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