Charlie & Holly

Travel information

We are currently

Activities we are interested in:

We are interested in all skills involved in building/running a sustainable/permaculture project! Particularly looking to practise natural building and carpentry techniques.

Description

Back in 2016 and 2017, we set off on a year long adventure around South America. Looking back, the 9 workaways we did over this time were definitely the highlight of that trip!

Once again, we have packed in our jobs and are off to learn new skills, meet new people and see more of what this planet has to offer. On this trip, we shall be driving around Spain and Portugal for 3 months, volunteering, camping, hiking and surfing.

We love the cooperative ethos of workaway and are looking forward to being part of more projects and communities, improving/learning our Spanish/ Portuguese as well as gaining new skills that will help us in the future!

What are we looking for?

We have a dream to start out own project in the future, ideally in Spain or Portugal! Our vision is to build a small community through renovating old farm buildings and constructing new buildings using natural building techniques. On this land we would like to live as self-sustainably as feasible by using permaculture practises as well as earning some small income through a co-operative business model (eg through tourist lodgings, produce etc).

This means that we are up for learning a whole manner of skills as a whole manner will be needed to pull this off! This said, Holly and I are particularly interested in practising natural building and carpentry skills on these workaways. For instance, building with adobe, cob, rammed earth and wattle & daub would be great, as well as restoring old buildings using local materials.

We only have a 3 month visa so would probably be looking to do 2 or 3 workaways ranging between 1-3 weeks each - we would love to do more but unfortunately this isn't possible! The workaways we have enjoyed most in the past have been where expectations and goals have been laid out clearly so that everyone gets the most out of the time.

We like to think of ourselves as pretty hardy folk who like to get our hands dirty (or feet - Charlie once had to walk around a pit for quite some time mixing donkey excrement with straw!). We are happy sleeping in all sorts of conditions, although we wouldn't say no to a room to break up our sleeping in a tent / small van between workaways!

What can we bring?

- General permaculture / farm / natural building help: We've worked in a variety of projects across South America and as you can imagine have done a whole manner of tasks during this time. This has ranged from planting/picking veg, eco building, bee keeping, all sorts of maintenance, jungle taming, jam/chutney making, cooking in a restaurant, carpentry, cleaning etc etc etc!
- Gardening/Vegetable growing: Holly and I have had an allotment for 3 years until recently where we have grown a whole manner of things. Whilst we can't claim to being pros, we are certainly happy to muck in!
- DIY: Since the workaways we were part of many moons ago, we have had the pleasure of fixing up a rather tired house. This has involved building a fairly broad understanding of all sorts of skills be it carpentry or general maintenance. In the garden, Charlie has learnt some brick laying to build some flower beds, a wall and a barbecue area.
- Decorating: Holly has 8 years of experience working part-time as a painter and Charlie has helped to paint on many houses also - though is unsurprisingly slower than Holly ;)
- Cooking / hospitality: As we describe below, we are obsessed! Happy to cook some large tasty feasts on any stay we are on! We have also both worked extensively in hospitality and so are more than helping supporting or assisting with any guests you might have :)
- Language: We are both native English speakers and happy to help anyone improve their english skills - that said most Europeans speak better English than the British! We used to speak Spanish pretty good but haven't practised it in recent years but we aren't afraid to try!
- Ourselves - See below!

Who we are!

We are both 28 and live in Cardiff, the capital of Wales - a laid back, progressive, humble and beautiful country within the UK.

We have both spent the last few years since the last trip working for Cardiff University and doing up our house and we are now ready to learn some new skills and start beginning some new projects of our own - big and small!

Being in nature is extremely important for us and takes many forms. We love hiking, wild camping and generally exploring new and varied places. We particularly enjoy water sports such surfing, scuba, wild swimming and canoeing, however, we have much to learn! We have converted our small van into a camper van and go off into the country side with this to give us some more options to wild camping. Watching and respecting wildlife is also something we are passionate about.

Music is a key part of our lives. We are always seeking to hear new and interesting sounds, particularly played live. We often volunteer or work at festivals and have will have our 2nd year of running our own small festival this summer with around 70 people! We like to listen to whole manner of stuff, mostly alternative and funky and we love music from around the world alongside more classic stuff from the 'west', including electronic stuff. Charlie likes to dabble on guitar/bass and has recently been getting into DJing - particularly collecting lots of funky Latin records.

It would be wrong not to mention our love of food. At home we have a wall of around 70 spices we employ to cook up a range of feasts- no doubt we will find living out of a van in the next few months interesting! This said, we equally like more simple meals cooked on a campfire up a mountain. We really enjoy the creativity that goes into vegan cooking and love sharing our passion with others - often going a bit overboard and covering tables with so many items it is a struggle to find space! If we're not cooking or eating out, we are often talking about food haha :)

Travelling of course is a big passion for us and between us we have travelled to 45 or so countries and amongst other things have swam with a Whale shark, starred in a Bollywood movie, escaped two hurricanes, stayed in a volcano crater now filled from an eruption, watched glowing plankton, run away from an angry Komodo dragon, jumped off an oil rig in the middle of the sea etc etc!

Politics and care for our fellow humans and planet is an important part of who we are and what we are interested in. For last few years we have been involved in a range of political activity such as campaigning for and organising within a political party, trade unionism as well as using direct action against dodgy landlords as part of a tenants/community union.

There's a lot more to say but we can talk about that around a fire soon!

We really hope you consider us to be part of your project and are looking forward to hearing from you!

Charlie & Holly

Interests

Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn

We're interested in:  

Art Projects

Teaching

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Some knowledge of:  

Gardening

DIY and building projects

Life at a Farmstay

Eco Projects

Animal Care

Hospitality/Tourism

Charity Work

Language practice

Helping around the house

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Able to teach about:  

General Maintenance

Helping with Computers/ Internet

Creating/ Cooking family meals

More details about your skills

- Painting/General maintenance
- Working at hotels/kitchens
- Gardening/Vegetable growing
- Construction/farm work/carpentry but by no means experts!
- Strong work ethic, enthusiasm and creativity

Languages

Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Intermediate
Portuguese: Beginner

More details about my language interests
We would be happy to help others improve their English, but not a full time basis. We are really keen to brush up our Spanish (we could speak it pretty well in South America 5 years ago but not so well now!) and learn Portuguese.

Find a language buddy

Age

29 & 28

Nationality

British

What else ...

Need to complete!

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies

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  Special dietary requirements
  One of us is vegan and the other is pescatarian, our preference would to stick to this if possible!