Day 283: A Rainforest Walk with Alan — An Afternoon of Free Play in the Jungle

[Internet super slow – pics later]

Ahhh, this place is just so cool.

We loved getting up and making our own coffee and breakfast in an open air kitchen and porch that gives onto our “backyard.”

James ended up sleeping until 9:30 am! Yes, there’s a time change here, but still. It was late for him.

At 10 am, Alan and Suzi, the owners of this property, came by to give us a walking tour. When they bought this land 40 years ago, it was a sugarcane farm-turned-cattle ranch. They bought it for its lovely weather, remoteness, fresh drinking water and ability to be farmed. 

Fast forward a few years, and they realized they wanted to stop farming fruit trees/fighting against the natural rainforest regrowth and…let the land be reclaimed by jungle. 

They’ve helped it along proactively, traveling to more than 100 rainforest countries over the past 30 years collecting seeds for exotic and rare indigenous flora, and using them to create “Asia,” “Africa” and “Americas,” sections of their property (with the blessing of the Australian government, which is notoriously strict about foreign flora).

Their focus is enthnobotony — plants and trees that serve a purpose to humans, whether in the form of medicine, food, or stuff like rubber and food coloring. They have species that are extinct in the wild, as well as species that don’t even have scientific names yet because they haven’t been formally studied. 

All of this was originally for their own pleasure, but they realized that if they waited to bequeath the land when they died, it might be “too late” to educate all the people who need to learn the importance of protecting rainforests.

So they let people stay in the house and they give tours. It’s like living in a multi-continent rainforest reserve, or at least a fabulous botanical garden. It’s listed on Airbnb if people are interested. Fabulous for kids. 

On our walk it was fun to see all the plants and trees that we’d already seen in the wild in South America, Africa and Asia. 

After the nature walk, we were invited to sit on their front porch (they have another awesome house and a pond) and sample a ton of the tropical fruit that grows around the property. 

The kids were particularly fascinated by the “miracle fruit.” This is a little red berry that, after eating, turns sour into sweetness. We tested it out by eating the berry and then eating a lime slice. The lime tasted like candy!

Also learned that Alan and Suzi are both American-born, naturalized Aussies. He’s from the Catskills and she’s from Brooklyn! Long story short, they knew each other growing up and moved here when they were 19…and never left. Aussie accents, kids and grandkids and everything. 

Perhaps the highlight of the whole experience was meeting a Very Good Girl named Gaia — a yellow lab “of sorts” (love their euphemism for mutt/mix). She barks when you first meet her, because she doesn’t know who you are, but the “password” to get her to stop barking is “Stick!” If you say it and pick up a stick to throw, she is immediately your best friend. 

Also at this visit there was a very big moment: James opened a package from the US….with a brand-new O’s hat inside!!!!!!!!!!

Phil Swisher, who was with us in Singapore for the fateful incident, shipped the hat all the way to Queensland, Australia. It was very exciting. For the parents, that is. James seemed somewhat interested for about 5 minutes…then went off to play with Gaia. 

Gaia ended up coming back to our house for the afternoon. The kids must have the thrown the stick in the pond for her a hundred times while we watched from the porch.

We were going to do school, but then realized that giving them a chance to explore and play without grownups in a jungle for an afternoon would be better than anything we’d teach them. 

They ended up making “paint” from annato, a little berry/shrub plant Alan showed us that is odorless/tasteless and used in 500+ daily household products as a food coloring (everything from lipstick to margarine). They also picked flowers, dug in the dirt, etc. 

At 5 pm we had sundowners and played a bunch of rounds of Scattergories on the porch — my favorite board game growing up. Lots of laughs. 

Dinner was more grilled chicken and salad and hot dogs for the kids. So pleasant.

MISC:

The bird sounds happening out here are hilariously foreign.  There’s one that sounds like an exaggerated valley girl voice shouting “Rebecca! Rebecca!”  Apparently there are 75 known species of birds on this property, and they all go crazy as the sun comes up. 

Suzi told us to keep our pantry items locked up so that “bandicoots” don’t come rummaging in the kitchen at night. We nodded like we knew what she was talking about then googled it. Furry little nocturnal marsupials. I can’t stop saying the word now. Bandicoots!

Speaking of critters, there was a frog sitting on the kitchen sink this morning when Teddy went to make coffee (the house is totally open to the outdoors). He shooed it away out on the porch, where it stayed…..for 12 straight hours. Then, we looked over mid-dinnner — and it was gone. 

Fun fact: 80% of the flowers that grow in Australian rainforests aren’t found anywhere else in the world.

Alan said he thought Bali was full of “rat bags.” We learned that is Australian for redneck riff raff. Rat bags!

When Alan and Suzi’s grown daughters visit the property with their kids, they bring giant water jugs and fill them with the tap water here to bring home. I literally can’t think of a water situation more opposite Indonesia’s.

The last few weeks our feelings about a liberal arts college degree have intensified. These degrees just don’t seem..valuable in 2019 and beyond. Teddy saw a tweet that hit the nail on the head: “College degrees are the new taxi medallions.”