GeordieBarker.com

Palmers Lodge... I told you it was nice!

Day 97 – Friday 22nd of May

Heading into English Countryside

I wasn’t able to make the bus with the rest of the crew and Hamish, so I was left to try an find another way to Yeovil, in Country England. I managed to find out that there was a train line heading that way, and so I set about booking a ticket. Due to it being a long weekend, whilst I was booking a 6pm service, it sold out, in front of my eyes. I did manage to book the next service, and set about sorting out all of my stuff. I packed everything into my rolling case, and planned to leave my pack at Palmers. As I wheeled my case out, the wheels broke off. That’s what you get for a $29 Australian Dollar case brought in Dubai. I then had to pack everything back into my pack and risk damage to my knee, I had no other choice.

South West Trains to Yeovil

I managed to get to Waterloo Station, navigate the massive crowds, and get on the South West Train Service to Yeovil Junction. On the train, I met some nice girls in their last year of school. They were coming back from an excursion into London. They were amazed at the story of my trip, and I think I can safely say that inspired some of them to travel. I gave one of them one of my koalas as a bit of a joke.

Horses @ Base, near Yeovil

I managed to get off at the right station, with a bit of help from a young couple on the train. I had read that there was a bus into town, but because the train was running late, the connecting service had already departed. I started looking for a taxi, when the couple who had helped me get off at the right place came running up to me. The guy offered me a lift into town, as they were being picked up by his dad. I of course agreed, and thanked them a lot. I met up with Hamish and the crew at the local Whetherspoons, a pub chain that serves good cheap food and very cheap beer. There I met Jose, an English guy, and the two Hungarians, Greg and Gabbi. We had a quick beer and then headed to base.

Main street of Bruton

Base for us, was the location of last years festival, which was completely washed out, and subsequently cancelled. The farmer, Sid, a very hard to understand English man, had agreed to let my boss, Hamish, keep his truck and his stuff on his farm. We were staying in a large caravan, right next to a paddock that housed some really cute horses. We all crashed pretty early, and unfortunately for me, Hamish couldn’t find the sleeping bags, so I had a very cold night, despite my 4-5 layers of clothing.

Packing the truck

We were straight into work the next day, sorting out the mess of equipment from last year. It was hard work, especially for my knee, but I managed pretty well. I don’t know if it was juat my city upbringing, but the farm seemed to be the most awesome place to hang out. There were curious cows, gorgeous little lambs, and a large selection of crazy vehicles. I was particularly amazed at a very large army truck, and we joked that we should do all our deliveries in it.

The truck, ready to roll!

We made it to the site that afternoon. Sid, the farmer described it as ‘just down the road’; 40 minutes later, and after navigating our way through Bruton, we found the Gilcombe Farm Shop, and the Sunrise Celebration Site opposite. We were one of the first few onsite, and to me it looked like a big empty field. We started to construct the blocks in what felt like the middle of nowhere, and I started to learn the knack of composting toilets.

Give a wave! Counrty England Geordie!

After a long day, the rest of the crew arrived, and we dropped off more equipment around the site. We had missed the crew dinner, which had only started that day, so we headed into sleepy Bruton, and to the local Chinese Restaurant. We all inhaled our food, and Jose and I were left onsite for the night, and the others went back to Yeovil. We luckily had a caravan to sleep in for the night, and Hamish had brought some new sleeping bags from Argos (like K-Mart).

Sid's way of moving stuff!

The next day we started pretty late. Sid had agreed to tow his massive trailer down, filled with gear, and it arrived onsite around midday. The site was starting to take shape, with more people arriving, and more infrastructure being put in place. We were setting up the toilets at a cracking pace, and had until Thursday to get them all up.

The Bob Marley 12 Block!

Now I should probably explain what a compost toilet system actually is. If you don’t like the idea of talking about poo and wee, skip this paragraph. You can see the physical structure of the toilet blocks from my photos, they are nothing special. In each cubicle there is a raised platform with a toilet seat that has a shoot attached. You enter, do your business as normal, use the toilet paper if needs be, throw that down the shoot and then if you have done number 2’s, you put a scoop of sawdust in as well. The urine is drained from the wheelie bins and pumped into a large tank called an IBC. The toilet paper, poo and sawdust is left in the bin to start the composting process. The urine is pumped away by a suck truck, and when the bins are full, they have their lid put back on, and are stored.

Pulling the tarp on a 5 block

This is where the system gets interesting. The wee is mixed with water 1-8 and used as an exceptionally good fertilizer. The bins are left to compost for 12 months, and are then also available as fertilizer. For the sunrise gig, the farmer kept all of the urine onsite and was even nice enough to use his own suck truck. He is an organic farmer, so Christmas had come early for him. The work is surprisingly good, and the whole gig, I only came into contact with the nasty’s once, when we were problem solving. It is an amazing system, and I am completely behind it environmentally and physically HAHA!

Chaiwallis Tent at sunset.

We all got into the groovy, and proudly created some nicknames. We were the ‘Poo Crew’, I am the Poo Ninja, Hamish is Captain Crapper, Jose is the Poo Pirate, Gary is still undecided, and Gabbi (my favorite) is Poocahontas. The rest of the week was pretty hectic, but each night we would also have a stock of knock off beers. I met some cool people on the festival, too many to list, but I definitely liked the vibe onsite, and for the festival. I am very much looking forward to volunteering at some more.

My boss, wearing my raybans!

Tags: Compost Toilets, Sunrise Celebration, Travel, Trip '09

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 3:41 am and is filed under Travel, Trip '09. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.