Wednesday we were granted a late start as a reward for the year of hard work, so we went bird watching back to Bidadari with binoculars this time. We didn't find the chestnut-winged cuckoo but we did find the Tanimbar Corellas back, nesting in the same tree hollows as last year. These are apparently fairly common feral residents from Tanimbar and Maluku Islands in East Indonesia. A much more unusual find were the African Grey Parrots, normally found in the rainforests of West and Central Africa. They are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds in the world. Their gentle nature and ability to mimic speech have made them popular pets, which has led many to be captured from the wild and sold into the pet trade. So much so that trade of wild-caught species is now restricted because wild populations cannot sustain trapping for this purpose. The ones we found today must be escapees. Once you are told what they are, their red tails make them easy to identify.
unmistakable red tail
Tanimbar Corella
We went to Chinatown on Thursday morning and found a cheap mahjong travel set of tiles then at Clarke Quay we found some ukulele strings (just as a precaution) to take with us next week. I have been teaching mahjong to two of the other trekkers over the last months and we think it might be a good way to collaborate with the Chinese contingent in our group. After work we met up at Nectar and Vines Wine Bar, just up the road from home, with 3 of the 4 Chinese trekkers. Two of these are friends of Chen Guang (husband of Chunjiao who trekked last year to Gudel) who have just flown in from China. They don't need any encouragement to have fun it would seem, lack of English no barrier. One more man and a woman to meet but they are flying directly into Kathmandu. Over this last week I have been introducing our group to a Nepalese word a day. It began very gently but Peter has been adding Chinese translations and it's all getting very difficult now.
Below is a map of a trail almost exactly what we do but a slight variation over the last few days down after Chommrong.
The few last days of work flew by, each time we returned the empty class green box to the staffroom shelf felt good. On Saturday night we had a farewell for a colleague who is going to be running a school in Bangladesh next year. We met at Penny Black on Boat Quay which is a good spot we all fondly remember from our orientation days. It was a very wet evening but that didn't dampen anyone's spirits; holiday plans include Nepal, Oman, Australia, Europe..... Will be interesting to hear all the travel anecdotes when we return.
Monday has also been very wet but that suited us as we just needed to relax and pack. In the evening we returned to Albert Crt with Michael and Heather who fly out with us early tomorrow morning. Has been great catching the Crisps and Bob and Barb on skype this week. Looking forward to a family Christmas in Melbourne on our return.
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