News From The Tropics

It's November 5th, it's 32 degrees and I've just watched Obama's presidential acceptance speech. I found it quite inspirational. His election gives me a renewed confidence in the United States. It hope he can live up to the expectations that he's creating both in the States and in the rest of the world.

We're now staying in a cottage in the rainforest near a place called Yungaburra. It's up in the mountains so although it's very hot it's not as humid as it was at the last place we stayed. I haven't been able to write anything for a few days because internet access was not possible anywhere near where we were staying previously. That was a place called Daintree, about 50 miles north of Cairns. Whilst we were there we went on a couple of early morning bird spotting trips, one on foot and one by boat on the River Daintree. The river trip was fascinating. There were just seven of us and we observed lots of wild life, including a baby crocodile. Our boatman also pointed out the spot where the village postmistress had been eaten by a crocodile!

We arrived here yesterday. Our cottage has a deck which projects into the forest so you can sit and watch the birds and the pademelons (Pete please note - mispelt it last time). I was feeling quite proud of myself because I thought I recognised one bird as a Honey-eater but a little deflated when I consulted the Field Guide of Australian Birds in the house and discovered there were 47 varieties of honey-eater listed! Still I'm persevering and trying to identify the birds as I take pictures of them - a daunting task!

One thing that I have gradually discovered about Australia is that the different states are almost like separate countries, in that they have different regulations about most things. Just before we left Western Australia the clocks went forward by an hour as a result of daylight saving time. I assumed that Queensland would have a similar system, but it doesn't! Life adapts to sunrise and sunset. People seem to get up at 5 am and then go to bed about 9 pm. Apparently, if you move residence between states you have to change the number plate on your car. The speed limit in Western Australia is 110 kph, in Queensland it's 100 kph. I've just been reading in The Australian (the nearest that I can get to The Guardian) that Western Australia has just announced a 21% pay rise over 3 years for teachers, whilst teachers in South Australia have just rejected an offer of 12.5% over 3 years. The differences go on and on, and remember that the total population of the country is only 21 million!

We're now into the second half of our holiday and I'm already not relishing coming back to English weather in December. However, we've still got a few more places to look at before that becomes a reality. We've got two more nights here and then we drive down to Townsville, on our way to Airlie Beach. There we intend to go on a sailing visit to a few islands out on the reef.

Keep the comments coming!