Bali high

2017 is becoming the Year of Yoga. Having practiced yoga regularly for some time and feeling the overall effect to be very beneficial, we decided to try immersing ourselves fully in yoga in a place in which we could attend classes every day and have a different cultural experience as well. Captain has been keen to travel more in Asia for some time, but Matey’s abject terror of being poisoned by even trace amounts of the evil ‘flavour enhancer’ MSG/monosodium glutamate has made her wary of many destinations in Asia. (MSG is snuck into numerous Asian foods in sauces and the result for the unfortunately sensitive Matey is ugly: excruciating migraine pain and compulsive vomiting. Enough said!)

Bali has become a hotspot for yoga and it’s possible to find inexpensive flights from Cairns to Bali. Once you’re there it’s possible to live relatively cheaply making the prospect for boat bums on a budget tempting indeed. So, though both Captain and Matey had previously been to Bali (separately) a long time ago, and Matey at least had not felt it was a place she needed to return to, the notion of unlimited yoga classes for a couple of weeks convinced her to give Bali another chance. Being in a yoga-ish environment focused on health and wellbeing convinced her it might be possible to avoid inadvertently consuming MSG, and the resulting horror of poisoning.

The lower the expectations, the better the experience can be and the more pleasant the surprise when expectations are greatly surpassed. We both found Bali to be completely different from what we remembered. Matey had expected the (almost) constant flow of not-always-well-behaved tourists over many years to have had a negative impact on the culture and the attitude of local people to tourists. Yet she found the culture to seem relatively intact. Though we avoided ‘party towns’ and it may well be evident there, not once did she see exploited women forced into prostitution. Had we stayed in expensive resorts we might have found it more difficult to sample the local cuisine, but we still found this readily available. Though some unfortunate-looking dogs and cats were a sad sight (though not as sad and scrawny as she remembered from the distant past), the second most unattractive thing we saw was a McDonalds on the way back to the airport; at least some areas have managed to avoid the incursion of this high point of ‘Western’ cuisine. Needless to say, Bali hasn't avoided the scourge of plastic and the most depressing sight was the litter everywhere you looked, waiting for the rain to wash it out to sea to kill, injure and poison marine life. 

We met travellers from a variety of countries, not just ubiquitous Australians. There can be many negative aspects to tourism, but it seemed there was perhaps a more positive side to it than Matey recalled. It was a revelation to observe a tourism economy can bring wealth without eroding traditional culture and values. The people we met were warm, friendly and apparently genuine. There seemed to be a happy balance between foreigners and locals. The locals appeared to appreciate the tourists and the business arrangement they had. We saw relative wealth and people that seemed content without desiring the lifestyles of foreigners. How sensible the Balinese people are.

Yoga bliss

The experience of immersing ourselves fully in yoga was as satisfying as the Matey hoped it would be. In a week-long inexpensive ‘retreat’ we did yoga twice a day, as well as eating delicious food prepared by a delightful, smiling chef who prepared a happy variety of vegetarian and vegan Balinese food. Here we met some great fellow-travellers down the yoga path as well as the lovely Balinese staff.

We also spent some time in Canggu, where we were able to choose from a variety of yoga classes all day every day, and tried some styles we hadn’t yet sampled such as Ashtanga and Aerial yoga. Ashtanga was physically challenging but very satisfying. Aerial was just good fun! As well as yoga twice a day we ate delicious healthy food from a range of ‘Western’ and local-inspired styles. It was not hard to eat well here, or avoid toxic MSG!

In fact, so good was our revised experience of Bali that we are going back!

Capt shows the Balinese how to grow rice

Captain gets dirty

Oink oink

Happy hour

Ouch!

Cheeky monkey

A veritable feast

A veritable vegan feast

Capt struts his stuff

Dancing lessons

Cute Balinese dancers

Final night at our retreat - also birthday party of one of our new friends

Birthday girl, smiling chef and part of the feast

Canggu beach

Some of our lovely retreat hosts

Forest dragons

A visit to the Monkey Forest in Ubud is mandatory

Some yoga lovelies

A bridge held up by the roots

Oinkfest evidence!

Aerial yoga stretch

Queensland highlights and Gemini catamarans

Matey has discovered an article she wrote on cruising in Queensland more than a year ago has just seen the light of day in the latest (June) issue of Cruising Helmsman.
Cruising Helmsman have also recently republished an article she wrote on Gemini Catamarans about a year ago.

Both articles have been edited somewhat ...

The wet (sweat) far enough north

Recent months have been more like a ‘normal’ wet season, we’re told, with heat, humidity and even some actual rain. Sadly, though, not enough to cool the desperate, torched corals and their many inhabitants and friends. To refrain from blubbering, or worse, ranting about corrupt  politicians who fail to act on climate, preferring to party with coal mining magnates instead, the Matey shall hereby change the subject. (Poor ole Captain cops the odd rant — so much so that he had to escape to a rant-free, cyclone-free zone for a break!) NB if you also are upset by reef destruction and want to do something about it you can start here or here or here or here or here.

So, to non-ranty subjects … exciting purchases.

A storage locker recently became available at the yacht club, which Captain and Matey were very pleased to rent. Our little home has therefore experienced considerable de-cluttering of late. Even frequently used items like Matey’s new rollerblades can be stored ashore — sadly, one of her old pair was crushed some time ago by a heavier item being ‘stowed’ on top.

(NB rollerblading is now so uncool that Matey had to search far and wide to obtain a replacement pair. Apparently only children and a few men rollerblade these days: it’s a rare store that stocks them — even rarer is one that keeps women’s sizes. Acquiring a replacement pair required some effort, even on a visit to Melbourne, as Matey wasn’t keen to purchase these online.)

So, uncool as it may be, Matey, the only rollerblader in Port Douglas, still enjoys it as much as ever and has rediscovered hibernating, if well-upholstered muscles. Having pondered the wisdom of buying new blades ‘at her age’ Matey is so far pleased to have done so. She’s hoping her still reasonable sense of co-ordination and balance stays with her and osteoporosis stays away for some years yet.

The exciting purchase of a tiny car has improved our quality of life considerably and made possible many things that weren’t previously, such as regular escapes into the rainforest to soak in cool streams, and joining a bushwalking club. Though we briefly considered:

a) a motorbike, which was rejected on the grounds of having no storage space and more gear being required), and

b) an all-wheel drive for more adventurous trips, 
we knew once we had the option we would use a car more than we were used to when borrowing or hiring, which was only when necessary. Our new petite friend the Getz runs on very little fuel (not much more than a motorbike?) and we can hire a 4WD if required so we are happy with this purchase, both from an environmental and a quality of life perspective.

Dodging a bullet

As Debbie did the east coast we felt fortunate to be once again on a cyclone’s northern side copping only heat and humidity. Neither a puff of wind nor a drop of rain descended upon us until what Deb had morphed into was on its way to New South Wales. The wilting temperatures here required us to flee to one of our favourite cooling creeks in the rainforest.

To date the cyclone gods have been kind to us, directing their wrath further south. We did experience some of Oswald’s anger at his northern edge in Bowen, too close to escape strong wind and rain. He was much milder than Debbie however and the experience wasn’t too traumatic. Poor Airlie copped a direct hit then too. Though we knew we would be most likely far enough to Debbie’s north to escape her fury Matey was mildly wondering if we might receive a few blasts of wind or something more unpleasant as we’d never been anywhere near a Category 4 cyclone before, but what we got was no different from the milder cyclones we’ve been in range of, thankfully. Here’s hoping the weather gods remain our friends. Hearts go out to all the people and other creatures who weren’t so lucky. Matey again weeps for the smashed coral and their communities, already so bleached and with so much dead, and now more trashed by the cyclone. But Matey promised not to rant … deep yoga breath.

An Apple fail away?

In the buildup to the storm Matey experienced the great and painful disappointment of misplaced faith. After many years of frustrated groaning while forced to use PCs at work, and having had this experience bookended by the joy of reliability and smooth operations of Apple, Matey was quite distressed to discover a fairly new iPhone (thankfully still under warranty) is capable of unexplained failure. After ten days without a phone while the autopsy was conducted, and then after a week with the replacement, it failed too. Another week without a phone while the replacement is being autopsied and a cyclone is brewing. (!!) No phone means none of the weather apps used to monitor cyclones (quite important when one resides on a boat in north Queensland), and internet only when wifi, i.e. Captain mostly, was available. This was manageable, though extremely frustrating, while Capt was around and fortunately occurred before his trip south, so Matey was not dealing with brewing cyclone sans Captain and sans phone and wifi, but it might have been. (!!)

Not happy, Apple, considering how much iPhones cost. Matey is earnestly hoping her second replacement iPhone proves worth the dosh …

A word of advice if any reader experiences similar failure: start with a phonecall to Applecare.

Hmmm. Did any of that read like a rant? Apologies if so.

The joy of new discoveries

Ok, now for the good stuff. Wheels and an engine obviously mean the capacity to go further afield on land. So after Capt received a tip-off, we recently found a new watercourse and waterfall that even a lot of locals don’t seem to be aware of: Hartley’s Creek. One of the smaller waterfalls along the watercourse long before you reach the larger waterfall drops into a small pool with rocks that are positioned perfectly for one to perch oneself so that one’s entire back receives a pummeling as good as any massage the Matey has ever been blissed by. At this point photos will probably say more than words …

Our first glimpse of Hartley's Creek. This hints at what's to come.

The King of Masseurs

A little geyser bubbling fresh water out of the rock

Hartley's Creek Waterfall and swimming pool

A favourite cooling station

Looking towards Silky Oaks resort

Golden orb spider from underneath. Cute, non?

Spring Creek waterfall, visited with our new bushwalking club friends

This one really is a cutie!

The normally dainty Trevethan Falls after rain

At beautiful Mt Amos: our friends' water source

Friends' almost private little gorge at Mt Amos. 

Almost high tide in Port Douglas on the day of the cyclone. 
Luckily it didn't come here or a storm surge could have lifted the pontoons higher than the pylon.