Out and About in this Vast Land

Heales Outlook

Typical Small Town Hotel

Lake Barrine was created 10,000 years ago when water filled the crater of a Maar Volcano.

Rainforest Giants

Australia's World Heritage sites:

Possums

Musky Rat-Kangaroo

Lumholz's Tree-Kangaroo

Your First Christmas in the Tropics - Little Lady

Hello everybody - just a little greeting.........

Gloves and scarves and snow boots are not the order of the day to view this magnificent tree !

Daddy's end of term Christmas party by the beach.........

Ancestral spirits are invited to join in the Christmas celebrations together with Aboriginal dancers.

Christmas Carols in the park.

My hand in your hand Nana

An Incredible Timeline

   Babinda  Boulders 

This is the culmination of volcanic eruptions 60.000 years ago at Wooroonooran National Park.

   

The flora and fauna at Babinda is particularly bio diverse, partly as a result of rich volcanic soils. 

The rock that builds the range in Grey Peaks National Park is 300 million years old - one of the oldest in Australia.

The Beauty of Palm Cove Beach

And so another day.

Our African Connection

Ghana is a tropical country in Western Africa and the capital is Accra. The official language is English although most Ghanaians speak African languages.  Education is free and most adults are literate.

Black Africans constitute most of the population which also includes people of Asian and European descent.

                                                           Ghana Christmas Festival

Ghana’s black Africans belong to about 100 different ethnic groups.  The Ashanti and the Fante, two closely related ethnic groups make up much of the population. They belong to a larger group of African peoples called the Akan.

Other important groups in Ghana include the Ewe, the Ga and the Mashi (Mossi)-Dagomba.

 A majority of Ghana’s people are farmers in the rural areas. In the city many hold government jobs or operate small businesses. There are modern buildings as well as houses with mud or concrete walls and thatched or tin roofs, and open courtyards.

Ghana Empire   GAH nuti was an important black trading state in West Africa from about A.D. 300’s to the mid – 1000’s. Arab camel caravans brought salt and copper from mines in the Sahara and dried fruits from North Africa to Ghana’s markets. There the products were traded for gold, Ivory, and slaves from regions South of Ghana.

Ghanaian  jewellery and leather goods were sold and traded for textiles, clothing and fine tools from Arabia and Europe.

Portuguese explorers landed in what is now Ghana in 1471. They found so much gold there that they called it ‘the Gold Coast. Later European merchants came to compete for profits in the gold and slave trades.

By 1642 the Dutch had seized all the Portuguese forts and ended Portuguese control in the Gold Coast. A large slave trade developed in the 1600’s and the Danes and English competed with the Dutch for profits.The slave trade ended in the 1860’s, and by 1872 the British had gained control of the Dutch and Danish forts. In 1874 the United Kingdom made the lands from the coast to the inland Ashanti Empire a British colony and by 1901 had made the Ashanti lands a colony.

The Gold Coast gained its independence in 1957. It took the name ‘Ghana’, the name of an ancient African kingdom.

Sites Of Your World Today

Amazingly this is actually one tree ! A fig tree found in the centre of Cairns.

This is our breakfast coffee view - the sun shining and a breeze blowing but shortly to get hot, hot, hot !

What inspiration from this spectacular tree trunk - for my second children's book 'Spit is Poison' where the intrepid three children escape from an old TB hospital, formally Llanbedr Hall in Wales (where literally spit is poison as the notices scattered on the walls warn) to inadvertently finding themselves as stowaways on a convict ship to Australia!
This could be a perfect hiding place when they embark !

Fruits of the rainforest carved in wood by a craftsman from Babinda

             Plenty for our child characters to find in the forest to thrive on !

       Sugar Cane competition at Babinda Harvest Festival. This is the main crop of North Queensland.

Cairns after dark

Goodnight Little Angel !

Hello Little Australian

I have seen this face a million times - that same family face but each with its subtle variations. Children, grandchildren all of a same, but each including that vital other family's significance.

To hold you \Little Lady is  reliving my life, my children, but also embracing my present and your future.

Here is the country into which you have been born. Worlds away from your past and your heritage.
But offering such privilege and opportunity.

And even - barbecues !

 

                                                          Your first barbecue...........
I

                                                                Mmm....whatever !

Now what is much more interesting is your playground - your backyard, as such. Just the jolly old rainforest where the nomadic indigenous inhabitants lived and roamed thousands of years ago.

Stepping a few yards from your basement we take the path through the forest and come to your Daddy's construction technology, especially for Nana's somewhat delicate trekking abilities.

 This is it - hang on to the rails Nana !
 
 

                                  Made by hand from bamboo and twine - wonders never cease !

And here we have it Little Lady - your very own watering hole !

 

An ancient watering hole within the area of nomadic travel of a particular tribe thousands of years ago and thought to be a site for females as a birthing pool. The rock formation is from volcanic eruptions and the waterfall from the creek running through it.

Journey Begins

Sitting in the huge airport in Hong Kong contemplating the enormity of it all - to a modest person from a humble background - I still feel amazed at the reality of such an adventure at this time in my life !

                                      One of many vast walkways at Hong Kong Airport

Having just taken a thin tablet and made a few touches to a screen I was able to speak to my family in Australia. Of course this is nothing remarkable now but taken in the context of history, recent history, within my lifetime this would have been, indeed, was, the stuff of science fiction.

From a basic lifestyle; a home with only the necessities - warm and adequate, with a radio but television just a curiosity, a telephone way out of our reach, and still no bathroom, the milestones achieved are remarkable
.
From the industrial revolution and the dreadful conditions endured by the working class, to the atrocities of two world wars, within the last half century life has become unrecognisable with phenomenal developments in numerous areas.

Enough rumination!
 I left Wales Friday morning for Manchester, then on to London and boarded for Hong Kong. Very pleasant journey and the eleven hours passed more easily than the last time I did this. Perhaps I am becoming complacent - dictionary definition of complacent, 'smug and uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements..'  Sounds about right !

Spent a few hours in Hong Kong then on to Cairns, north east Queensland. Most of the journey is over sea and it was very turbulent for roughly seven hours, which was quite unnerving - the thought of crashing down into the tempestuous, freezing water was positively scary, but in the end what will be will be !

Arrived in Cairns at 5-00am and met Alexander, we were both so hungry and eager to talk so we sat by the sea on the Esplanade until dawn and and an open cafe for breakfast.

Now for the absolute best part - off to meet Little Lady !

     

                                                                    Baby Ama-leigh