Aussie in the Boot: Sicily Pt. 2

I am spending six months travelling around Italy. I am staying with hosts around the country, WWOOFING (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Learning, sharing and creating great connections. There will be ups and downs, but I have my yoga mat packed and a 560g jar of Vegemite, so I’m ready to take it all on. 

Region: Sicily

Host: La Casa delle Acque

Martin and I arrived at La Casa delle Acque after a morning of driving. Smelly and sweaty, like two dirty hippies!

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We met everyone. There are so many young people! Two young people, semi-permanent. Two girl wwoofers. Eva, from New York and Indrė from Lithuania. We are roomies!! I have dreamt about having wwoofer roomies for the whole trip! There’s also one older man wwoofer.

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I got settled in and then we found out it was the birthday of the old man wwoofer, Fredric. We all piled into the van and headed into town to have some drinks and ice cream. We went to a cafe called “the view” because you are in the perfect position to see Mount Etna. It was a nice evening and I got to try the famous granita, an icy, semi-frozen fruity purée that is very big in Sicily. Traditionally, granita was made from ice that was found on Mount Etna!

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The first day of work started at 6:00 am in an attempt to escape the heat. We worked around the citrus trees, pulling away the thorny bushes. We also painted the trees to prevent them from drying out.

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La Casa delle Acque gets its name from the water channels that flow through the property. The water comes from Mount Etna and is harvested by many of the surrounding farmers! Here they grow many fruits and vegetables and most of the food we consume is from the land. They also care for an abandoned avocado orchard which is amazing! There are big baskets of avocados and I have so many seeds to collect!

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I am already really loving it here. After working in the cool of the morning, we rested and had lunch. I began bonding with Indrė and convinced her to come to India with me! She booked her flight! In our room, the three of us girls carved avocado seeds together. It’s was very lovely and I am really enjoying the activity. I have begun to branch out and learn new techniques.

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We spent our Saturday morning collecting rubbish along the road before heading out to the beach for the day. Unfortunately, Martin’s car overheated and there wasn’t enough room in the van with the others so I sacrificed myself and Martin and I headed home to relax. I spent the afternoon doing some yoga and carving … my mentality has completely changed. I felt no guilt. Though Martin and I did clean the kitchen.

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There is also a meditation room here. It’s great because I have been able to use it for a bit of a yoga practice. It feels like I will be in India within a blink of an eye.

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The work is tough in the heat but it’s so awesome to be able to go back to the house and have an avocado as a snack!

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We headed out in the van to harvest avocados! It was a long trip out to the orchard. We stopped at a lemon orchard and collected some lemons before heading to the once-abandoned avocado orchard. It was so magical. We strolled around under the giant trees, picking up avocados off of the ground and enjoying the shade. There is something very special about eating an avocado while sitting under the tree it grew on.

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Waking up early and working through the morning. Snacking on avocado in our breaks and having great conversations. Indrė and I played the drums, danced, and did yoga in the meditation room. We made new sounds and explored the combination of the avocado seeds with the drums. I have had to put the carving aside sometimes because I am experiencing some creative blocks because there are so many seeds!!

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After some work in the morning, the three of us girls decided to explore the nearby mountains. It was super hot and the mountains are so barren, almost no trees. We made it to the top of a mountain where we found a small cave. We used my knife to eat avocados and lemons. From our amazing view in the cave we spotted a beautiful lake, an oasis perhaps? We decided to walk to it and try a swim. We reached the lake — separate from the rest of the world and a little piece of paradise. We stripped off our clothes and walked into the water. It was so refreshing and we felt so blessed to have found this patch of Earth. We decided to call this place, “the Lake of Eden”. We swam to the other side and enjoyed. Then suddenly we heard the noise of bells. Goat bells. Over hill came a large heard of goats, they were coming to drink at the lake. We were laughing until we realised that with a heard of goats comes a shepherd! Many goats continued to charge over the hill, surrounding the lake. We were panicked but laughing and still completely naked!! The dogs were barking at us and we were swimming back to our clothes as fast as possible. When we made it to the reeds at the edge with our clothes, we spotted the shepherd! We snuck through the tall reeds and quickly dressed. We scrambled off up the hill and away from the lake. Full of adrenaline and our souls fed! What an adventure.

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We spent the morning working, painting the mandarin trees white to protect them from the hot sun. Afterwards, we drove to a nearby town where we swam at a rocky location with a spectacular view. A steep jungle mountain on one side and the big blue sea on the other. We jumped off the rocks and played in the sun. We then visited another town that supposedly had very delicious seafood … I, of course, had something else. It was a great day, full of more adventure. I was so glad to see this part of Sicily, the most beautiful so far!

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Indrė and I would drum in the afternoons. Making music together on the same bongo drum. Very funny and very beautiful.

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We decided to take a hike around Mount Etna. Nerave surprised us in the morning telling us that we could leave a day early and he would drive us. We worked, but not for long because we were excited to get ready.

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We started the hike: 21 avocados, 10 chillies, 10 lemons. Amazing scenery, black rock, pine trees, cool weather, a big cave. Bad diarrhea from too many dried plums. Slept in a shelter, so many laughs, bonding conversations, a sly fox (Richard) trying to come inside.

We awoke to our soaked oats and sore backs from the hard benches of the Refugio. Walked on. Eva wasn’t feeling well and we knew we had to get her home. We walked a very long walk down to the town of Randazzo, dropped Eva at the station and had the chance to fill up the water bottles and buy some crackers for some much-needed carbs. We hitchhiked part of the way back up the mountain, then walked a bit further before stopping at a picnic area on the side of the path. We made a fire, grilled zucchini and ate it with avocado and crackers. There was an old cherry tree that we climbed and picked and ate cherries from. We slept under the stars.

Another oat breakfast before the long trip back to the main path on the high part of the mountain. It rained in the morning and we found shelter with a kind women in a small square hut — her job is to watch for fires. She made us coffee and laughed at us eating whole lemons. We met cows and took wrong paths, ups and downs, but we worked so well together! We found water in an old shelter and played in the sun naked to dry the sweat. Luckily we haven’t seen other people, there has been too much nudity. We visited a cave, some of the caves were used to harvest ice for the granita. We found a Refugio with a well. We washed — the cleanest we have felt. We slept under the stars in the pine forest.

Oats in the morning and then we got back on the trail. A beautiful walk through the pines. We made it to a large Refugio, a more touristy area of the mountain. From there we walked down to civilization. We decided to try and hitchhike to the sea. We made it in two cars, stopping at a grocery store for some bread and vegetables in between. We had an amazing swim in the sea and a picnic in the shade. We did get some strange looks when we went in the water half-naked (we had no swimmers).

From the sea, we hitchhiked through many small towns around the mountain. Then to the big city of Catania and to Paterno (the closest town to home). From there we walked back to the farm. All of this was done in 10 different cars! We were full of pride and stories to tell the others. What an adventure!

Ended the walk with 1 lemon, 0 avocados, 3 chillies. So many blisters, memories of GNW. Confirmed my passion for hiking. I could have lived in the mountains.

BTW: a side achievement was that I got Indrė to like Vegemite! I brought a tube on the walk and we almost finished it! It was perfect with our avocados.

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We got up early to start work and began painting trees and feeling very tired. Before lunch, we picked the most delicious mulberries. After harvesting the berries our hands and mouths were stained dark purple.

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I am in such a positive place. Drumming in the night with incense burning. Eating whole dried chillies every day because we are crazy and are starting to feel like we get into another state when we eat so many! Harvesting and eating so many delicious fruits: plums, apricots, tomatoes, mulberries.

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They are very into star signs at La Casa delle Acque. I’m a Virgo with a Sagittarius rising sign. I have lost my ‘Virgoness’ over time. The longer I wwoof, the more I have to embrace the imperfection of Sagittarius. We have been staring into each other’s eyes for 4 minutes. It’s great to find people that will actually do such activity without questioning it!

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So, very last minute, Eva and I decided to join Indrė at a festival on the beach, Mondo Sounds Festival — a music festival in San Vito Lo Capo. We were up all night packing and laughing. We hitchhiked in the morning. We were picked up very quickly by a man that took us all the way to Palermo. He also stopped to meet a friend along the way at a movie set for a Mafia movie! We saw an old villa mansion and got shown all around the movie set! The driver of the first car put us in the car with his friend who drove us to the festival in San Vito Lo Capo!

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The festival was lots of fun. We stayed up very late, danced and swam in the beautiful water. We met other travellers and spent our days with the group. We slept at a nearby campsite where the owners gave us a tent for free. It didn’t look it had been set up for about 100 years, but we appreciated the kindness that continued to come our way.

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On the morning of my last day with the girls, Indrė and I shared a meal of avocado and Vegemite! A great way to sum up our time together.

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The girls helped me to get a lift on Sunday as I had to leave to get to Naples. My backpack got run over by a truck while trying to hitchhike. Just when we lost all hope and I was sad about the backpack … I got picked up by Mary and Joseph, a lovely couple that took me the whole way to the bus station in Palermo!

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I had a beautiful and emotional last moment with the girls. Big hugs and almost tears! The exciting thing is that it’s not goodbye — I will see Indrė in India very soon. Mary and Joseph bought me food and they wanted to take a group selfie when they left me.

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It has been a wild journey but I created so many beautiful memories! Next stop Naples — back to the mainland.

See ya, Arrivederci.
Kindly, Steph.