Day 4 & 5

Allo. Yesterday, there's this australian tribal elder who came over and did a walk + talk to our kids, sharing with us the various aboriginal practices and customs e.g. how to start a fire, how to play the digeridoo, how to signal for gatherings for male and female 'businesses', how to know when to fish for which type of fish by looking at which plant blooms, how to create face paint out of soft wood etc etc. Very interesting leh. Additional brownie points for being hunky. Too bad, he's already married with 3 kids, otherwise, I may just consider becoming a tribal woman, do berry collection and start fires. =P

Went to do investigative fieldwork at the mangroves in the afternoon. Very nice weather in vast mudflats that lead out to the seas. Amazing lines of soldier crabs all frantically burrowing into their muddy abodes as they sensed our invasion. A surreal sight. The swamp's so high-quality, my shoes got stuck and when I finally managed to lift them out, the soles came off, so I had to trudge along in my socks on the pokey mangrove pneumatopores for the rest of the session. *ouch ouch ouch*. Was pretty worried, in case those crabbies decide to check out my socks. Nice classification work done for the afternoon.

Then decided (spontaneously) to check out this place - Point Lookout, on the other side of our island, where there is this gorge walk where visitors can expect to spot dolphines and whales if lucky. And my! We WERE lucky. Out at those wondrously vast blue seas, we've got a couple of sightings of whales, dolphines, a sea turtle and some rare birds of prey. That place, I tell you, is heaven on earth. No exaggeration. The last section of the gorge walk is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. I will upload the pics soon. Cross my heart, if I strike the TOTO this lifetime, I will buy a house there and read a book facing that sea everyday with my warm cuppa honey tea.

Today and tomorrow, the kids will start on their individual projects. Scattered around various sites near the station, getting themselves wet and dirty (but never sweaty). =) We will walk around to supervise. Hope to get some of our own work done too, during this period.

Well, nothing very much to report on for these 2 days I guess, since it's kids' time. This weekend, we’d bring them back to mainland for some touristy R&R - hug some koalas, visit some sunday markets etc.

So check in another time then. Hope u hasn't fallen asleep by now. =P

Btw, yesterday our caterer decided to cook us some curry, only she called it ‘satay’. It’s basically some non-spicy, greenish, coconuty stew of chicken, broccoli, carrots and onions. But there was rice too – first time we’ve seen/smelt/tasted rice since 4 days ago! So we were all grateful, be it curry or satay. =)