More Australia and Tasmania

I was in Sydney when I received the call from Louisa to tell me that my dear friend Robert had died. It was extremely odd being so far away and I knew I had to come back for the funeral. So it was with a heavy heart and a great deal of sadness that I caught the plane to Cairns . I was to spend four nights in the rainforest and then fly back to the UK. Then I was coming back out to Tasmania to see my family. 

It was perhaps four hours on the plane to Queensland......and thrilling to see the canopy of the rainforest beginning to cover the land as the plane approached its destination. As soon as I came down the steps I was hit with a wall of humidity. It was hot and steamy! The tropics! I found the bus I needed for the Daintree National Park. Hardly anyone on it. A few hours later I had to change on to a smaller bus to get to Cape Tribulation. There was an interesting mad professor looking chap on the bus reading a yellow paged book on insects. I was to discover later that he ran the Bat house in Cape Trib........a small museum like hut where you can learn all about the local bats and hold them. The bus driver delivered me to my cabin in the forest. I had found it on line. A unique and wonderful place to stay run by 'Rob', a Dutch guy who lives there alone and sculpts figures amongst the trees....... no one else was staying there. He has two cabins available for rent. There is no electricity once you cross the Daintree river. Just generators and insects and crocodiles and cassowary birds! It is like being like in a film....a cross between Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee. The roads ....or rather tracks, are dusty and fringed by the dense green forest from which exotic and alien sounds eminate. There is hardly any traffic, but when a car appears it is a four wheel drive with bronzed, scruffy, wild looking inhabitants. Quite an exciting  environment really for a fifty something old bat like me! I felt absolutely out of my comfort zone but in a good way. I had never been anywhere like this before. It is a half hour walk down to the beach, but to get to it you have to walk through a mangrove swamp over boards. It is an ancient Aboriginal site called 'place of the spirits' and I had to work hard not to be fearful alone in this place. The beach is deserted and goes on for miles and miles. The coral reef is just a few miles out. Its a very powerful feeling to stand on the beach alone knowing there are crocodiles in the water. It is unsafe to approach the water. People get taken. The crocs swim from creek to creek along the coast. Just a few months back a little boy got snapped up whilst walking his dog with his older brother. Very scary. My little hut was fantastic....the bathroom outside and open to the rainforest. The pure water comes from Mount Sorrow directly behind the house. I slept to the night sounds of the rainforest........the haunting butcher bird and screeches of things I can only imagine. It felt very safe and I was assured there are in fact no dangerous snakes or spiders which was a relief. there is however a giant bird eating spider there and the prehistoric looking cassowary bird that can be extremely dangerous if it decides to attack you. It can be two metres high and has razor like talons that can do real damage. Although I would have loved to have seen one ( Rob feeds them and they come close to the house regularly) I was on edge the whole time on my walks in case one crossed my path. On my walks wild pigs would occasionally dart away in to the mangrove undergrowth and loud bird calls would surround me. I loved the sound of insects before the rain. In the evenings it usually rained for a while. The insects would always sense that it was about to happen and a great crescendo of cicadas and other unknown insects from that world would sweep through the forest. It was deafening and created a sense of foreboding. I went on a boat trip to the reef with a crowd from California. It was a perfect day. We left the beach and put on anti jelly fish suits as they have a deadly sting here. The man in charge was brilliant and funny and kind. He told us a lot about the underwater life. I put the snorkel on and went in to the sea....quite nervously as I had only dabbled in snorkelling in Corfu. What a magical psychedelic and glorious world there is underwater in this ocean!! It was a very moving experience. I thought about Robert being dead and hoped his spirit is alive somewhere and celebrated the miracle of this amazing life in the sea. I wanted Gav to be there now and to see this with me. This part of the world is teeming with incredible life....so much green and more green and the vast blue sea with its hidden treasure of multi coloured corals and fish. I saw a lovely sea turtle burrowing or food beneath me and I followed him for a long time as he nosed amongst the giant purple clams and yellow coral. So much beauty of design! ............. I have to sign off now. It has been absorbing for me to sit here in front of the fire on Harris remembering these times. More soon...............probably my last post next time as April is here and I'm returning to work soon............ love to you all

Australia

It was so good to be travelling without my violin. I had left it under the piano in Kuljit's studio. It was to be there for a month!

Dazed and happy I emerged from the plane to be met by my son Orlando. We caught a cab to Pyrmont where my flat was and went for a late night beer. I remember going to sleep with all the windows firmly shut as I had been reading about the red back and funnel web spiders (both deadly) which can be found in Sydney.

Sydney is a very manageable city to walk about in. I'ts such fun to hop on to the ferry boats from place to place. I absolutely adored the victorian style houses adorned with iron lacework, and the general cheeriness of everyone. I enjoyed a very nice bottle of Cloudy Bay white and caught a ferry to Manley Beach. I had a very nice morning visiting the Australian Chamber Orchestra at their work place and envied them their lifestyle. Their offices are very close to the Opera House in a fabulous underground complex where they rehearse and plan their programmes. They have huge financial support to buy beautiful Italian instruments and it shows in the sound they produce.

Sydney Opera House and boat 

 Sydney Opera House and harbour

Outside the Opera House!

I loved wandering around the markets in the Rocks area with the presence of the bridge so close by. It seemed expensive to eat and drink out so sadly I didn't do very much of that...would have loved to, but I was going to be flying all over the place so I had to save. The beauty and impact of Sydney's Opera House is hard to convey, but it exceeded all expectations. It is so beautiful, elegant, and original. It literally takes ones breath away and is just as exciting up close as seen from the water. If I ever go back I would like to eat in the restaurant there which is said to be excellent.

I spent a day planning the next couple of weeks and booking flights and buses. I was to fly to Cairns in Northern Queensland and catch two buses to Cape Tribulation to spend a week in the rainforest and swim over the Great Barrier Reef. Then I would fly to Ayers Rock, and maybe on to Melbourne before Tasmania. I had moments of not quite believing I was grown up enough to do this on my own and was always faintly surprised when they accepted my various requests for flights and accommodation. I had a few pangs of guilt about spending money whilst not earning any, and a lot of anxiety about going over the overdraft limit....but I pushed those thoughts aside and forgot about them. Who knows whether I would ever be in this extraordinary and distant land ever again?  A few generations ago women would not have been able to travel and explore alone like this....it really is so recent that we have that liberation. I'm making the most of it!

Late Winter/Spring Post continued

The island in winter is quiet, dark and snug. Everything is sleeping. There are the occasional bright clear days with fantastic light as the sun drags itself over the horizon for a few hours, soon to sink back under.

Harris in winter

Harris winter

I made Christmas cake here and fed it slurps of brandy. It made it back to Somerset for the festivities but the swirling wave icing turned smooth on its journey as hand luggage through Inverness and on to London. Christmas came and went in a blur ; shopping and cooking and late nights up with my boys watching football.

Brandy fed Christmas cake!

Important New Year's ingredient!

Bubbly on the beach

Champagne on Luskentyre beach

The hills of north Harris from Luskentyre

Then back to Harris for New Year with girlfriends. It is becoming a ritual to spend this time of year with a group of women and long may it continue. Lovely days sitting by the fire with whisky, occasionally pulling on the boots for a walk in the wind. I must mention two fantastic escapades. One was to Luskentyre beach where Rachel marched in to the sea and swam! ( This is early January! ) We collected shells which are now incorporated with Moroccan tiles in a design above the cooker!

Shells with tiles

Freezing and hungry, we drove to Leverburgh, where the ferry crosses the infamous Sound of Harris to the Uists , but also is home to the wonderful Butty Bus,...a converted bus that sells bacon and egg rolls and homemade soup all year round! How we devoured these delights!!!

Butty Bus!

The other, Bridget and I set off for a walk up over the Harris hills and round to a beach opposite Scarp, then back over a cliff path to Husinis. It was a battle against the wind......exhilarating and tiring, every step sinking into wet ground. After a couple of hours and about halfway we realised we hadn't left enough time and the hills and valleys were stretching before us. We strode on, barely talking as we needed all our breath. We reached the sandy spit at dusk with a half hour climb ahead of us. We felt happy and triumphant to reach the road at Husinis. Even though it was getting dark now we would be fine on the road. Twenty minutes later we hitched a lift back to the house where our friends were peering anxiously out of the window.

All too soon my girlfriends returned to London and Gav flew up and we had a lovely few days making plans, and suppers, knowing that we wouldn't be seeing each other for a long time as I would be flying to Sydney in ten days.

I flew South and after a trio gig in Newcastle under Lyme, and a night on Kuljit's floor, I caught a very big plane to the other side of the world!  I was going to Australia for the first time, to see my son in Sydney and to see as much as I could (not much) of the country. Also I was to visit long lost relatives in Tasmania. I took a deep breath, settled in to my seat which was to be my world for the next twenty four hours, and perused the menu of films to escape in to.......