My WWOOFing trip year 2

My second and last year in UK took me through Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Shropshire and north Wales.

David and I were waiting and waiting for the long winter of 2013 to end.  It was snowing in March, and apparently, it was something like the coldest March in 50 years.  So when it finally started to warm up and our departure day came near, we were so excited and ready to get some good sunshine.  We had planned out our journey, which would take us from Cornwall to Scotland.  It would be over 3 months and 6 hosts in total.

Sennen Cove, Cornwall

Our first destination was St. Just in Cornwall.  Cornwall is the most westerly and southerly part of England and it is meant to be very warm and beautiful during summer.  And our trip proved it true.  In fact, Cornwall easily exceeded my expectations.  I think it is my favorite place in England so far!

The farm we stayed is called Bosavern Community Farm.  It is the biggest farm we have been to and had 2 big vegetable fields, 2 big poly-tunnels and 200 lovely chickens.  The farm's challenge is the wind from the ocean. Because the farm stands right on the most westerly coast of Cornwall, they have frequent strong wind throughout the year.  On top of that was the long cold winter.  So when we got there in the end of May, they had just started planting summer vegetables.  All the wwoofers, our host and the volunteers from the local area worked very hard, being blown by the wind.  The weather was wonderful and we all proudly got tanned.  I read on their Facebook page that they recently planted many trees.  I am sure it is to prevent wind damage.  I hope they grow well.

We hoed the entire potato field

The host, Hugh, is a lovely hardworking young man with a passion and ambition to develop his 3 year old farm into a successful community learning space.  He welcomes everyone interested in organic farming and is willing to share and exchange knowledge and experiences with the volunteers.  David and I felt very lucky to work with him.

Hugh's cutie girls

Hugh absolutely adores his 200 chickens.  He talks to them and gives them hugs and strokes.  So the chickens were ever so tamed and friendly.  When we went to top up food and water, they would fly (more like run with some jumping) to us.  When we were cleaning their sheds, they would flew and perched on our heads and shoulders.  They even let us pick them up in our arms and stroke them.  Usually, chickens are too chicken to come that close to you.

The meals we shared were wonderful too.  We mostly had vegetarian meals but I thoroughly enjoyed them.  Especially when Hugh and his partner Alice cooked, it opened my eyes how versatile and tasty some vegetables can be.  My stay there actually convinced me I could happily live without much meat.  Even David admits he likes vegetarian food after this farm.  You just need to get, or grow, fresh flavoursome vegetables and know how to prepare them.

Our produce sold in market

Because of the very productive healthy chickens, we ate lots of eggs too.  One time our Spanish wwoofer Carlos made humongous Spanish omelettes using more than 20 eggs.  And that was just for 5 or 6 people.  Let's just say we worked hard enough to burn off the calories.

If you ever visit Cornwall, I highly recommend the coastal paths.  They are by far the best way to appreciate the dynamic landscape of Cornwall and the beautiful ocean.  When it was sunny, the sea was so clear and blue, as were the skies, we could hardly believe we were still in England (no offence!).  So don't just go to the beach.  You will see what I mean.

Oh, and do not forget to taste Cornish specialties - ice creams, clotted cream and pasties!

Scone with clotted cream

Roskilly's ice cream!!

Cornish pasty

Our next destination was White Cottage in Stokeinteignhead, Devon.  This place was a refuge for us actually.  We were going to stay at a big blueberry farm in Dartmoor first.  But after working there for a couple of days, we realised we did not agree with their ways of growing and hosting wwoofers. So we left the place in just 3 days.  Although, they seem to have good reputations by many wwoofers.  While we were there, it was going to be just weeding the blueberry bushes every day for the entire 2 weeks.  As a couple, sleeping in a dorm type barn with a very thin short partition was not comfortable either.  I think we simply chose the wrong place for us.  Another lesson learnt.

Devon is another beautiful part of England.  I particularly liked how green it was.  The climate here seemed milder than Cornwall with less wind, thus many more trees grow.  Our host had an amazing garden with lots of fruit trees and bushes in between chicken cages and vegetable garden.  It was like a small forest and seemed to me as if there were some fairies living there.

Orchard and the view beyond

Our host was a lovely couple, Peter and Ruth, with a great passion for anything organic and sustainable.  They live on mostly on their own produce and make their own jam, chutney, cordial, beer and cider.  They also have a very efficient and effective solar heating system in the house and they have introduced water-efficient toilets and kettle as well.  These are the things we could not have experienced at the blueberry farm and these are the things that matter to us.  David and I are very grateful for Peter and Ruth because they gave us such a warm welcome when we basically rang and came over the following day.


Our biggest project was to tidy the vegetable garden.  We were proud of ourselves when Peter said it was looking just like he always wanted = weedless!  It was a lot of work but we were excited to get more work done each day.  We just loved working in the beautiful gardens.

We were not asked to cook meals.  They were both very good cook in fact and we were very spoiled.  Everything they made was delicious.  To tell you the truth, all the hosts we went to this year were such good cooks that we ended up with extra weight on despite our hard work.  We can't resist good food.

Another highlight was a fishing trip.  Peter took us to a nearby fishing spot and taught us how to fish.  We (except me) caught as many as 37 mackerels in total and came back home feeling victorious (again, except me).  David enjoyed it so much he can't seem to wait for another fishing trip.

Peter caught the fish for me and he let me reel in.

David got the hang of it

Leaving Peter and Ruth's reluctantly in just 10 days, we headed to our next host in Somerset.  Our first impression on Somerset was it was very flat.  On the way into Somerset, there were endless flat farm lands as far as we could see.  Later we found out that there were some beautiful woodland and it was particularly pleasant to walk through on hot summer days.

Very flat Somerset

We had a nice walk through woods

Our host is called White Oak Farm.  The host Zoe is a mother of 4 and had been busy looking after her little ones for the past year.  So there was quite a bit to do, which kept us busy.  We weeded the vegetable gardens, prepared soil to sow more seeds, weeded and mulched fruit trees and bushes, shifted compost and some more.  David got to mow the lawn with a big mower and heavy strimmer as well.  We had many hot days but Zoe was very flexible with our work hours and it saved us from working in extreme heat.   When you work with the nature, it makes more sense to go with the flow.  Zoe is also into healthy diet and natural remedies.  One day she picked some edible chickweed from her garden and cooked it for our lunch.  Chickweed is probably well hated by organic growers because it spreads so quickly.  However, there is an edible kind which is very nutritious, we learned from Zoe.  She was a very inspiring lady.

veg garden weeded

Compost and mulch(cardboard)

mowed and strimmed

It is nice to treat yourself once in a while even when you are on a budget travel.  We treated ourselves with luxurious massage and delicious Thai food to celebrate our first anniversary in Bath.  We needed the massage especially because we had been working in gardens 5 days a week plus hiking on days off for more than a month.  Bath is a beautiful city with some historical Roman buildings.  Definitely worth a visit.

Also, if you ever visit Somerset, make sure to try their cider.  It is superb and the best so far in our experiences.

I like cold sparkly cider.  This one is pear and apple cider.

Our next destination was Clun in Shropshire.  Shropshire is bordering with Wales and again, another beautiful part of England.  I said Cornwall was my favorite but as I am writing about Shropshire, it seems impossible to compare these 2 very different but equally beautiful places.

view from Guilden Down Cottage

Our host is called Guilden Down Cottage.  They are warm, lovely couple, Sue and Mike, who are very passionate about what they do - Sue teaching, cooking, preserving, crafting and gardening and Mike landscaping and wood work.  To us, they just looked like another Peter and Ruth and we had a wonderful time here.  Their garden was spotless unlike most wwoof hosts so weeding was not our concern for once.  This was a good surprise.  Instead, we were busy harvesting summer produce like peas, beans and berries.  When it was too hot to work outside, we would come back in the house and made jars and jars of jam or shelled peas and beans.

Sue used to be a wwoofer herself.  She thought wwoof was such a great way to share different culture and personal experiences.  So now that she's become a host herself, she is making sure her wwoofers enjoy the spirit of wwoof.  She worked with us, cooked and dined with us and even on our days off she took us to berry picking, Welsh sea for swimming and to a nearby quaint little town for tea and shopping.  While we were there, I think she had almost zero time to herself.  But she seemed to really enjoy spending time with us and we learned a lot from her.  Thank you, Sue!

Us and French wwoofers Marie & Delphine

Sue's puddings were amazing by the way.  My favorite was...gooseberry ice cream and gooseberry sponge cake.  Yuuuum.

We again left a wonderful host reluctantly and headed to the next host in north Wales.  It is in a little town called Corwen, which is just outside of Snowdonia National Park.  Wales is such a beautiful place.  They say, oh it's so rainy and windy there, but I am so glad we ventured there because the weather was great except just a few days towards the end of our stay.

Our host, Helen and Peter, are retired couple growing lots of berries in their garden. Their house was literally in the middle of nowhere.  But t was a very very beautiful place.  They moved there from London a few decades ago and they used to run many outdoor activities for children around the house.

We took a walk to a lake on a mountain only half an hour walk from the hosue.  Our natural swimming pool, yeah!

They had some flower and vegetable gardens as well but our main job was harvesting berries.  They had many different kinds of berries - gooseberry, red gooseberry, black currant, red currant, jostaberry and maybe a few more I can't remember.  Most of them are a bit too sour to eat as they were but red gooseberries were quite sweet when fully ripe.  I had a few sneaky mouthfuls while picking them.

Helen was doing a great job keeping the weed off the berry bushes.  We helped her once to mulch red currant trees with cardboard, which seemed to work very well.  

Helen was an amazing baker too.  She treated us with her pheasant pie, homemade bread and many many cakes.  David couldn't seem to praise her more.

We also had a privilege to stay in a cottage that Peter built with zero knowledge at the start.  It looked very nice and we couldn't believe he managed to build it from scratch.  There really is nothing you can't achieve.

By this point, our budget was running out and we had to end our journey before we reach Scotland.  Maybe we treated ourselves a bit too much on the way?  We still had a great time so there is no regret.

Happy in Bath after massage and Thai food

My 2 years in the UK have been full of wonderful experiences and memories.  I met many inspiring people as well and they have widened my perspectives on life.  I am glad I took a break from my career and ventured into wwoofing.  It was definitely worthwhile.  I learned so much more than I expected.  I am feeling fulfilled reflecting on my 2 years and this is such a wonderful feeling.

I hope you enjoyed my blog.  I am hoping to make another blog when I have my own garden! And next time I will try to write more often...

Until then, good bye!