ETHICAL TRAVELLER: CATHERINE MACKon responsible tourism
WOOFING SOUNDS fantastically illicit, doesn’t it? The first time I came across it I was staying at one of my favourite eco-friendly spots, the Omagh Hostel (00-44-28-82241973, www.omaghhostel.co.uk), in Co Tyrone. The owner, Marella Fyffe, showed me to my room, saying: “There are a couple of woofers in the next room, but they are very quiet.”
I wondered if this was dubious Tyrone slang, but, seeing my confusion, Fyffe quickly put me right. Woof, actually spelt Wwoof, stands for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Just to confuse matters, it is also sometimes known as Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Wwoofers are, therefore, the willing workers. Until that point I had been a Wwoofing virgin, with no idea of all the fun I had been missing.
The Wwoofing system, brilliant in its simplicity, is one of the finest examples of successful, practical and sustainable tourism. People of all ages who are keen to travel the world sign up with the international Wwoof network, set up in the UK in 1971, to see who in the world is looking for volunteers. It might be on an organic farm, in a vineyard, in an orchard or even in a restaurant with an organic kitchen garden. In exchange for four or five hours’ work a day the Wwoofers get accommodation and meals.
For people such as Fyffe, Wwoofers are an invaluable workforce. But good hosts will always give back as good as they get, which, in the Fyffe family’s case, is great company, superb meals and the best local guides you could ask for.
Wwoofing work varies from farm to farm, of course, and during my stay at the Omagh Hostel Jurgen from Düsseldorf and Mary from Pennsylvania were planting seeds, transferring young beans to the polytunnel, watering the burgeoning young strawberry plants, stocking up the composter and cutting the lawn in time to install a yurt for the hostel’s summer party in aid of a local conservation charity.
As I helped place some organic lettuce seeds delicately into trays we are all enthralled by Fyffe’s boundless energy and plans for total sustainability. That evening she taught Jurgen how to knead bread while I prepared a vat of salad using some of our freshly picked leaves.
Did Wwoofers ever abuse the system, I wondered. “I have had Wwoofers for 10 years now and never had a bad experience,” Fyffe told me. “You have to trust your instincts. You can usually tell from the first phone call if this is the sort of person you want to be sharing your time and home with.”
She went on to tell me that Wwoofers can be exploited, overworked and badly fed. But she insisted that this is extremely rare and that the network is so tight that such people would be exposed straight away.
Wwoofing is not just for a student gap year, either. It is a great way to travel at any age, especially if you like the idea of travelling alone for a while, and often just a few weeks’ work is much appreciated by hosts, so you don’t have to give up a whole year. You just need to embrace the ethos of Wwoofing, which is all about enjoying the old-fashioned principles of non-monetary exchange of work for food and a bed for the night.
It is also a short cut to breaking down cultural barriers and creating friendships, and it teaches the fundamentals of organics and caring for the environment.
I hope the world is still Wwoofing when I have the opportunity to take off in carefree mode, and make up for all that lost time, when Wwoofers were still one of the world’s best-kept secrets.
www.wwoof.org.uk
www.ethicaltraveller.ie