Home Thoughts on 29 April 2004

The day before we leave UK to return to the boat seems a good time to reflect upon our 6-week visit home. The plan was largely achieved, that is to say, we spent a wonderful long weekend with our three children Alexander, Barnaby and Cassandra and also managed to see all the rest of the family and many friends but inevitably missed some friends. Those we did land upon, sometimes at very short notice, were gratifyingly glad to see us, and some even asked to see the photos! Many thanks to those who put us up and up with us, notably

Our "Grand Tour de Grande Bretagne" took us from Heathrow through Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Hereford and Worcester, Gloucester, Avon, Gwent, Glamorgan, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire and Berkshire. It included visits to the major cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Swansea and London. Thus we feel equipped to make some comments on how the country and its inhabitants appear to us after a 14-month absence, much of it spent in isolated and much poorer countries. In general this appears a very pleasant country, the countryside soft and gentle (after the harsher climate of Queensland, Australia) with a colourful variety of spring flowers - yellow celandines, bluebells, red campion, white wood anemones, violets, and so on. Wildlife quite evident in the right sort of garden (e.g. South Nutfield) - grass-snake in the pond, baby fox cubs in the ditch at the back, birds nesting - bluetits, house sparrows, blackbirds and newly-arrived swallows inspecting a previous year's nest. The Gower peninsula has some lovely walking, particularly out of tourist season. Speeding on motorways as bad as ever. In spite of legislation drivers still seen using mobile phones. Big city architecture interesting: the pedestrian Millenium Bridge over the Thames, the "Gherkin" and Tate Modern (all new to us) in London add to the variety of this fascinating city. The new Bullring in Birmingham with its amoebic Selfridges structure is a great improvement to the city centre while simultaneously being an appalling monument to unnecessary consumerism.

Litter in cities and particularly on railway embankments, chewing gum on pavements - oh dear. Television programmes seem worse than before, but even so, better than those in Australia. TV seems to have taken on a new role of "educating people" - how to do up your garden or house or body- or showing you how others behave in family or competitive situations. People when approached can be wary; are helpful when asked, but do not spontaneously greet you. The city workforce (as observed early one weekday morning from the Cruising Association building in Limehouse) seems to be largely female, dressed in black, and all wearing trousers!

Supermarkets are a trap for the unwary with their tremendous array of goodies, you could spend hours making choices (or otherwise spend a fortune). In fact food prices seem very reasonable if you exercise self-control. Charity shops are the way to go for us "war babies" - Reigate offered Rosie a splendid morning of retail therapy with a choice of eight!

On a personal note (Rosie speaking), with the advent of pensioner status I was gratified to get an NHS prescription filled at no cost. On the other hand a shop assistant gave change as for a £10 note when a £20 note had been given - shall have to watch out for such tricks as age advances.

So, it was a lovely visit, the weather was extraordinarily kind (donned shorts for one country walk) - no doubt about it - there's no place like home. Trouble is, its cold and wet right now and probably has been for 6 months of the year while we were living the outdoor life through the warm Pacific Islands. So maybe, like those swallows, we need to return late April each year and fly away to somewhere warm in the autumn?

Ed's note:- Jim and Rosemary caught their plane to Borneo and arrived safely in Brunei on Saturday. They then made their way into Sabah, where they are spending a few days acclimatising themselves to the temperature, getting over their jet lag and hopefully seeing Orang-outans (I am looking forward to hearing an account of this). By the time you read this they should be back in Bundaberg arranging to get the boat back into the water as quickly as possible. We will keep you informed of progress.

Brief interludes in Borneo

Click here for a map

A trip back from Australia to UK early in 2004 enabled us to stopover each way in Malaysian Borneo. In March we flew (via Brunei) to Kuching ("city of cats") in Sarawak.

Our hotel, being highrise and right in the centre of the city, afforded us panoramic views of the busy street life,the river with its constant boat traffic, and when the clouds parted, we could see the distant mountains. We spent our days wandering past the markets and openfront shops, stopping to buy colourful woven baskets and painted carved cats; at night we ate at a foodcourt where we picked out from a huge display the fish and vegetables we fancied and they were cooked in the sauce and way we chose. Very good and cheap too! Our only excursion from the city by public bus took us to the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. There we saw a gibbon and langurs as well as the orangutans we had hoped for. These are all free, having mainly been released after illegal caging, but food is provided at regular times and they usually appear at the platform in the trees. We were fortunate to see a mature female orangutan and young male: from his behaviour (he took the food she had collected) we assumed he was her son!

En route from UK to Australia we had a longer stay - at Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. The hotel had a associated wildlife refuge and once again we were fascinated to watch two young and very appealing free living orangutans at very close quarters: as the animals mature they are transferred to a larger and more natural reserve inland. We also enjoyed walking the adjacent golfcourse where we saw large monitor lizards in addition to the wealth of birdlife - egrets, herons, kingfishers, bitterns. The hotel was very comfortable, the food excellent and the staff very friendly and helpful - so we had a relaxing stay after our whirlwind tour of friends and family back home.

Our only regret was that we did not have more time to get off the beaten track.....we will just have to go there again.