I stayed at an inimitable family-run ranch in Canada a while back. Echo Valley Ranch & Spa, near Kamloops, had me cocooned between a desert canyon, mountains and valleys, and was by far, the highlight of my Canadian rambles.
From their Thai massage therapists to the Thai-inspired architecture, and gourmet meals cooked from home-grown produce before your eyes by super-talented, executive chef, Jason Folk, you are nurtured daily towards optimal mental and physical health. Their border collies walked me back to my room at night (without fail!), and my mornings began with colourful banter with the resident turkeys. Eagerly learning to horse-ride, Western-style, and hesitantly learning to brown bear-spot, Echo Valley Ranch & Spa (without the mental clutter of TV or Internet) allowed me to rediscover the bare bones of nature, and get back in touch with myself. Run by Norm and Nan, my hosts could not have been more hospitable. Their ranch is also their family home, and I ended up feeling like an extension to their family of staff. I'll warn you, they are extremely difficult to part goodbyes with! I'm a changed person. July 2014 proved to be the month where I had a chance to step back, lay back and look back. In my cocoon of a technology-free world, I had much time to reflect and re-evaluate, and time to ponder many previously unasked questions about my life, my health and me.
I visited the pioneers of Ayurvedic tourism, at their hotel-cum-clinic, on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka. Barberyn Reef Ayurveda Resort is the apex of professionalism within its field. My experience was an eye-opener, as well as a back-opener, a chest-opener and a mouth-opener. I spooned in multitudinous Ayurvedic tonics, popped various herb-based pills, mixed and swallowed various esoteric powders, and got slathered in herbal pastes, medicated oils and ghees. Synchronised Ayurvedic massages, herbal baths, acupuncture and special treatments prescribed for your niggling ailments are the highlight of each day, where several times of the day, you are treated from the inside out, by the inimitable Ayurvedic cuisine. It’s a no-nonsense kitchen, and having snake gourd curry for breakfast, steamed lady's fingers for lunch and string hoppers for dinner became my norm (despite the sound, they're vegetarian dishes!). My initial reservations of living in a TV, mobile and caffeine-free environment went out with the first purgative treatment. It's amazing how fast you can rid yourself of unhealthy daily habits, and actually begin to enjoy uncomplicated solitude, and looking forward to pots of (some, unheard of before) herbal tea preparations. Once I began noticing changes to my health, I was bouncing off to yoga at 6.30 a.m. every morning. Then there are the locals, many of which work at the resort. The Sri Lankan people are true ladies and gentlemen, in the most literal sense - calm, gentle, warm, refined, cultured and mannerly, and you soon fall under their charming spell. There were a couple of them that I wanted to take home with me. But that’s another story… The people of Sri Lanka have won me over. I know I’ll return to their shores… The long but healing road. Well my visit to Fitzroy Island was both head-clearing and head-cluttering. As one of the Great Barrier Reef's prettiest isles, I was certainly impressed by the escapism it offered, considering it's only a coconut's throw from Cairns (well, almost). I did indeed clear my head for a couple of days, scaling its steamy rainforest-cum-wooded peak and losing myself finning around its splendid coral gardens. But it was the visit to the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre that left a most indelible mark on me.
Sick and injured turtles are brought to Fitzroy Island to convalesce after receiving emergency medical treatment. Dozens of turtles have been successfully nursed back to health here, and released directly from the beach. On my visit to Fitzroy, I met Betty and Barney. Learning of Betty's crushed lungs, caused by being flipped upside down, and Barney's collapsed carapace, was hard to process (hence, the head-cluttering). But these two juvenile green turtles are nearing their final stages of recovery thanks to these humanitarian volunteers. As well as injuries from boat strikes, many turtles arrive at the centre suffering from 'floaters syndrome', whereby the turtle has swallowed an air-filled plastic bag, keeping the turtle afloat in the water. And where do turtles dine? Yes, at the bottom of the ocean on seagrass and algae! So if it doesn't die from starvation, it's likely to be taken by predators. It was difficult walking away from the tanks. Knowing that the discarded plastic and ghost nets that lie out in our oceans might one day end up inside a turtle is hard to digest. So what can we do? Well, one thing we can do, as well as paying astute attention to how we treat our planet and its marine residents, is to not use plastic bags. And another is to donate to this essential cause at: www.saveourseaturtles.com.au. Let's clutter only our heads, not the stomachs of turtles! Wednesday, 7th May 2014
So finally, I have succumbed to the ongoing calls for me to start a blog, about my wonderful world of walking in the wilderness, wading through wintery waves, flying with and without wings, watching coral spawn and children yawn, waking to find myself cornered by salivating dingoes, getting snowed in on Canadian mountains, behaving like an endangered goose chasing lost luggage, sleeping in the central reservation of an Athenian motorway (alarm clock perched in the grass), almost being drowned by a dishwasher, and other similar situations I find myself in when on travel assignments. Okay, so there may have been a little hyperbolising above, but it has all happened - to me. Yes, I have attracted the most unlikely friendships, courtships, sinking ships and mishaps when on my travels around the world, but I also frequently find myself enriched by the unexpected. This is the nature of travel. Wherever you go, even if you've been there before, it's always a new journey, with new beginnings and new endings. I'll be dipping in and out of my blog between and during assignments. So see you back here very soon. |
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