Vega - Last Reflections Upon Australia

Last Reflections Upon Australia

Vega

Hugh and Annie

Sat 27 Jul 2019 04:06

It has been strange, from a cruising perspective, the last five months in Australia. We have not loved being here in the same way that we did in New Zealand, with one notable exception and that is Tasmania. Australia regards Tasmania as somewhere a little separate, almost another country. The landscape is more lush and green and as a result Tasmania and New Zealand have a similar feel. The “countryside” in Australia is vast, dry, relentless and reminds me of what is in store for much of the world with global warming. Nonsense I know but it is impossible not to have a very subjective feel about the places we visit. However it is just possible to get a feel for how the Aboriginal people adapted to the climate and for 40,000 years lived in harmony with it. A little altitude makes all the difference from my perspective and as soon as you go up into the rainforest I feel more at home. I definitely evolved in the forests of Europe.
Sailing up the north east coast of Australia can be difficult, inhospitable and isolated. Culturally it is very similar to the UK and therefore from a cruising perspective we sometimes wondered what we were doing spending so much time somewhere not particularly different socially nor comfortable from a sailing perspective. I spent time unnecessarily fretting about all the wildlife that was out to kill and/or eat us and the fact that if anything did go wrong with the boat there were no locals to help us out (even though the rescue services are very good and you can’t sail around the world expecting help to be at your beck and call all the time).
My rather negative attitude hasn’t been helped by having two skin lesions removed while at Thursday Island. Having not taken advantage of the more extensive medical facilities in Cairns (on the basis that the lesions didn’t seem particularly threatening) I then regretted this decision when sailing into the remote north east and with Indonesia coming up. Thursday Island was a chance to get them checked out and, Australia being extremely pro-active in quickly treating anything suspicious, my hoped for diagnosis of nothing to worry about was in fact a discussion of possible conditions and consequences however unlikely. An immediate arrangement was made to remove them for histology tests the following day. I await the emailed results.
There is a big difference between the urban areas in Australia, particularly the larger cites, and the rural areas. I think this, for me, is a reflection of my Bristol background (comfortably middle class, left of centre, earnest) compared with the much more pioneering, hands on, less cosmopolitan rural areas that, and I am almost ashamed to write this, remind me of the Brexit supporting attitudes back in the UK. Brexit is so polarising I instinctively react against anything that reminds me of it.
If anyone Australian reads this please give me the benefit of the doubt. It is a reflection of my state of mind rather than the more objective view that it is an interesting and wonderful place to sail in and visit. We have good friends from there, wouldn’t have missed the experience but somehow it made me yearn for home more than other places we have sailed through.