told us about a local program set up to rid foxes and feral cats who are, he stated, wreaking havoc on the local tortoise population.


What's remarkable is how many tortoises we've seen killed by cars and trucks since Gundagai. There have been at least 100.


We anthropocenes really are brilliant at kidding ourselves... More lambs; a better environment?


By observing the relationships between other animals —non-mediated earth folk— is it possible to reclaim for ourselves a place as ecological creatures, in relationship and not at war; where one-on-one interspecies killing is part of everyday life, but man-made mass death is not?


Eating a broad, local diet (such as these dianella buds and flowers, soon to be berries), can perhaps aid a process of becoming post-anthropocene. We believe that if we engage in our own resource gathering we can better be accountable to that which makes life possible.


Learning to forage plants that cultivate by themselves, produce food without the need of fossil fuels, mined superphosphate and excessive water inputs all contributes in being able to walk away from the Anthropocene.


We took this merry bunch of Canberra foragers out for a walk in a suburban park and showed them how much food lies just underneath their feet, before returning to Paperchain Books in Manuka for a talk and reading from The Art of Free Travel.


While in Canberra we stayed with an old friend of Patrick's from undergraduate days. Tim treated us to his excellent cooking and a generosity that made us feel like we were back at home. Thanks Tim!


While in the capital we also got to stay with these two kind Warm Showers hosts Kerri-Ann and Michael, who shared their cycling stories and cooked us a lovely meal.


We left Canberra well rested and cared for and rode hard for 70 kms to Tarago to set up an unorthodox camp in their weird but welcoming little public park.


We didn't linger, leaving early the next day for Goulburn where just before we arrived in this old sheep town we spotted fruiting African boxthorn berries to snack on.


We hope the thorns in your fingers, Dear Reader, provide delicious sweets and free delights. One of the lessons we've learned from the road is how the hardships of the day prick the joys, they are one of the same tree.

Friday 20 November 2015

The exciting fortnight ahead...

Hello Dear Reader,

We have a number of events coming up that we'd love to tell you about.

For ten minutes this weekend you will find us sitting in front of a flowering plant counting pollinators for the national Wild Pollinator Count.

This Saturday 21st of Nov we're in Tumut at Night Owl Books for a reading and signing at 3pm.

On Wednesday 25th of Nov we're in Yass at their public library for a book event there.

On Friday 27th Nov of we'll be speaking to ABC Canberra radio live to air at around 2pm.

On Saturday the 28th of Nov we're in Canberra at Paperchain Books, Manuka for another foraging walk and book event.

On Sunday the 29th of Nov we're joining the People's Climate March at Parliament House.


On Wednesday 2nd of Dec we're giving a talk as part of Green Drinks at The Moose Hub in Bowral.

On Saturday 5th of Dec we're in Sydney where our book will be introduced by Kirsten Bradley at Florilegium in Glebe at 3pm.

On Sunday 6th of Dec in the morning we're teaming up with Diego Bonetto for a foraging walk along the Cooks River.


On Sunday 6th of Dec in the afternoon Patrick is giving a performance at SNO in Marrickville as part of the Non Objective Writing exhibition.


On Monday morning 7th of Dec we will be interviewed live from Channel 7 and Channel 9 television studios.

On Thursday 10th of Dec we will be appearing at Gleebooks in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains.

We hope you can join us at one or more of these events.

May all your winds be tail winds,

AaF xx

Sunday 15 November 2015

Picking up and setting down new and old friends (from Violet Town to Jingellic)

Leaving David Arnold's highly productive Murrnong Farm was difficult. We worked for a few days within a (micro) global village where kid goat feeding, beer bottling, pancake and sourdough making, elder flower champagne producing, last season's chestnuts into hummus creating, mulberry picking and orchard netting activies flowed between stories and laughter and shared meals. Thanks Dave, Nils, Benny, Shyeni and Coufong.


Not wanting to burn ourselves out early on this 20 event book tour in 90 days, we rode to the Violet Town train station and made use of the bike and dog friendly train services again before they dry up in NSW. NSW Rail don't allow non-human kin on their trains (with the exception of assistance dogs, and bikes, annoyingly, have to be flat packed meaning that's it's a ridiculously big job to undertake as bike parts have to be taken off and specialty tools and excessively large cardboard boxes have to be carried.) We arrived in Wangaratta and headed onto the Wang to Beechworth rail trail. We visited the same abundant Mulberry tree as we did in 2013,


and hunted the same (possibly) Charlie carp in one of the creeks. He outcarped us again.


Taking off again in spring has many advantages. New possibilities for life are everywhere and we are lead by a general atmosphere of renewal.


We made camp at the disused community tennis courts at Everton Station,


and landed at our guest digs in Beechworth,


at Pete and Anni's place. They'd heard of our travels and got in touch. Thanks so much kind hosts and kind dogs!


Meg and Woody helped out in their veggie patch,


while Patrick helped Pete sort out the felled radiator pine into useable parts,


before we all had a wash, Woody in his typical fashion.


Our book event in Beechworth comprised of a lovely crowd, hosted by Diane at her excellent independant bookshop.


On the way out of Beechworth an invitation to stay in Wodonga was shouted from a passing car, and although we quickley exchanged social media handles, we were headed for Yackandandah to stay with Warm Showers hosts Matt, Michelle and Tarn. Sadly Matt had left for work before we took this photo:


We were a perfect match with this family. Woody and Tarn soon became good mates,


and so did we with a portion of the town folk. What a darn friendly village Yack is!


We had a second night down by the Yackandandah Creek,


before pushing off the next day and copping our first puncture.


Woody wants to know everything and asks his parents a thousand questions every day. Not quite a thousand answers, his parents have much to learn too, such as, what is this fruit? Is it a parasite, a geebung or wattle nut?


With air back in all four tyres we treadlied to Albury where a dude Patrick used to play football with at university lives and invited us to stay. Patrick hadn't seen Mick for over 20 years and hadn't been in contact and what's more we didn't even get to meet him as he was away for work. We stayed with his gorgeous wife Bernie and tenacious teen Paris and they embraced us like long lost kin. Thanks Bernie, home from a morning's run!


And thanks Mick, who hooked us up with the Border Mail to do a story. He also insisted we get in touch with pollinator guru and local permaculturalist Karen Retra and her man Ralph,


and we were given a tour of their pollinator-friendly, south-facing 1/4 acre that is either all under food production, under habitat creation or both in the same breath.


Karen in turn hooked us up with ABC Goulburn Murray and we were interviewed at length about our adventuring before we collided with Roy, a cycle tourer from Japan.


Roy accompanied us to our 5th book event where we met a lively cross-section of local sustainability activists, permies and ecologists. What an awesome crew!


Our community friend Mara met us in Albury and we rode with her and Roy along the majestic Murray River Road crossing back into Victoria.


What a joy it was to ride with these happy bike-campers along such a quiet, almost carless road,


and to wake to such mornings.


To top it off our book was 'Pick of the week' in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.


We farewelled Mara at Kennedy's Reserve and Roy at Jingellic where he videoed an Artist as Family jam sesh,


before we settled in to one of the prettiest free camp sites in Australia, cooking up plantain, sow thistle and flatweed to add to the evening pasta, breakfasting on carp and dandelion coffee,


and generally hanging out, getting to know the virtues of the Upper Murray River.


We have much gratitute for those we meet along the way. Those who come to ride with us. Those who put us up for the night. Those that nourish us as food. The roads we travel. The fellow campers. The community of the living that fuels all this possibility.