Travels of a Fish Nut

(written 8 July) I’ve had a bit of a painful few days and figure the best way to deal with the pain is to laugh at myself. . . I went to Slimbridge with mum, Steve, Jo and James on Sunday. We went up on the narrowboat and the weather was lovely. There were damselflies everywhere we looked, swans and swallows and all the wildlife you’d expect to see along a canal in summer. There were insects flying around the boat, including some big flies. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, my ankle suddenly felt like it was on fire. I’d been bitten by a horsefly. We didn’t have any antihistamine cream on board so I stuck my foot over the side of the boat and into the water. After the initial shock of the cold it felt at lot better. Well, if that’s the only thing that goes wrong then I don’t mind. Huh! We got to Slimbridge and waited for Jo and James to arrive. I took Bea for a short walk and on our return to the boat I felt a sharp sting on my other foot – another fly got me! Damn. Both on the ankle-line...

The second week after I got back from the Falklands I went to Spain with mum and Steve. I will do a series of posts on them soon but that was a few weeks ago and if I try and do everything in chronological order I'll get so far behind that I'll never get up to date. So the next few posts are on events that happened after we got back from Spain but the precise date doesn't really matter anyway so I'm not going to get too hung up on it.

That Thursday was the European elections and we got home early enough to go and vote. This was important to me as it was the first chance I’ve ever had of voting in person! I’ve normally done a proxy vote as I’ve been out of the country but I was finally able to put that cross in the box by myself. It was really exciting. I couldn’t believe how long the list of parties was. There were some really weird (to my mind) ones. (I’ve just found the official results online so I can be precise in the names). The funniest one was the ‘The Party for Cornwall’ who, I believe, want Cornish independence of something. I didn’t know what they were doing on a ballot in North Somerset but unbelievably they got 154 votes! Looking at the results I can say with certainty I live in a rather right-wing area. The conservatives won with 33% of the vote, then UKIP came second with 22%. Rather surprisingly, given that, the next two parties were the Lib Dems (16%) and the Greens (10%). Labour only got 7% which, g...

I had already decided on my first cultural event before I left the Falklands. I knew that there was an exhibition at the British Museum on Shah ‘Abbas, the Shah of Iran in the 17th century who was responsible for modernising the country. I really wanted to go but it closed in June which was originally going to be before I left, but with my decision to leave early I could now go. Yay! Mum and I went to London on the first Thursday in June. The exhibition was busy but not packed and was fascinating. We spent almost 2 hours there and were ‘museumed-out’ by the end. It’s a while since we went so my memory’s a bit hazy but I remember several stand-out exhibits. The first was a series of books with exquisite calligraphy. The calligraphy was in several different styles and looked more like works of art than writing. They were poems, discussing love and life and the poetry seemed good although I’m really not any good with poetry. There were several carpets which were beautifully made and, if I...

My last week in the Falklands felt quite surreal. I couldn’t believe I was leaving. It had become home and I had made a lot of good friends. It was a busy week, finishing off work and saying goodbye to people and places. On Friday we had a party. It was great fun although at 11.30pm taxis started arriving with people from town. Luckily I wasn’t drinking so had the idea of calling the taxis and telling them that it was a private party so they stopped turning off. The last people eventually left around 2am and I began the clearing up. I’ve never seen so many bottles and cans in the house and I’ve seen a few parties! On Saturday morning I got up early and finished packing. I had some breakfast and chatted with Gemma and Pablo while we waited for the bus to arrive. We picked up half a dozen people and three of them were friends who’d been at the party. It made me realise what a special place the Falklands as – where else could you know so many people so easily? I had an amazing time in the...

The next day I flew from Cusco to Santiago where I spent the next few days. I didn't do much as I was short of cash and Chilean cash machines didn't accept foreign cards. I stayed in the city and while it was nice, I didn't get an overwhelming urge to return. It's a city, like any other. The metro was excellent - clean, efficient, cheap. But apart from that the city didn't really endear itself to me. The food was too reminiscent of boat food - fried fish or meat and chips or rice - to really appeal to me, and I had trouble filling my days. There was a highlight, however. I decided to go the cinema. I'd been told that hollywood films will often be released with subtitles first and only later dubbed, so I had a look online and found a cinema close by and went and saw 'Star Trek'. It was loads of fun! I loved the film (very funny and great effects) and just being at a proper cinema eating popcorn felt so good. I couldn't remember the last time I'...

The morning of the last day arrived. I’d arranged with Marlene to go back to the canopy platform to see dawn so I had yet another ridiculously early morning. As we walked up the stairs it got lighter and lighter. It really made you realise how much light is blocked by the trees – on the forest floor we needed torches yet just 10 metres up they were superfluous. It’d difficult to take photos that do justice to the height of the tree but this one, looking down from the top, is probably the best I got. We had breakfast then went on the boat for the final time. We got to the landing strip and the plane was on time. We took off and flew over the forest, back the way we came. We could see the river and road we’d spent two and a half days travelling down. In under an hour we undid all the travelling and arrived back in Cusco. The plane was unpressurised and although the captain said he might drop the oxygen masks, they never materialised. The air was so thin and I found myself gasping at time...

Having failed to see the macaws yesterday, we had another early rise to see them today. I was up at 5, brushing my teeth by candle light when I head Marlene outside my bungalow shout my name. I came to the door, toothbrush in my mouth and she said – there’s a tapir! I said ‘I’m coming’, and quickly finished brushing and headed out the door. As I put on my wellies (the incessant rain had meant that wellies were the footwear du jour ) I found myself wondering, did she really mean tapir? Yes, she did! There, on the steps to the dining area, was a female tapir. She was called Vanessa and had been found and raised by natives. She’s now pretty much wild and has given birth several times, but every now and then wanders into the lodge in search of food. And here she was. I was allowed to stroke her. I’ve always imagined tapirs felt a bit like pigs but they don’t. The hair was smooth and reminded me more of horse than anything. A bit coarse, like a winter coat, but softer than I’d expected. Sh...

We had to be up at 5am to get to the macaw clay lick early enough. We went to the boat in the dark and headed up-river. The weather was grey and drizzling and Marlene and the other guide decided we’d try to skip the clay lick and go to an oxbow lake instead. Apparently the macaws don’t like the rain! We were able to go to the clay lick the next day so went to the lake. We had breakfast on the jetty (pancakes and maple syrup – yum!) then got on a simple catamaran. It was two canoes tied together with boarding on top, and folding chairs laid out. Two porters paddled us around so we didn’t make any noise. We were there to see giant otters, but I’ll say at the start, we didn’t see any. Seems that otters don’t like the rain either! It wasn’t a complete loss though as we saw some pretty incredible wildlife all the same. My favourites were the hoatzin. Hoatzin are a primitive-looking bird. The chicks have claws on their wings which help them climb branches, they’re poor fliers and look prehis...

We left the lodge just after breakfast and continued on our way down-river. We were travelling on motorised canoes and we were close to the water. We saw lots of shore-birds, mainly herons, storks and egrets. The river was quite calm but in the rainy season becomes very swollen. Banks are washed away and beaches are created, it’s very dynamic and the course of the river changes every year. There were lots of trees in the water, some were mostly covered by water with only a few branches poking out above the surface, while others were in shallower water and their size could be better appreciated. We were heading towards the Manu landing strip where we were to pick up another group who were flying in, then head back up-river to the Manu Wildlife Centre. When we arrived we found the plane was delayed due to fog in Lima and would be a few hours. Rather than waste my time I decided to go bug-hunting. There was a small lodge near the landing strip and in the clearings were more insects than I...

I woke in the dark and lit a candle (there was no electricity in any of the accommodation I stayed in. It was only available for the kitchen and for charging batteries for a few hours in the evenings). I dressed then headed to the road where we were meeting. It was dawn and everything was in shades of grey. Marlene and Dave (the male part of the Canadian couple) met me and we wandered up the road to the hide. The sun was rapidly rising but when we arrived at the hide the thickness of the trees meant that the sun was barely noticeable. The cock-of-the-rocks were already displaying. There were three. One would start squawking and the other two would quickly join in. They would also dance about a bit, bobbing up and down as they squawked. Then one would stop and the others would also stop. It was quite comical and very cool to see firsthand. Cock-of-the-rocks have a lek mating system. This is the same type of system as birds such as grouse. The males all get together in an area and displ...

My main reason for going to Peru was to go to the rainforest. For some reason, spending almost two years in the Falklands had led me to desire being surrounded by trees and the rainforest seemed the best way of getting my fix! I went with a company called InkaNatura and I mention them here because I’d thoroughly recommend them. There were three of us on the trip – me and a Canadian couple. The tour guide, Marlene, was a couple of years older than me and very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. It was like being shown around a favourite place by a friend. We were picked up from Cusco about 6am and headed through the Sacred Valley and into Pisac where we stopped for some bread. Then we drove on into another valley where we stopped to stretch our legs. Another valley followed which was much greener than the previous ones. We had to slow down on many occasions because of sheep or cattle wandering down the road, herded by old women. As we crested the third valley we reached a sign saying we wer...