The little boat was sunk in the water to its gunwales, the sea a few inches from my resting arm. I smiled up at ‘Ana and Mathiu as a wooden pallet was put onto the roof of the boat. Perhaps there were also a couple of passengers up there. “That’s your life-raft if you need it,” laughed ‘Ana as the pallet passed over my head.
Read MoreThe island boat was a sturdy gun metal cruiser, not large but strong. Its bottom slapped loudly over the waves. Lan was driving. I remembered him from my days working in the islands. He knew the ocean there like a city kid knows a peak-hour crowd.
Read MoreI didn’t want to get too close to the mother whale. The calf looked tiny in comparison to its mum but it was about the size of a sedan. When they’re born they’re about a tonne. If that one was a week old it might have been one and half tonnes already.
Read More"I was scared the first time I jumped in with humpbacks, that’s for sure. I’d seen them coming down towards us. And I just thought: I wouldn’t mind having a look, just see what these things look like underwater. So I put a mask and snorkel on and swam out a little bit from the boat and waited."
Read MoreBack at our more peaceful house, the list of missing things had new additions every day. One of us would wake the other in the dead of night: “Have you seen my kitchen scissors?”
Read More
Her Aboriginal face wore an intelligent expression. Another young Aboriginal woman looked at me over the shoulder of the first. My mouth was open.
“What are you two doing here?” I asked.
“We live here. We’re studying medicine.”
“What? You can do that?”
The women smiled.
The figures are distant and, at our first scorching visit, distorted by mirage. Hobbit-sized, but wiry with narrow heads, as if carved into arrow shapes by the wind and salt.
Read MoreSlot Canyon photograph in banner by Sebastian Boguszewicz
Creative Writing by Dr. Janelle Trees
Photo: Claudia Jocher
I'm a doctor of Aboriginal descent living and travelling with my photographer wife, Claudia. I see myself as a bridge between 'races' and cultures, gay and straight, the child and the crone, arts and sciences. I am inspired by Nature, including humans in all our splendid individuality.
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