Highlights from Down Under
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Last April, during my second teaching tour of New Zealand, some of the teachers who had participated in the Dance Festival in Wellington collaborated to bring me back for a full tour of Australia and New Zealand for Jan to March 2007.
I was honoured be invited by such an accomplished and established group of teachers and artists and very enthusiastic about spending more time in Australia. I had been over for a short visit and one workshop about 15 years ago after my first Kiwi tour and had wanted to know more about this fascinating country ever since.
I started my tour with my week long dance retreat in Bali, which was a completely magical experience and enjoyed by all, including myself. We are aiming for a 2 to 3 week combination teacher training AND/OR professional dance training course there for next year in this wonderful, tranquil and inspiring place.
My first stop in Australia was Brisbane, a semi tropical, verdant and beautiful city in the state of Queensland. I was very pleased to be invited by Maria Masselos, who has been a major sponsor for a large number of oriental dance workshops for many years, featuring all the top Egyptian names. The Friday night, Saturday and Sunday classes were well attended and high energy in spite of the fact that it was a whacking 34oC with only fans to dissipate the heat. I taught a wide range of topics from salsa-oriental, Turkish ROM, to flamenco for belly dancers. Fortunately, the performance venue was blessed with air conditioning. Our visit to the Animal Sanctuary, which included Koala cuddling, and Lorikeet, Kangaroo and Wallaby feeding, was a real treat. My next destination was Maryborough, a small and very charming city located several hours north of Brisbane and only 30 minutes from Fraser Island. This world heritage site is Australia’s largest sand island and the home of tropical rain forest, crystal clear fresh water lakes and streams, moonscape sand dunes and the country’s purest and oldest breed of wild dingoes.
I booked a 2 day tour with great, environmentally savvy guides to show us the many unique and natural wonders of this very special place. Although every part of the tour was amazing, I was particularly touched by the beauty, complexity and the diversity of the rainforest, and that fact that it could even grow, let alone thrive on a 125 miles long stretch of sand in the ocean. They were a startling contrast to the monotonous, uniformed pole pine forests on the other side of the islands main road. These rapid growth soft wood commercial trees now replace what was once all rainforest. However, unlike the rainforest that is thousands of years old, after a maximum of 70 years they will just rot and fall leaving what?
This island also has fresh water lakes, one of which, Lake Mackenzie is a crystal clear rain water lake of multihued turquoise and blue and has, itself, been declared a world heritage site. We also saw a pair of dingoes, while on our swim stop at Lake Wabby. These curious and gentle creatures, companions to the aboriginals for thousands of years, have now returned to their sustainable numbers in balance with their natural food sources after facing first overpopulation followed extermination by settlers.
My only disappointment as we traveled along the 75 miles of undisturbed white sand beaches was that that we could not go into the turquoise, bathtub warm ocean, because of the large numbers of Portuguese Man o’War, (stinging jelly fish) large and hungry sharks and stingrays in the summer season. However, the gorgeous “human friendly” lakes and floating downstream in the cool clear waters of Eli Creek were welcome treats in the searing heat. I was a bit uncomfortable to know that the local Funnel Web spiders had evolved uniquely on Fraser Island to become on of Australia’s deadliest, while the Redback was also very common. Fortunately we were taught to identify and watch out for them.
Back on the mainland, we had a fabulous time on 20 acres of Australian bush under the reign of my wonderful hostess, Helene Coulter. Geckos, praying mantis, possums, 2 big loveable dogs, chickens and a family of 13 green tree frogs (on the endangered species list) who lived in the open-air veranda bathroom (yes, there was another one inside the house minus the frogs). I LOVED IT! I was very impressed by the brave, brilliant and pioneering, “I am a woman and can do anything” ladies I got to know, if ever so briefly, and hope to see more of them in the future. The entire very large group of enthusiastic and fun-loving dancers managed to keep their energy high during the 2 days of non-stop classes and a show in 35o temperatures, again with no air conditioning.
Then it was up to Cairns, 38o days at 90% humidity and the Great Barrier Reef and more wondrous rainforests. The adventures began with Kuranda, a village noted for its arts and crafts, high up in the mountains an hour from Cairns. The ascent by The Skyrail was a silent and soul wrenching view of the rainforest canopy which brought tears to my eyes for the entire 45 minute journey. I could follow the flights and hear the cries of the cockatoos above. As I peered deep into the forest floor, teeming life crawled upon and battled life to reach the light of the canopy. There were stops at the 2 stations along the ascent with ranger guided tours along the boardwalks. The variety of flora was overwhelming. The town of Kuranda was a lovely spot for a day visit and had a great selection of really beautiful artwork in some very unique shops and galleries. The return ride was on a beautifully restored, turn of the century wooden car railway that creaked and chugged its way ever so slowly through the spectacular scenery of the canyon.
The next adventure included 2 more world heritage rainforests and a cruise along the Daintree River, up to Cape Tribulation. Our guide was not only a very funny and interesting ex-jazz musician, but a wealth of information about the area, its fauna, flora and history. So many breathtaking sights and amazing creatures, many of which are moderately to lethally dangerous. Spiders of every variety, many highly venomous, a wealth of snakes, each one more lethal than the previous one, even a tree whose pressurized sap will blind you and, of course, the crocodiles. These modern dinosaurs are apparently extremely intelligent, cunning and patient hunters and are known to stalk and observe people in the bush for weeks, as they study their daily habits and potentially vulnerable moments. Needless to say, I happily opted to confine my swimming to the resort pools.
Then it was out to the very outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef with 3 separate reef stops. As soon as my mask was in the water, I found myself in another world – a brilliant frenzy of color and life just under the surface of the calm, clear water. There really are no words to describe the numbers, colors, patterns and variety of fish and other creatures that inhabited the most curious and amazing coral formations imaginable. The closer one looked, the more one saw.
Stingrays buried in the sand sea floor, giant sea turtles, little “Nemo” clown fish playing in the brilliantly colored anemones, a giant Mary bass, more than half my size, brilliantly colored parrot fish of all shapes and sizes, eels and fortunately for me no sharks. I had been snorkeling many times, in many locations in many countries before. I even lived on a sailboat in the Bahamas for 3 months many years ago, where daily diving on the reefs, was an integral part of life and our primary source of food. However, I had never seen anything like this before and trying to grasp the gigantic dimensions of the reef was staggering.
I was stunned when I arrived to my next workshop destination, Adelaide and was informed by my hostess, the very talented Shamira, that if the ocean water temperature rises only another 2 or 3 degrees due to global warming, the entire Great Barrier Reef will die and be lost to us forever. I can hardly comprehend of such a loss, not only of the reef itself and the uncountable volume and diversity of life it comprises and hosts, but also of the other millions of sea creatures who are intricately interdependent upon the reef for their life.
Adelaide is a well planned, lovely and very livable city located in Southern Australian. The air-conditioned studio tempered the furnace-blast 40o heat and I really enjoyed working with this very enthusiastic and hard working group of dancers. I decided on a tour to Kangaroo Island for my next mid-week adventure. This wild, rugged, large and sparsely populated island which lies directly south of Adelaide was well worth the 5 am wake up and 6 am departure, bus ride and ferry ride to get there. Two action packed days, included a very special visit to sit on the beach amid Australia’s only colony of Sea Lions. I was unprepared for the emotion that came from quietly sitting beside them, watching these lovely creatures, their pups, their affectionate interaction with one another. It was more profound to be there with them knowing that they are fighting their way back from extinction after brutal and mindless massacres from the days of seal hunting. The Remarkable Rocks, huge red monoliths of indescribable power, resting on top of cliffs overlooking the open sea to the Antarctic, and Admiral Arch, home to the New Zealand fur seals, another amazing colony sprinkled across the rocks, ledges and pools adjacent to the National Park. Koalas, the adorable chocolate wallabies and kangaroos in their natural habitat in the wild was wonderful and swimming in the much colder but amazingly gorgeous waters of the north island beaches was great, in spite of the fact that I had just learned about another brand new scary monster – the blue ringed octopus, who often hides in the rocks along the seashore and who’s venom is many times more deadly than the most venomous snake and no anti-venom is available. And then to find out that the infamous Great White Shark actually prefers and frequents the colder waters of these coasts was yet again a humbling moment.
Then onto the southern most tip of Australia’s domain, the island of Tasmania. My first late afternoon evening in Hobart, reminded me of Halifax, Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic coast- delightful, charming, quaintly old world European, harbour city full of sailboats and salty dogs. The population of Hobart is only 1,500, while the entire island of Tasmania totals only 4,500. This rugged and wild place was, in fact, the original Australian settlement (penal colonies) in 1700. My workshops and show were held in a fabulous heritage building and all very well attended, while the ladies were very enthusiastic. I admired my hostess, Adriana who, after moving from Adelaide 18 years ago has pioneered belly dance in this lovely and remote Australian outpost.
My workshop weekend coincided with the wooden boat Festival, and since I love boats, we had a chance to take in some of the activities. I even managed to include a day sail on the Duyfken, a perfect replica of the 1660 Dutch sailing ship. The Duyfken was actually the first recorded European ship to land in Australia, while en route back from the Far East and Indonesia, although Holland made no claim to the land. It was an absolutely brilliant and perfect replica in all aspects except for the head and small kitchen in the crews quarters. It was a more than perfect day of clear blue skies and light wind. Although we were allowed to assist the crew with the sailing duties, I preferred to watch the action as they coordinated the highly complicated and not terribly efficient tasks of hoisting sails and tacking. These old vessels were actually not able to sail into the wind! It was really hard to imagine that a crew of 20 to 30 men could actually live in such a small place with such limited resources for periods of up to a year and a half. After this once in a lifetime sail, we spent a couple of hours at the beach then headed up to the top of Mount Wellington. At the top of the entire island, overlooking the magnificent bay on one side and the vast wilderness and mountains ranges on the other side; I finally got a feel for the real Tasmania – truly wild and magnificent. We couldn’t have timed things better as we treated to one of the most magnificent sunsets in my life.
After the three days of weekend, we were off to spend the day on Bruny Island. We stood on the huge expanse of empty beach on National Park Reserve and home to a huge community of the adorable Fairy Penguins. Only a couple of hours from the most southern tip of Tasmania – the last stop before the Antarctic – no one and nothing but shells, turquoise ocean, pure white sand and pounding surf, I reflected on some of the unique and magnificent things that I have been so fortunate to see and be part of during the past weeks.
Then it was onto Melbourne with Barbara Wolfcamp who was happy to show me just a few of the many sights of this great multicultural and dynamic city in the state of Victoria. Although my itinerary did not leave me any time for major exploration, we did take advantage of the great beaches only minutes from the studio, and took in a special Fairy Penguin visit which allowed us to see these beautiful little creatures at arm’s length, just beside the famous St. Kilda pier. Too cute for words! I will just have to return to see more of Melbourne and finally go down the Great Coastal road and see the Apostle Rocks.
Australia was marvelous in so many ways, so strange a world – full of unique creatures and species, some seemingly as old and mysterious as the world itself. In spite of the fact that many of these are highly venomous and deadly to mankind, they have been quite helpless to protect themselves from us nasty humans, now in danger of extinction due to our conduct and the resulting dramatic climate changes. This fact combined with an ever increasing state of severe drought has finally begun to filter into the consciousness of an ever increasing percentage of the population. I was surprised and hopeful to find that everywhere I went; the Australian topic of the times is the need to reverse the damage to and restore the intricate and delicate balance of nature if this marvelous world is to continue. Why do we always have to lose what is more precious to us before we appreciate and value it? We could take care of it while we have it. And what about our beautiful dance?