Beautiful Boggy Hole
Well, with a bunch of good friends, Keith and I went to Boggy Hole on the weekend. It might not sound much but it was about a 1-2 kilometre stretch of lovely water in the Finke River about 3 hours drive from home. It is a 4WD challenge to get there, driving through a lot of Finke River sand… but great fun! We had the place entirely to ourselves and camped beside the water and I swam most of the weekend. There were heaps of birds everywhere - ducks, eygrets, pelicans, finches, grebes. There was other wildlife and Tim, our snake loving friend, managed to trek out at night with torches and found a Stimsons python which he picked up and let us all pat it while the python was wrapped round his arm. There were a few fears we had to overcome. Keith took most of them up the mountain that drops into the other side of the river to go abseiling and I sat on the river bank and read and watched Keith do his usual thing of trying to coax terrified kids down the cliff. It wasn’t too hot and we had a fire at night and cooked up great vegies in the camp ovens which we ate with damper and wine. Keith and Jeremy played guitar and harmonica and it was all pretty perfect actually. I feel very thankful to have the privelege of living in this amazing part of the world where humans haven’t changed it much at all all. It is so peaceful and restores the soul.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Van Dieman’s Land
Well, I took Keith to the airport today for him to head to the cooler Tasmania climate. He gets Tassie withdrawals if he doesn’t get there fairly regularly. He tells me there’s some conference on indigenous education in Hobart but I reckon he’s just been wilting in the central Australian heat. Then tonight Emily and I went to see “Van Deiman’s Land” at the Arulaen Centre here. Sy, our current visitor, had seen it and told us it was great and the scenery was stunning. He neglected to tell us that the movie was really about humans killing and eating other humans. The scenery was stunning and reminded me of some wonderful walks I have done in that part of the world, but I had my eyes closed for half the movie as I don’t enjoy watching people being axed to death and eaten. The truly awful thing is the movie is based on a true story of escaping convicts. It is actually a very good movie but Mil and I couldn’t wait to get out of the theatre when it finished adn go home and give Sy a hard time for not warning us. I hope Keith will be OK down there. Strange things happen on that island.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Back home and crook
Well, we’ve been back home from Africa for almost 2 weeks now and I’m sick. The first week back I was jetlagged and this week I’ve had a head and chest full of horrid slimy stuff an no energy whatsoever. I have struggled to keep working but had to relent when I was practically falling asleep on clients and colleagues kept telling me to go home. I had all of today off and went to the doctor who predictably told me that I would live and just needed to rest. He thought my job is stressful and my trip to Africa was stressful and that was why I was sick. Funny thing is that that sort of stuff doesn’t stress me… coming home to broken down cars, plumbing problems, and an unfinished cabin I do find very stressful. The builders are putting in the kitchen in the cabin today which means it is pretty well finished - at last!! Unfortunately it wasn’t finished when we came home so our friends who were going to live in it till Xmas had to find alternative accommodation, which is very disappointing. We still have to finish painting it. There’s always some painting to be done. It would probably surprise no one to know that Keith and I are engrossed in colour decisions and have about a dozen tester posts to date.
Anyway, Africa! How do I begin!! In response to questions on my last blog - we went to South Africa, Uganda and Rwanda… and Kenya too (we walked over a bridge and found ourselves in Kenya for 10 minutes!). It was all part of a course I am doing in responding to trauma. We immersed ourselves in the appartheid history in South Africa and the genocide in Rwanda and found it all utterly devastating. We lived in a black township near Capetown and a remote rural village in Uganda and a disability project in Rwanda and received the warmest hospitality. We met a lot of people who should have had the stuffing knocked out of them given all the attrocities they have had committed against them on top of poverty and disease, but who still smile and have hopes and dreams and want to talk to us. It was enormously humbling and deeply touched us. Particulary people who spoke about forgiveness to people who have so terribly wronged them. It was a significant experience and I feel changed by it. So many things to reflect on and hopefully some valuable connections to keep.
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