Looking Back to Look Forward

This is stream of consciousness writing that I began while I was having a vestibular migraine last Sunday 26 February. I get those 3 or 4 times a month (less than I used to). After so many years of migraines, I have begun to feel like I should apologise for having one, or just not mention it at all. That is messed up, but that's me. I am now going to do some rewriting and post this in my blog today, on Friday 3 March.

Home Island Cocos/keeling Islands 

I need to write and I look back on some of my past in order to look forward.  I have to look back to have an idea of what I may be doing in the future. What I have done before creates the framework for what I will do. It gives me the courage to make plans and hope to compete those plans. My future is forged from hope. I must have hope to survive. There have been a few times in my past, when I felt like I had run completely out of hope. I have looked into that abyss but so far I have always been able to look away. 

From a few years ago when I first got this important tattoo

Looking back on last December (which only seems like a few weeks ago) I once again spent two weeks in one of my ideas of heaven, the Cocos/Keeling Island and Christmas Island. If I had a different life, I would live out there in the tropical Indian Ocean. Here is a portion of what I wrote about my first visit out there in chapter 22 of the “More Australian Birding Tales”...

“I have been struggling to find an appropriate way of comparing Cocos and Christmas Islands. I loved Christmas. If I had not just been to Cocos, I would rave about it. But it is not Cocos. Christmas is wonderful. Cocos is magic. I loved Christmas Island. I remain in love with Cocos. It is a vibration that still resonates within me, and it will until there is no more me.”

Christmas Blue-tailed Skink in the Cocos/keeling Islands

AABY is for sale in the Cocos/keeling Islands Vistors Centre

Rain off South Island Cocos/keeling Islands

Looking at Saunders's Terns on South Island (as you do)

That is how I feel, no exaggeration. And since there will really be a third book (thank you, John Beaufoy Publishing, Oxford, England), I am going to return to those islands again early next January! It would be impossible for me to recommend Richard Baxter’s birding tours of those islands strongly enough. His website is: Birding Tours Australia I am not that keen on ‘tours’ in general, but Richard’s are different. I will also be going on his Torres Strait trip in the autumn of 2024. Even though I have not done that trip before, I can, without a doubt, recommend it. That is because I recommend Richard. Please get in touch with me (or Richard) if you would like to go on any of his Torres Strait trips next year. I believe there will be four tours. The dates are not set yet. I will keep y’all posted. Here are a few more photos from the Cocos/Keeling Islands and Christmas Island.

Sunset from behind the motel on Cocos

From the lookout over Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island

                                        

Malayan Night-Heron quite a thrill
            

Also a thrill, Brown Shrike by the runway on Christmas

I spent the second week of January this year in another of my ideas of heaven, Kutini-Payamu NP in Cape York. I do not reckon I will get back there next year. I have very limited funds and I need to prioritise trying to find birds that would be Lifers on my Australian bird list (the only bird list that I plan to work on for the foreseeable future). There are only four possible life birds for me on the mainland Australia: Western Ground Parrot, Night Parrot, Arafura Shrike-thrush and White-throated Grasswren. There are several pelagic birds that I still need, as well as the Lord Howe Woodhen. I don’t know if I can manage to get to Lord Howe in the next couple of years, but I will try. We will see.

Palm Cockatoo on Quintell Beach (one of my favourites of my bird photos)

Baby Green Tree Python in Kutini-Payamu NP

Adult Green Tree Python in Kutini-Payamu NP

Kutini means Cassowary and here is a Southern Cassowary in Kutini-Payamu NP

That is enough writing for the time being. But regardless of the migraine, I have enjoyed writing these memories are healing for me. These memories feed my soul. That sounds sort of dramatic, but it is true.

Sending love as I do ❤️