Putting the Rain in Rainforest
If it keeps on raining, the levy’s gonna break…and by ‘the levy’, I mean my list of forest-based adventures.
Some Led Zeppelin would be perfect right now, as we relax around the house of Phoenix Murray, wonderful son of Juss Murray. He has provided us with a roof over our heads and a second evening of home cooked food and films, but by the Gods…the rain!
[youtube height=”360″ width=”640″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL3IqPKltlA[/youtube]It hasn’t stopped pouring since Tuesday afternoon, during my coach ride from Cairns to Port Douglas. This is no minor rainfall, either; we have had 500mm today apparently and it isn’t slowing down.
It hammers incessantly on the roof of this shack, turning the ground outside to red slime and the normally babbling local river into a lethal tide. It is so bad that we have only paid a brief visit to the tree house that was to be my home for the next week. It lacks walls and is, therefore, flooded!
My chances of conquering Devil’s Thumb (the area’s most badass-sounding feature and therefore my goal) are slim to non-existent at the moment. From what I hear, it claims enough lives when the skies are clear to even consider risking it alone in this weather. If, indeed, this can be called weather; it is more like some kind of divine intervention…by one of the twattier Gods.
I feel like a shit Odysesseus. Uselesses. It’s not even a pun…
The same goes for the 4×4 driving and fishing that were to make up the majority of this week in Daintree. Both are currently impossible. Ironically, there is too much rain in this forest.
That said, our moods are probably the only things not being dampened by this downpour. Shackleton, another of Juss’ sons, has been teaching me about the local critters; he has already caught a fair number of them in his bare hands, despite the inevitable bites he has come to accept as part of the experience. He is also something of an alchemist and is learning the basics of crafting lotions and potions from his ‘witch’ of a mother.
“The mosquitoes are slamming you, eh?” he points out, correctly. There must be something in my sweet English blood that they love. Perhaps it’s all the sugar I’ve been pouring down my throat, to while away the hours. Either that or the Spirit of Advenutre, coursing through my veins. It’s probably the sugar though.
There is also another way I’ve found to spend my time in the area…
Tomorrow will be much first training session in the sport of Aussie Rules Football. After all, I tried out most the cool Olympic sports in the UK, so I may as well try my hand at the biggest sports in other countries too!
As ever, I really have no idea what to expect. Some kind of cross between rugby and…basketball? I would do some research, but we’re too far into the forest to have any phone or internet reception. So I guess it will all be a mystery…until I am being smashed to pieces by enormous Australian men.
Thus, the Guild progresses, by blood and thunder. Hopefully more thunder than blood – that would be one upside to all this rain!