Workaway #1

After Ljubljana we travelled to Bled for a few nights camping before starting our first work-away.
First glimpse: a long traditional Slovenian farmhouse with enough space for all the family, opening up into a clean yard boxed in with triangular roofed barns and a stretch of overgrown field. Anẑe wasn’t at home so Spanish Lorre gave us the best of her knowledge of what we would be doing. And who knew how varied the next week would be.

We cut down 15 hectares of small apples, collected 25 litres of honey from hives in the mountain woods, unpacked 3000 crates from 2 lorries, picked 30 kilos of purple plums, unscrewed the lids from 2500 bottles, cleaned out two huge cool stores and even squeezed in a swim to the island on Lake Bled and a trip up Triglav, 2864m (or at least Ed did).

Anẑe and Lorre (Slovenian and Spanish) conveniently communicated in English and were our energetic hosts from 1^st July until the 13^th. We lived, worked and ate with them and they took us to Bled, Bohinj, Triglav and out with friends. The work was hard in 32° heat, and sometimes boring, unpacking, stacking, repacking and arranging wooden crates for 6 hours one morning or driving the tractor at 2mph up and down the tightly packed rows of apple trees while the others (including Branco, the uncle who only spoke Slovene) stood ‘throwing the apples down’ on the trailer behind. But it reaped rewards. Ed’s first mountain just happened to be the highest in Slovenia, including real climbing... We went all around the area collecting various goodies for supper – wine, fresh trout to be BBQed by a roaring gorge with some friends.



Overall it was a good workaway experience and we left a touch of sadness. I hope that we will remain friends with Anẑe and Lorre and return after their baby is born.