The French Conection

I have been living and working with two really awesome French guys this past week.  Tim and Eric Gosset are from Lille France which is just North of Paris.  They WWOOFed on the Laharum Grove this last week and together we conquered much of the northern Grampions on our time off.

Tim is a farmer who's family grows grain products and raises lambs for meat.  Tim graduated university before heading out to meet his cousin Eric on an extended holiday which lead them to Australia.  It was very fun learning a little French from Tim and he was very patient with me and my ineptitude with languages. He is a terrible bluffer though, as I found out when Eric and he taught me a dice game based on the practice of bluffing (don't worry Tim, it's better to be a bad bluffer than a good one.  It means your honest).
Eric is an Engineer with one more year of study before he graduates.  In France you don't pick an emphasis, my emphasis is Mechanical Engineering, until the very end of school which is quite different from the states.  Eric has been around the world this last year, from China to India and now Australia as he exercises his gap year before heading back to school to finish up his studies.  Both of these guys were great to talk to about traveling since Eric has been on the road for about a year now and Tim just joined him to see much of India, Nepal and Australia.  Eric and Tim speak English very well, although Eric's conversational English is more practiced than Tim's, and it was nice just having someone my own age to joke with and discuss the ways of the world. 
We both are new to Australia and so we spent our time off in the afternoons exploring the Grampions wilderness that is so abundant and easy to access from Laharum Grove.  We climbed both Mt. Stapylton and Hollow Mountain as well as bush walked up the cliff side behind the grove (you can read about these in the Grampions hiking blog post).  It was some of the best adventure experiences I've had on the grove and I am very happy that these two came to Laharum Grove at the same time that I did.

Eric and Tim are off to New Zealand next and than Tim will return home to work with his family while Eric heads on to South America where he will continue to explore the world and even participate in an internship in Argentina.  I hope that I can meet both of these guys again down the road, they have made me really interested in the people, culture and geography of France.  Maybe I will plan a trip to see them and their country!!
It is sad to see them go now, and I wonder at how good of friends they have become to me in such a short time. I will miss Tim's quite ease and intuitive humor as well as Eric's energy and excitement, this place won't be nearly as bright without them.
The best of luck in your journeys fellas, I hope we meet again on down the road.