Passage Report No. 99

England winter to Australian summer – a most fortunate life!

A tropical sailor and English winter do not mix. Skipper’s relishes an Australian summer. Weather is one reason; another is “space” – the urge for a horizon, meeting clear, blue skies across almost unaffected, unpopulated, landscape.  Sahula has summer cruised beautiful, historic, cultural, crowded, Europe via rivers, canals and seas over three years – so much more, so many lifelong friends, yet it is time to move on.

Australian author, Tim Winton reflects during a European visit:

“…nature was only visible through the overlaid embroidery of the people who had almost brought it to heel… a landscape of almost unrelieved captivity and domestication…”

Australia is different.

Skipper will winter in Australia and return, New Year, to sail Sahula south, through the French canals, the Mediterranean, to South America.

Time in Holland has lessened work to do in England. Sahula, on land, is winterised (electric pipe heaters, absorbent chemical trays, deck vents, cockpit cover) against the freeze, snow and mould.

By chance, a dinner party introduces an English descendant of Camille Pissarro, French “father” of the early Impressionist artists. Small art works establish the link.

Goodbye friends. Skipper, sailor, global gypsy, international citizen, prepares for a suburban city life in a culture, vastly different. 22 hours in the stratosphere; Skipper meets a beautiful daughter in Melbourne.

Suburbia, day to day material existence, contrasts Sahula’s simple, minimum (no TV, hot water, freezer, shower, incessant contact electronics, house, car, etc). A lifestyle of choice un-impacted by endless need and relentless marketing.

This is the real Australian world; beset by politics, led to an ecological abyss by a government obsessed with material progress.  Skipper quickly adjusts, enjoying time with family and friends.

Time in Launceston, Tasmania. Brilliant, early paintings, superb photographs, highlight the inane, continuing battle to ensure survival of ancient forests, indeed the planets future.

MONA art gallery, Hobart’s treasure, world icon. Architecture, art (modern, confronting, cutting edge) fascinates, highlights, humans non destructive, passive creativity.

Hope rests in Kettering, marina and lifestyle region, south of Hobart. Skipper notes it for possible future residence. The Southern Ocean winds, cool, cold, whip cloud overhead.

“Crew” in Finland, (“I will teach you guitar in Australia”) meets Skipper in Canberra. A drive across the rolling, dry, hills of the Monaro high plains. Basalt, “horizon” county, a landed ‘sea,’ bereft of trees, sheep graze on endless, grassed, hills. It is distant, spatial place of unique beauty; sunsets, red, pink, gray, over the distant, blue, purple, Australian Alps. Trout await the rains in the nearby creek. Kangaroos, wombats, galahs, parrots, blue wrens, snakes, lizards, share life.

Home is “Bobundara,” (place of thunder) 1850’s sheep station, homestead, set in a valley, amongst a Australian heritage garden. Set on the “Diggers Track, Eden to Kiandra gold fields, 40 persons lived there, reputed to be one of the

“…best laid out and cultivated flower and fruit gardens… on the Monaro…”

The homestead, prospered and waned, home to “well to do” graziers, Governor’s, politicians (Committee assessing nearby Dalgety as a future capital), guesthouse; originally, 20,000  acres, divided post WWII (Soldier Resettlement), now 2000 acres surround a renovated, beautiful home.

 “Crew” – mother, writer, photographer, pilot, adventurer, canoeist, cyclist, and tour guide – a full life -welcomes Skipper as guitar teacher and friend.

“Adagio – Living and Gardening Mindfully” (2012), beautifully written, produced and photographed, describes life at Bobundara on the Monaro plains.

Skipper meets the Monaro community, enjoys their hospitality and wonderful, welcoming, homes.

 “…you should buy it (classical guitar); it is about life…I can see you will enjoy playing it…”  Skipper does. Lessons commence. Sahula will resound to classical/popular guitar.

A hot tropical Xmas. In Townsville (North Queensland), Skipper joins family and friends.

North to seaside Cardwell. Deep green, iridescent, tropical jungle; turquoise, green, butterflies flash amongst purple, yellow, red blooms. They surround “Cassowary House,” hand built, home to Ken and a meandering cassowary family. A large red, blue, yellow headed male accompanied by a small, brown, yellow, striped, offspring, (female abandons chick on birth) visits each morning. Ken plays guitar in the light of the night cooking fire.

Margaret Thorsborne, elder saviour of Hinchinbrook World Heritage, lives nearby. She welcomes Skipper - many memories. 

Skipper visits Port Hinchinbrook devastated by Cyclone Yasi – nature reclaiming, healing, unwise, inflicted wounds.

Skipper flies south; revisits “Bobundara” and sets a new course. Life has changed. Sahula has a “crew;” a wonderful companion to a man, most fortunate.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea…” Antoine de Saint Exupery (from "Adagio"). There is a synergy between the “endless immensity” of the Monaro and the sea.

“Crew” invites Skipper on a trek in Nepal's Himalayas. Skipper considers the cost, the passing years; healthy, active, a life of adventure, a wonderful fellow traveller and opts to join.

Next Passage Report No. 101 “Goodbye Sea, Hello Himalayas”

Best
David