Perhaps a time when I felt the most comfortable, most at peace and in the very best of spirits. Gündönümü Ciftliği is a farm based an hour and a half outside of Istanbul. We contacted the owner, Aysun, on Workaway and were given the go-ahead to spend the next few weeks living and helping out on the property.

Accommodation and meals were provided in exchange for 6 days/week hard yakka. We joined a wonderful traveller from America, Sarah, and soon welcomed Maddy, our Flemish Vlinder (loose translation = Belgian/Dutch butterfly). Later, an American lass named Nadia came to stay. We resided in charming quarters onsite and eased into a daily routine of walking down the hillside to reach the barn and milking area.

The moment we met Aysun, we knew we had found our kind of person. This woman shamelessly touched on the good, bad and smelly of farm-life. She immediately compared the cows to human women – passionate, moody, hormonal, and of course, horny! She was enthusiastic about the dirt and the land, and about caring for the cows in a respectful, kind and loving way. Her vision was to create an environmentally conscious farm and way of life.

Our daily routine included morning or evening milkings, scraping shit, brushing the cows, assisting with calf feeding and bottle filling. We shared a language barrier with the Turkish staff, although they managed to get their point across with basic words, miming and body language. We created strong bonds quickly and spent our days laughing, making jokes and taking the piss.

With the other volunteers, we found friendship and camaraderie. If we weren’t singing “I could show you the world” (Aladdin) at the top of our lungs while shovelling cow shit, we were drinking sweet çay tea or cuddling up to a cow. We flung ourselves onto piles of hay, swung from fences, jumped into knee high mud and got stuck into every opportunity with reckless abandon.

Being the dairy lovers we were (and are), we drank raw milk and devoured farm-made yogurt, butter and cheese. We attended the local bazaar on a weekly occasion, entrusted with a budget to source out delicious local fruit and vegetables. Aysun, her husband Mehmet and their son welcomed us into their home for an elaborate feast on a weekly basis. They embraced us with love and warmth. We would take seats at the table, graciously accept a beer or two, and dig into delicious homemade meals alongside our token Turkish family.

As the season began to thaw into warmer sun-filled days, we spent every moment lapping up the environment on offer. I recall the day we moved the cows into a new grass-filled paddock. We watched them jump around with excitement, diving through the long grass and prancing about.

Aimee and I ended up extending our stay to 6 weeks, before setting off to a new country. After reuniting in the UK 10 months before, the three musketeers (also known as the yellow gumboot clan) were reduced to a very teary farewell. Anna ended up returning to the farm a year later to recapture the magic for a second time.

I feel like this experience opened the gates to new ways of travelling. I would highly recommend and encourage others to try Workaway – look for something random and give it a go! We gave in to the unknown and found a diamond in the rough, and for that I will always be grateful.