Balin Garu - Gay Country Homestay Bed & Breakfast Retreat Accommodation, Northern NSW, Australia

WWOOF stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms, a world-wide organisation enabling cultural exchange and involving volunteers staying and working for food and accommodation with host families in the country – see wwoof.com.au

"Hello, we're two wwoofers from Sweden and we wwoofed at Balin Garu between November 2010 and January 2011. Whilst here, we revamped the website because we felt the previous site did not do justice to this beautiful place.

Coming here with an open mind, we've learnt a lot about an environmental way of living, about gardening, planting and lots of other things. In true wwoofing spirit, Sol and George welcomed us with open arms and let us become a part of their family and the community. The friendship we created here will surely last for a long time and we'll hopefully return and wwoof here again in the future.

The land and the river here are true eye candy. It takes time to discover everything since you'll find small (and big!) surprises around almost every corner! The walks you can do around the property are really fascinating and will get you up-close to the wildlife around here. The house is really nice too with all its open spaces. It's also well designed from an environmental standpoint and filled with tribal artefacts from travels and the artworks of Sol's and George's artistic friends.

Sol is a skilled cook and has taught us a lot about how to swing it in the kitchen! He even encouraged us to prepare a typical Swedish Christmas dinner for all the friends staying here over the Christmas period. Making this dinner was truly one of the highlights of our stay and we're very grateful that we were able to do this.

George is a passionate gardener and we have enjoyed working with him in the extensive gardens, vegetable garden and fruit orchards that he is developing. He's like a living dictionary and probably knows everything worth knowing about gardening! We can only imagine what the gardens will become over the next 20 years or more. We're very eager to find out!

Many thanks to Sol and George for everything we've learnt and experience."

- Joe and Leo