some more weeks later

Several weeks later ...(July 28th)

Crikey, just looked at previous entry and all that seemed very long ago. I am in yet another airport (Cairns) and I have to give laptop back tonight so this may very well be my last entry till I get home.

I leave Australia tomorrow morning and I’m off to see sis in Queenstown. From 28 degrees to freezing. Eek.

I’ve spent the last few days in Cape Tribulation north of Cairns. It had been raining there non-stop for weeks before we arrived but amazingly we had 5 days of beautiful weather. Cape Trib is a pretty undeveloped resort 2-3 hours drive from Cairns. It is often described as where the rainforest meets the reef – and it’s not a bad description at all. I went with 3 folk from Buccleuch Place – Ben Hachey, Amy Isard and Sam Brody. We stayed in this gorgeous place called the Cape Trib Retreat (google it), a house set in the trees/jungle. Nothing was enclosed except the bathroom I think. My bedroom had its 2 balconies – 1 over the rainforest and one over the lounge/kitchen/sitting room. There was even an open staircase (i.e. no door) into the house but luckily there seems to be no crime in the area. I did wake up in the middle of the night thinking that someone was creeping around, but that was probably Ben, or maybe a cassowary! A cassowary is a big emu sized bird that roams the area and we were eager to see one.

We took a trip out to the barrier reef and I tried snorkelling for the first time – I saw me a clown fish, yes I found Nemo. Now I’m not a big fan of being underwater but I am now hooked on snorkelling and reckon the only way to go now is diving. Sorry credit cards! There was so much life down there. Unfortunately I didn’t see a turtle but there were so many beautifully coloured fish of all crazy sizes and huge sea slugs and giant clams and I even saw a sting ray. I did manage to kill a few thousand creatures though. Some of the coral is very close to the surface and the current took me over it before I could turn around and so a collision occurred. :( Sorry.

The next day Ben and I did the Mount Sorrow ridge walk. That is the steepest climb I have ever done but it was good. Didn’t see much wildlife but at least no spiders fell on me. We also did a guided night walk through the forest hoping to see some wildlife. We saw a cricket, a stick insect, a lizard and a sleeping bird. Not quite what we were hoping for but clambering along wet rocks in the dark is always a laugh.

There is an exotic fruit farm in the resort as well so we went along to a tasting where we were introduced to some mighty fine fruits that we will probably never see in the shops because either they are ugly looking or they don’t travel well. Black sapote is also called chocolate pudding fruit and you can see why. Although it doesn’t quite taste of chocolate it does have the texture and sheen of a very rich chocolate pudding and is yummy. We tried it in a smoothie today too. There was also a yellow sapote which tasted of pumpkin. My favourite was probably soursop which is a relative of the custard apple but not as sweet. Also good was breadfruit – use as you would a sweet potato. And there were many more fruits that I can’t remember the name of. One smelled of gasoline and reminded me of durian. One of those that you either love or hate. We were then taken round the orchard where Ben decided to lick an ant’s ass. It was a green ant which when it bites your releases acid – it’s pure citric acid and so if you lick one of these ants it tastes like lemon and gives you your recommended daily allowance of vitamin C in that one lick.

The drive back today involved lunch at a gorgeous restaurant looking ove a river just south of Cape Trib, Heritage Lodge. They often have the smallest kangaroos, the muskyrat kangaroos, roaming around but of course we didn’t see any. Stopped off for some jackfruit, macadamia nut, apricot and wattle seed ice cream before roaming around the Discovery Centre hoping to see some wildlife. The problem with the rainforest is that there are too many bloody trees around and most of the wildlife is brown or green. We did see some tree frogs but they were pointed out to us by the staff and they were located in the rafters of the toilets!! What is it with toilets and frogs?!

So not much wildlife but plenty of sun. Also plenty of computational linguists. We met 4 separate sets of them in Cape Trib and saw 2 others on our plane up. One of the main reasons for my trip and certainly the catalyst was the ColingACL conference that took place in Sydney last week. So there were loads of Edinburgh people about and we spent a lot of time drinking and playing pool, and yes, of course I am the champion. I spent most of the conference organising the volunteers and gossiping with the organisers so didn’t really attend too many talks – actually I attended a grand total of 2 in 4 days! Hey, but it’s all about the networking isn’t it?!

Before the conference I went up to the Blue Mountains with Ben Ha, David Talbot and Sam B. The weather was miserable but we did manage to see some sights. The Jenolan Caves were fantastic. So ornate with so many different formations – shame I forgot my camera!! Maria (another new friend) was fantastic in driving us there as it is 2 hours from Katoomba – our base in the Blue Mountains. There are over 300 caves in a 12km area but only a handful are open to the public. We went on 2 tours but unfortunately we had the same guide for both – his stories were bad enough the first time round!! The caves themselves were wonderful though. David Talbot was unable to fully appreciate them though as we had had a fairly busy day the day before. Straight from his flight into Sydney we were off sight seeing around the city, including all the fruit bats in the Botanic Gardens. Then I took him off for cocktails in Newtown where we met up with Stephen before heading into town to a fabulous Japanese/Californian restaurant and meeting up with Ben Hu, David H, Matt Frampton and Mihai. Lots of wine and food later we went to another pub before heading home about 2am. So a busy day for a jetlagged David and then we were up early to get to the mountains. All the looking up at the caves caused him to feel very nauseous so he may be quite an expert on the floors of caves now! We went for a hike in the drizzle along the Grand Canyon the next day – the Australian version. Many steps but worth the effort. The weather ahd cleared just enough the next day for us to actually see the main sight that all the tourists go to see – the 3 Sisters.

I’d been up to the Blue Mountains before a few weeks earlier where I went to the Blue Mountains Scots annual ball – yes I went to a ceilidh in Australia (2 actually since the conference dinner involved a ceilidh). They take their country dancing here very seriously. Not sure what they made of Ben and my Strip the Willow – the kind where you try to inflict as much damage as possible on those unfortunate enough to be nearby! I also won a raffle prize - a basket containing crackers, pate, peanuts and paper tartan napkins which you can see me professionally modelling. The next day, local Maria took us around different spots and outlooks to get a feel for the Mountains. The canyon there is the second largest in the world after the other Grand Canyon and looks stunning. Total opposite to the barren images we see of the canyon the Colorado river has formed – trees everywhere We went to some caves that aboriginals had been using for up to 20 thousand years and you could still see some of the carvings – simple ones involving horseshoe shapes (meaning person) and straight lines (meaning spear) – you really have to know what you are looking for!

What else did I do in my final weeks….. Oh, I saw some whales. I went on a whale watching trip out of Sydney Harbour. We followed a pod of 3 humpback whales for a while. You are allowed to get up to 100m from the pod so we managed to see quite a bit of them, although trying to guage where and when they would next come up for air is not an exact science. Saw some tail slapping and some fin waving but not leaping into the air unfortunately. The boat docked in Circular Quay right next to this Aboriginal art gallery that I’d had my eye on for a while so of course I had to go in just for another look. Came out with 2 oil on canvas paintings – they were half price so surely my purchase was justified! I do love them so I don’t care.

Talking of shopping I also took myself off the the factory outlet centre one hungover Sunday and came back with a ski jacket and 2 pairs of sunnies among many other things. Also one day I went into the Macquarie Centre to get jacket dry cleaned and came out with a new pair of shoes. Just because the Aussie dollar is weak and things seem cheap should not mean that I have to buy everything I see but I just can’t seem to help it!

I head straight to the pub from Sydney airport tonight for farewell drinks with all the fabulous people I’ve met here, then I few hours sleep before I wake up, cram everything into my luggage, throw anything that doesn’t fit out and head off. Once I get to Queenstown I’ll spend a couple of days with sis and family before hiring a car and spending a few days getting to Christchurch. I leave NZ next Saturday and spend the rest of my trip in Central America.