Head's Travels

Happy Christmas and Signing off

msabbatical — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:14:21 +0000

This This will be the last blog before we return home as visiting many relatives and friends now. We went or are going to Noosa Heads, Surfers Paradise. Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne after this. Thank you for reading this. I have thought about everyone at school on my travels and when you were having your house dramas and xmas concert and carol service. I wish all the Oxbridge candidates all the best of luck in their interviews and I hope the other year 13 are getting the university offers they deserve.

Happy Christmas to all the staff and pupils and parents and to everyone else we know as we are not sending xmas cards this year as we only arrive back the week before Christmas

Best Wishes

Marilyn Cass

Out with Dingoes and Backpackers at Fraser Island 30/1 December

msabbatical — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:37 +0000

75 Mile Beach from Indian Head

Preamble. Last few days have been spent in Hervey Bay and Fraser Island. The former was in preparation for our Wilderness Adventure safari. We experienced another slice of Australian life the day before we went off as ate in a RSL recommended to us which is a Returning Servicemen League which I suspect is a bit like our British Legion. They run this huge entertainment building with bars and two dining areas. You have to sign in or be a member but basically it was absolutely full of ordinary Hervey Bay people out for a night out and quite fascinating. No other obvious tourists there.

Aside. We are finding the Australian definition of casual very amusing as we think it means not in a swimsuit or naked as anything else goes. Virgin Blue the airline states passengers must confirm to minimum dress standards and must wear footwear but thongs (flip-flops) are acceptable as are singlets and shorts. We were intrigued as to what less than that one might want to travel in?

The adventure. We were collected at 7.00a.m.to set off on the ferry across to the island by a very brash but likeable Aussie driver/ guide Chris. I think his role model was Crocodile Dundee and apart from this middle aged couple the rest of our party of 20 were Swiss, Dutch, Brazilian, German, French, Italian, Canadian, Australian and British mainly under 30 so the back packer crew. The young public school British girl from Birmingham seemed to have been here a year already touring Australia in a camper van with her Australian lover (female). We enjoyed the group’s company and learnt a lot. You may wonder why we were there having left relative comfort of hotels but I wished to visit the island. It is more environmentally sound to go in a group in a 4WD and safer with an experienced driver. There are no proper roads on this island and its all wild rough sand tracks through tropical rainforest and along beaches with crashing waves hitting the vehicle.

Lake Birrabeen

Mudlarks at the Lake

Fraser Island. This is another World heritage site and is the largest all sand island in the world with unique eco systems. Its 124 kms long with 168,000 hectares. It has beautiful fresh water lakes that have no streams feeding them and are acidic and wonderful for your skin when you swim in them. The potential problem for them is the build up of insect repellent and sunscreen from swimmers. It had giant sand dunes and white beaches one of which is 75 miles long which you race along in these four wheeled vehicles and coloured sand cliffs of many colours. A vast selection of birdlife is there along with the purest strain of dingoes in Australia as they haven’t met with domestic animals. There have been a number of dingo attacks here including children eaten so everywhere has notices to take care as these are wild animals and exposure to humans can make them aggressive. Off shore are sharks, sea turtles and we viewed them from a cliff top and saw where a mother turtle had come up to lay her eggs that morning. The vegetation varies from dense rainforest to wild heath and wetlands. We spent the two days visiting four different lakes for swims, tramping miles up hills and sand dunes in huge heat which made me wish I was twenty but gaining huge respect from my travelling partners that I hacked it in temperature well over 32 degrees C. I did wonder a few times if Id gone mad actually but it was fun to be with all these youngsters having the time of their lives. I thought about the boys enjoying their gap trips several times.

Trek I nearly died on

The most demanding aspect was actually being in the truck. Geoff remarked it was very like a ten ton truck going over Salisbury plain given the jolting it gave your body despite wearing full seat belts. Lots of vehicles seemed to get bogged down in the sand to the huge merriment of our guide. His stories were unrepeatable to this all age audience of blog readers. At night we stayed in cathedral beach a campsite with a full Barbie that night and travellers tales. We were lucky to get a cabin although we came round the corner in the dusk to meet a full size dingo who snarled at me. However I slept better that night to not have to share a tent with potential snakes etc. We also saw a delightful dingo pup the next day that was rather more loveable.

Wild Dingo

The island has some fascinating history of how it was named, shipwrecks still to be seen, sand miners and timber felling – all to lengthy to put on here. The timber from this area was used to line the Suez Canal and rebuild London’s Tilbury Docks after the war, but timber felling is now strictly forbidden. We survived and it was a rich experience in several ways.

The Real Australia November 28

msabbatical — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:32:11 +0000

Henderson Park

We decided on going south we did want to experience some real Australia on a farmstead so booked into a cattle farm just north of Rockhampton. Rockhampton considers itself the beef capital of Australia and possibly is as it has 2.5 million cattle in a 250km radius. We had driven for some 400 kms along the Highway with very little habitation except sad looking petrol stations and signs telling you to survive and drive and several dead kangaroos on the side of the road. We turned off a t a tiny place called Caves and luckily found a great Australian pub with excellent food. Its 100 years old with lots of atmosphere. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed in as a woman and there were several cowboys complete with wide brimmed hats and cowboy boots playing pool. We were told there’s a fair on tonight and we must come so we might. We then drove off for miles on dirt roads to find this farmstead which wasn’t quite as we expected. The cabin is wonderful besides a creek with swimming and fishing. We are the only guests and are going down late afternoon to the homestead to be shown around. It so quiet, all you can hear are bird calls. We saw a large kangaroo as we came in but otherwise its just miles of cattle in grazing land. There are several volcanic plugs nearby and a cave system called Capricorn caves of a limestone cave system.

The Cattle Station

Henderson Park at Barmoya is a working cattle property with 1200 head of cattle. It is the family home of the Barrett family who have lived here since 1885. Currently run by David and Marie Barratt and their daughter Annika, was initially scrub country and clad in dense vine scrub but was cleared by them. It s now flooded blue gum and tea tree country. The underground waters are highly saline so they rely completely on the creek here. It is a very interesting area of land management and their careful conservation is very interesting. The two beautiful cabins have lovely flowers and trees planted around them as they planned for diversification into Tourism. The area was also used as an artillery range by the US army for years firing at a large volcanic plug. There is a huge military training area coastward of here called the Shoalwater Military training area.

We visited the station in the late afternoon and were taken around by Nicky’s husband, Ryan in his land cruiser truck full of spent cartridges. He was a delightful young man and full of enthusiasm for the property and apart from having us pat lots if enormous cows I liked him very much. He told us he’s a ringer as come into the family by marrying Nicky and they obviously will run it as the next generation. It was a Hereford based herd initially but they brought in Brahman cattle from India and now cross them with Angus, Limousin and Charolais bulls. When we went on a walk earlier in the afternoon we came across two bulls all on their own which I was a bit nervous of so we rolled under barbed wire fences to avoid as the black young one was very lively. It was as well we did as Ryan mentioned they were missing one bull that morning. In late November (actually yesterday) they turn the 18 bulls for four months so all the calves are then born within a four month period. They do some AI but it’s mainly the bulls themselves. They sell to the EU market, where they get 40 cent to the dollar more, and then the Asian market and finally the old stuff goes to the USA for burgers. They have to sell them as soon as they get four teeth at about 30 months. We saw lots of kangaroos, bustards as on Salisbury Plain and I saw a dingo late at night. They shoot the dingo if they see them. The kangaroos are very interesting as a mother can be pregnant, have a Joey in her pouch and a small Joey at her side. If the weather is bad and no water the pregnancy will pause itself until times are better We went to the fair which was interesting to see a small Australian community having a party with rock band, Santa Claus arriving, camel rides and lots of beer being consumed.

We would recommend this as a stop for anyone driving up this way as its only 20 minutes off the Bruce Highway half an hour north of Rockhampton and totally quiet if you count the birds, toads and mooing going on

The Real Australia 28 November 2008

Platypus capital of the World November 27

msabbatical — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:24:12 +0000

Kingfisher at Broken river

Frog on nocturnal walkFreshwater Turtle

We drove southwards for a few hours then turned inland from the coast to drive up into the mountains and to Eungella National park. It is at the top of the Pioneer River, west of Mackay which is a very green valley with lots more sugarcane. It’s a sharp climb up at the end of the valley to another rainforest. It’s our fifth one now but easily the most comfortable to be in. At last a bit of cool – how refreshing to walk around it this afternoon. The mountainous park is largely inaccessible apart from this area near Broken River where we are. Platypuses live in this river and we are hopeful of seeing some tonight. You have to be very quiet and there is a viewing platform within walking distance of our little cabin. They only tend to come out in the dawn and dusk. This sub tropical rainforest has lots of beautiful birds including the kingfisher on the river. This is another eco tourism area like Daintree. They are defined as “Ecologically sustainable tourism areas with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that foster environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation”. We are going out tonight with a ranger to see the rainforest with its nocturnal animals hopefully, possibly possums and frogs. We have already seen some beautiful birds and butterflies, several large turkeys in the forest and turtles swimming in the creek. We walked on two trails in the afternoon bordering the creek and saw some fantastic birds with bright yellow chests – Easter yellow robins, cockatoos, kookaburras and Eungella honey eaters We waited for over an hour in prefect silence in the dusk by the creek before the platypuses arrived. In the meantime many turtles of about 30 cms long entertained us with swooping kingfishers and river snakes. The platypuses were wonderful and a very rare sight to see in the wild. After a delicious meal – the best we have had in Australia we went out with a ranger. For a nocturnal spotlight tour. Luckily we had torches as it was pitch dark in the rainforest except for his spotlight and there are some quite unpleasant creepy crawlies in the forest at night as we found out. As it had rained slightly several large spiders were out and snakes. We saw swamp wallabies, green tree frogs, white tailed rats, and Skelton spiders, marsupial mice nestling on the tops of ferns, long tailed geckos and crickets. There were only four families staying in the lodge so we found this the most wonderful peaceful place in a glorious setting. We visited the platypuses several times as they were certainly a real highlight in our tour and we got some good movie of them.

Whitsundays. 25 and 26 November

msabbatical — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:56:18 +0000

Whitehaven Beach

Schoolies and drinks reps

I wondered if I should just put a few pictures really as this is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is a group of 74 rugged green islands sitting in aquamarine sea with secluded beaches, coral reefs fringing them. You can indulge in every water sport you can think of from cruising, catamaran sailing, jet skiing, waterskiing, snorkelling, sea kayaking and swimming. We stayed a night in Airlie beach which was jumping with it being schoolie week which is when all the year 12 (last year in Australia) descend at end of their schooling to seriously party. We were reminded of the parties at Newquay and Rock that our leavers go to. You have never seen so many nubile youngsters and backpackers. I gather 1260 of them arrived on Monday when we did. We felt it better to leave them this morning and took a boat to the Hamilton Island and are now holed up in a beautiful hotel overlooking the Coral Sea from the 18^th floor. Cockatoos are swooping onto our balcony regularly. There is a large convention here for Jim Beal I understand a drinks supplier and all their top performers in sales are here. They have flown in one of Australia’s top rock stars to play the beach tonight. As we can hear from here I shall just stay up here and try to work out how I can stop being bitten tomorrow when we go to Whitehaven Beach the top place in the world for beach beauty. The bugs love me out here and it is incredible how I survived Borneo so well but not here. It’s my sweet blood I think.

Thoughts on Australia

We are finding Australia very interesting. I find parts of it bring back memories for me as a child. The grass, the noises and smells of tropical life as we lived in Queensland. It is very strange to remember aspects I haven’t thought about for years like the sugarcane mills. One of the aspects that I have found amusing is that often Australians don’t seem to quite understand us speaking the Queen’s English and ask us to repeat things. In America they are thrilled by the English and say they like your accent etc and do you know their relatives. Australians seem to have no interest in you being English and are just casually friendly and very laid back. The service is generally not as good as in China or Borneo. We were kept waiting for a meal in Cape Tribulation for over an hour in a top category hotel. However the youngsters are very friendly and keep telling us they will see us later which I believe now just means goodbye. No worries means You are welcome and G’day means Hello.

Paradise

Wednesday we went out to Chalkies beach on Haslewood Island and then onto Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday island. We travelled out by rigid inflatable which was great fun racing through turquoise seas. The first stop was to snorkel and lots of the fish were swimming all around us and as big as a foot long in brilliant yellow and blue stripes. Yesterday we saw a manta ray and huge schools of fish leapt out of the water as we raced there. Whitehaven beach is the one in all the adverts and so white is the sand it hurts your eyes to look at. It is pure silicon sand and 6 kms long and thought to be one of the top beaches in the world and I can see why. I was shown how to polish your rings in it. It is what jewellers use and the result was amazingly shiny. We leave for Eungella national park tomorrow then onto a cattle farmstead near Rockhampton

Jellyfish, crocodiles,parrots,sugarcane and kangaroos 24 November 2008

msabbatical — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:49:38 +0000

Jellyfish warning sign

I haven’t written for five days but lots still going on but I will only reflect on passing impressions from now on. We are not whinging poms but a few surprises for me have been

Jellyfish. I was not aware that no one swims in the sea in Queensland north of Hervey Bay between November and April without a full lycra suit. The reality is you see no-one in the sea which amazed me as I anticipated sandy beaches, turquoise sea and people frolicking in the sea. During the whole summer period people go to lagoons or swim pools. Some beaches have stinger nets but the little ones can still get through. I certainly swam amongst them on the Great Barrier Reef in a suit but the problem seems to be two particular types which are potentially deadly and lethal Chironex box jellyfish and Irukandji which are only little ones. It apparently safer around reef islands but the jellyfish are on outer reef. Every beach has notices and bottles of vinegar to apply.
Crocodiles We went up to the Daintree National Park which is dense rainforest and stayed at Cape Tribulation which is as far north as you can go up the coast before going onto four wheel drive up to Cooktown. It is very beautiful up there with miles of deserted sandy beach fringed by palm trees and light blue sea. As you drive north you cross endless creeks reeking with crocodiles which are very dangerous and again signs constantly tell you not to go within 5 metres of the edge. The other thing that surprised me is all signs are in English and German. Why German I wonder? There are lots of tourists from Germany but I don’t know if they also have a large resident population. I will have to find out. You may remember a few months ago a man was snatched from this area and eaten by a crocodile. The taxi driver told us a large female croc had been seen just by the ferry across the Daintree River only last week. The hotel we stayed up there was an eco lodge nestled right in the rainforest which was very interesting and the beach nearby was idyllic but then we suffered from
Parrots These little lovelies start shrieking at 4.30 most mornings. We like to rise early but these guys beat even us and since arriving in Australia they seem to be following us along the coast southwards. They cluster morning and evening and we have enjoyed sitting out on the balconies and watching them in the evening in great swarms of bright green and red. Last night we enjoyed two cockatoos in a tree nearby with big yellow combs and pure white bodies picking off the tree fruit.
Sugarcane and Kangaroos As we drove south from Cape Tribulation to Townsville and then onto Airlie Beach the surroundings slowly changed from miles and miles of sugar cane to bush and cattle and fruit growing.
A huge tropical storm hit us just before Townsville but drove manfully through it. We saw five kangaroos in the early morning in the bush area which was exciting. There seemed to be some burning of sugarcane which we thought was forbidden. Another interesting place we visited was Bowen about to become very famous as the setting for the new premiered super film Australia with Nicole Kidman. They have a sign saying Bowenwood now linking it to Hollywood status and the famous film. A lot of mangoes are grown in this area. Bowen is the world capital of mango growing and they even have a giant one as their town sign.

Great Barrier Reef 20 November

msabbatical — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:34:16 +0000

Snokeling on Reef

Leaving behind heavy rain we went off to the outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reef today. Yesterday in the rainforest it rained 100mm in three hours. Brisbane is currently having horrendous storms. We went by catamaran for over one and an half hours out to sea to the Agincourt reefs. It was brilliant sunshine all day. They dock by a platform where you can take part in all sorts of activities from snorkelling to scuba diving, to going on a semi submerged submarine to visiting an underwater observatory to going on a helicopter flight over the reef… The crew are all very attentive in looking after everyone. They required us all to wear lyric stinger suits today which covered everything but your face as November is the start of the jelly fish season. Everyone looked like a star ship trooper but at least you didn’t have to worry about burning. It was very hot and a breeze makes it deceptive. The water was a turquoise tropical blue and the coral still very healthy with thousands of fish. This reef extends 2300 kms along the Queensland coast and is a major marine park. Marine biologists explained lots of the features to us. I remember visiting the Reef when a little girl and was pleased the same magic is there when you snorkel around. It is breathtakingly beautiful. I saw mushroom, plate, stag horn and brain coral and giant clams. I actually saw three small sharks and stingrays as well as hundreds of fish in bright yellows and blues. They fed the fish at one point and ones about a foot long came up for food. I also had hundreds of tiny jelly fish for company so was glad of my star ship trooper kit even if looked ridiculous. The water is quite shallow here but soon drops away to oceanic depths of 2000 metres. Those of you going on Gap years must visit the Great Barrier Reef as one of the great experiences of your life. I often thought of David today when he worked on the boats out here for while on his gap year

Into civilised Australian rainforest 19 November

msabbatical — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:30:26 +0000

Rainforest Canopy

We have had a couple of rest days in Cairns which was much needed and today went to the Atherton tablelands and a delightful former mining settlement in the middle of dense tropical rainforest. Kuranda is reached by a fascinating railway which was built to link Cairns to the gold mines in the late 19^th century. It was an amazing feat of endurance by the men who built this winding track up through dense forest and many lives were lost. It runs over huge gorges with crashing waterfalls below and has wonderful scenery. The plan was to open up the tablelands for development. Aboriginal groups lived and still do in this region and there were some conflicts. Today they take part in the tourism experience. The village itself now has many things to visit from koalas to birds, snakes etc. It also had an interesting pie shop which I know would interest a member of my family.

Pies

We returned by a Skyrail which took us by gondola over the rainforest canopy. This was a very different view for us looking at the emergents and birds in the trees. It glides just metres over the canopy so is fascinating. The cableway is 7.5kms long and one of the longest cableways in the world. This whole area is a World heritage site. You can stop at various points on the trip and walk into the forest on walkways and visit a Rainforest interpretation centre. On completion of this trip we went to the Aborigine centre for the whole cultural experience.

It was very strange to compare Australia’s, (a developed countries) development of a wonderful resource the tropical Rainforest with Sarawak which is obviously less developed and where experiencing the rainforest was a whole different thing. Australia has the whole tourist experience off to a fine tuned exercise with thousands of visitors daily, collected from hotels by fleets of buses. In Sarawak just the two of us went off for a long minibus drive and boat trip many miles with a guide only. It was certainly more uncomfortable but it was more exciting.

Tea at the Raffles Hotel Singapore

msabbatical — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:10:05 +0000

We passes through Singapore enroute to Australia where we arrived in Cairns yesterday for a two day rest before going onto visit the Great Barrier reef, Daintree national park, Kuranda, Port Douglas etc. We will then be driving the length of Queensland for the next two weeks. the internet is no longer free as in China so making the most of updating blog and sending emails today on 24 hour use from hotel which is not cheap. I suspect we will have less time to post from now on as moving daily. Someone mentioned they were surprised I had time to do this but find it a useful method of recording memories as they are so close together one could easily forget detail. We spent ten hours in Singapore but were pretty tired so did not take advantage of amazing shopping but went for a very pricey but amazing tea experience a the 5* Raffles Hotel one of the world’s top hotels which is really an institution internationally.

Tiffins at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Ex Head-hunters Iban tribe experience. 13 -15 November updated

msabbatical — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:30:44 +0000

Ulu Ai Longhouse

We have now returned to Kuching after the most amazing three days miles from civilisation as we know it in the deepest tropical rainforest with the Iban tribe as our hosts. One main road goes 1600kms through Sarawak up to Sabah. The equator runs through the country so it has very wet weather at times but they have not been affected by earthquakes or the tsunami which devastated nearby states. Borneo is the third largest island in the world. It took six hours by minibus to arrive at the Batang Ai reservoir where we were loaded onto a very narrow long boat to continue our journey upriver for another hour and a half to our longhouse visit. Enroute to the reservoir we made several stops to visit Serian, a market town with a fascinating market of hundreds of vegetables and fruit we did not recognise at all. Durian (very smelly fruit not allowed in hotels in case the smell gets into the air conditioning) lycees, aubergines, jungle ferns and prawns we did recognise.

Market at Serian

We also visited a pepper farm where they grow on vines up posts and saw the processing and stopped to see pitcher plants and orchids. The pitcher plants you will remember eat insects.

Logging

This seemed to be mainly near the routes of communication in this area where areas near villages were cleared for wet and dry rice for food. Big transnational companies do obviously operate extensively in Sarawak but the Government is committed to selective cutting now. Palm plantations also take rainforest and there was evidence of quite extensive palm plantations.

Military action

We climbed up a very slow hill where the guide told us many ambushes took place during the Malaysian emergency when communists attacked the British, NZ and Australian troops regularly. When you looked at the dense jungle around here one could really feel for the troops in such alien surroundings in the WW 2 against the Japanese and then the communists and Indonesians in the emergency later. The Iban tribe helped the British army during the war by regularly attacking the Japanese with blowpipes then displaying their heads with delight. The Japanese were very cruel to the locals as well as us as their enemy during this time. An old camp is now used for illegal immigrants from Indonesia who come over the border some 10 kms away. Migrant workers come from Bangladesh and Vietnam as well working in construction.

Soon underway upriver at a terrifying 20km zooming in and out of dead logs and through small rapids. The rainforest loomed either side in a tangled mess. The water in the river was really clear with fish.

Long River near Nanga Sumpa

Education

We passed a primary school where the tribes send their children. It’s a boarding school and they go home at the weekends from six upwards. If bright enough they then go onto secondary school boarding again. Most schools in Sarawak were set up as missionary schools and throughout the state they where an identical uniform regardless of whether they are private or not. Turquoise and white for secondary and black and white for primary.

Healthcare

Near the school is a clinic which has family planning as well. Flying doctors also operate in this area. They will fly to longhouses but not many have a landing strip. The service and medicine is free. Towns all have hospital and patients pay for treatment in three bands depending on wealth of 20, 50 or 100 ringgits (about £4, 10 or 20) per night. Tribes people will also consult with their medicine men first and one about the spirit’s views also. Of course they know about many medicines for the rainforest which are very effective. When we trekked later on the guide told us all about various different plants and their medicinal benefits from high blood pressure to boils to the cure of HIV!

Courting

Not many young people stay in the longhouses as they need work. In the past the men had to bring a head from their enemies back to impress their women now they want cars, credit cards, a career and condominium. The current population is about 26 million but the Government want some 70 million so encourage families of around three or four children. The tribes have more children often.

Religion

About 60% of the country is Christian dating back to the missionary activity; they have Anglicans, Roman Catholics, 7^th day Adventists and Baptists that I observed in the many little chapels along the roads with the neat cemeteries in the middle of nowhere. The guide told us many practice including the tribes. When we were in the longhouse the pastor there showed me his bible printed in Iban which he reads to them in the longhouse. They don’t tend to go to church but have their own services. I took his picture with his bible after he insisted on putting his shirt on again albeit a football one. They also take particular heed of the spirits of rice, nature, warriors and creation. The influences of the past are very evident in Sarawak with the colonial imprint and the missionary activity.

The Longhouse and Iban tribe’s people

We finally arrived in our longboat and children hung out to greet us, a little shy but curious and friendly. The lodge where we stayed besides the longhouse was very basic but ok.

Lodge near Ulu Ai Longhouse

The mattresses were on raised platforms under mosquito nets. There is no electricity up there and only cold water so rather Spartan but some tribe’s people had a generator so spots of light shone out along with lots of little candles in jars at night. The longhouse itself was more modern than we expected having being rebuild in the last few years but it is still very basic where three generations of family live in one room. They sleep only separated by mosquito nets. A small kitchen is at the back and the front area is one very long covered veranda where they all socialise and sit on mats and pass the time. They sit by candlelight and drink rice wine which they offered us and is lethal. Artefacts hang on the walls. We were introduced to the chief and his family of five sons. This longhouse has 232 people in it all related and four generations who coexist besides each other in small groups it took them 5 years to rebuild with local wood from the forest and odd bits they traded. You are not allowed shoes in the house. They are not allowed to intermarry or interbreed I was told but there were certainly several retarded people there which made me wonder about that statement. This longhouse is kept exactly as it is day by day and not has a tourist attraction like some nearby with the dances etc. It was more authentic because of this and only used by one company who we went with so one really experienced eco tourism in action. The tribes really live a subsistence life hunting each morning and evening with dogs. In the past people have been shot and it’s a useful way to get rid of your enemies. They catch monkeys, wild boar and deer; fishing all day and scrapping out a few vegetables and dry rice besides the forest. It’s a tough life. They cook the food inside bamboo and we had several memorial meals which I won’t discuss here. Chickens are everywhere and I could personally murder several after they started their morning calls at 3.00a.m. Along with the nightly torrential rainfall on the tin roof and mango fruit falling on it as well sounding like rifle shots. You have probably guessed night times were disturbed. If some one dies in the longhouse they lay there for two days then are buried. The immediate family are in mourning for three months and during that time will not cut their fingernails, hair or shave.

Walks into the forest

We went on rainforest treks and saw the rubber trees being sapped and many medicinal plants and listened to the noise of eh forest. Sadly there were not many animals. I’m afraid being near the longhouse means they have mainly been hunted and are very wary of people, The people the day before us were lucky enough to see wild Orang Utans but we didn’t. We took wonderful magical boat trips deep into the forest where we were the only people there by a wonderful waterfall which we swam in whilst the boatman fished for then cooked our lunch down stream.

Enselvai Waterfall, Sarawak

It was a very moving experience to realise we were 8 hours from civilisation, only 10 kms from the Indonesian border and deep in the very area dreadful fighting went on the Second World War against the Japanese. The forest is so thick it’s hard to imagine either side coping.