The Women with a Heart of Gold

From Sally's, I went straight to my next host Annie, an animal carer in Darraweit Guim, about an hour north of Melbourne. 

Only ten minute after getting in the door, I'm standing in the kitchen and I turn round to see a baby kangaroo hop towards me and I think: I love it here ALREADY.

It took me eight months to see a kangaroo in oz and now her I was sharing a kitchen with one! 

Not so long after Annie announces it time for feeding the babies and she passes me what looks like a koala wrapped up in a blanket to hold. It turns out to be a little wombat named yogi, but regardless what creature it was, my heart melted and I couldn't help but adore this tiny bundle of fur wrapped up in my arms.

Annie herself has got to be one of the most warm hearted people I ever met. She's opened up her home and spends her pension selflessly caring for orphaned and injured native wildlife. 

She has baby possums climbing up the bookcase and a make shift kangaroo pouch hanging of the arm of the couch housing a five month old baby kangaroo still naked as the day it was born. She nurses the orphaned young day and night bottle feeding them milk. 

Her home is set in the middle of her plot of land surrounded by enclosures for all those she rescued. Bird, possums, wombats, kangaroos and also her own pig and chooks. 

She lives almost completely self-sufficient on the food she grows her self in her vegetables patches. 

In my eyes, Annie is the epitome of what makes a good wwoof host. She genuinely cares about meeting new people of learning about their lives as well as sharing her own. She also leads a life that completely different to most others and offers a real experience for someone who is volunteering with her.

Her passion is infectious, just as her love of Doctor Who and Harry Potter is.  You find your self just as addicted as her with no idea when you started watching the clock waiting for Doctor Who to start or how you managed to watch all eight Harry Potter films in one week.

Without a doubt, the month i spent with Annie has got to be one of the most amazing things i've done while in Australia and just as i told her when I left...I will definitely be back.