Mareeeba Mareeeba Ondelay Ondelay!!

Feb 23rd
Townsville - Mareeba with Milan
Upon meeting a rather interesting fellow who seemed somewhat lost, we were moved to host him for the weekend at Fruitopia.. And the car journey begins… We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into hehe. This man can talk! And you all think I’ve a capacity to out-talk the best well well! We leaned a lot from each other… especially the value of peace *smile*

Met Eric in Tully….. a solo man working against the grain since a couple of decades to establish his own fruit farm in swamp territory - the best abiu I’ve had and the prettiest, friendliest cassowary!

Feb 24th
Yungaburra Markets in the rain. Welcome to the tropics!
Day trip to Cairns #1 with Vee - girls shopping expedition. Rusty’s Markets - pretty exciting stuff for a newbie in the land of tropical fruit!

Feb 25th
Visit to Port Douglas, via Mossman and Dave Sharkey’s place out in the boondocks, to see A. I’m really looking forward to passing through this area on our way up to The Daintree next, and before turning around to return (?!) to Adelaide. Despite its high tourist population, there seems to bea homey energy about the town which have me immediately drawn to hang out here a little…


Tropical fruits sampled and devoured so far in Nth QLD:

Akee - flesh is poisonous (to death) when unripe!

Bananas - several different varieties: sugar, ladyfinger, Cavendish (standard), cooking…

Durian - mushy squishy creamy paler yellow smelling like fried onions/vomit/yumm!

Icecream (Inga) bean - long, green, wrinkly, hard but thin shelled casing for light white sweet fluffy flesh around big seeds. Feels slightly cold on the tongue…

Jakfruit - crunchy/soft - pale creamy yellow, good old fashioned bubblegum flavour & texture!

Mangosteen - now this is SPECIAL! Round, purple, hard & thick walled skin with a whitish, soft fleshy segmented inside to die for. Sweet slightly tangy, life giving mmm - the juice is big up this way, like goji juice.

Mamey sapote - cooked super sweet potato flavour & texture

Marang - smelling like a flying fox on heat, somewhere between a durian and jakfruit however having said that, a marang is a marang.

Noni - palm sized, stinky-like-the-most-rotten-parmesan-cheese-you-can-imagine, pimply character that strangely, juicily resembles just that ewwwwww. Apparently extremely healing and sells like hotcakes along with goji and mangosteen juices.

Dragonfruit (yellow or red) - pretty little creatures with clear of reddish flesh and tiny black seeds throughout like a kiwi.

...and so much more ot come i'm sure!

‘Big smoke’ Cairns daytrip #2 (Milan to train station). Shopping bargains. Smoogies the best juice in town 

Pawpaw/papaya - seeds are antiparasitic: can cause an abortion when eaten - is a foetus a parasite?
Passionfruit - cut the top off to avoid spilling any juice unnecessarily 
Rambutan - pinkish red soft spikey thick skinned lychee style sweet, opaque colour fruit.
Longan - round, dull skin and appearance, half sweet lychee texture
Of course green coconuts - highly healing


Feb 31st


March 1st
Hot-air balloon gazing, new past-time of the mornings  At @ $300 for a half hour’s ride in the ether, it’s a magical place to be here on the land looking up.

March 2nd
The sunsets here are awesome. Breathtakingly luxurious and movement stopping.
A wheelbarrow ride down the hill to collect a few spare blankets from a tent that has been left erected in rain and shine for the past 6 months - ewwwww better dismantle and wash those mouldy creatures! The lavender hues of the farmside flowers and golden grasses of the distance have me comfortable and appreciative of my exact whereabouts and this life of itself, if only for a moment until the reminder of the fungicidal blankets awaiting my attention upon arrival back at the homestead…


March 3rd
Luke and I have been everywhere, and are currently working and semi-resting on clinton's (who owns 'organically grown' on st bernard's rd opp morialta high - excellent shop and actually similar prices to supermarket but better taste and quality!) organic fruit farm in mareeba (1hr west of cairns). tis very humid today and we hear a cyclone/storm is headed in - we'll see how torrential it is aargh! so much to share and tell stories of, of course, which is exactly what has had me procrastinate from writing any emails at all - saving them all up for my travel blog which, between emotional traumas, reduced net access, abundant three dimensional experiences to see and be with, who wants to sit in front of flat a computer screen?!

Visit to Clohesy River Farm - swam in healing waters of the serene lands.


Akee - cashew nut cheese like texture and flavour.

Up late researching L’s main inspiration in life, and now currently feeling quite confronted with a dilemma of extremes for what and who I want to be in this life, specifically relating to psychedelics and the mind. To journey, or not to journey? To venture into myself and another reality? What is reality anyway? Yes, I definitely feel fear for the unknown also… but more to the point, my biggest sense of fear arises in the notion of losing ‘control’! Funny for those who know me as a control freak haha. I ask myself what is it that I am so attached to? What is it that my ego will not have me let go of?

Extremely well written, I found the following online book absolutely fascinating, with a beneficial balance of personally presented experiences and well researched concerns, hiding nothing from the interested reader. Though it is difficult to find any completely unbiased perspective/presentation, right? Do see D M Turner’s (pioneer in the exploration of the imaginal realm):
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/essential_psychedelic_guide/essential_psychedelic_guide.shtml

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