Bush Birthday Party

Henri's Trick

We met back at the house and headed off to Davies Creek for tea, dinner and magic tricks in the bush. Henri had put a lot of effort into corralling us into participating in the magic show. Each group of participants was instructed to come with at least one trick. Fortunately we joined with Keila and Henri and didn’t have to come up with anything original or something copied from the Internet.

Down a very bumpy track that made Duncan happy Keila had refused to let us drive, we arrived at Davies Creek. The area was surrounded by a black railing to help visitors navigate the huge boulders. We enjoyed beautiful views and marvelled that this eucalypt forest was only half an hour from their house in the middle of the rainforest. Their locale affords them access to a wide variety of food, tropical fruits from the forest and more traditional crops from the tablelands.
Keila had made a lovely Baba au Rhum complete with whipped cream and rum sauce, and we enjoyed meeting their friends as we drank our tea. Riette and Henk are originally from Holland.

This occasion was to mark Riette’s 50th birthday. We also met their lovely daughter Sanne, who was up from Brisbane for the occasion. They are leaving for a 3 month trip back to their homeland in a few days. In addition there were Ann, an American who has lived here a long time but still votes in the American presidential elections as I do, married to Chris an Australian she met in the states. We also met Alison, a midwife, and Janet and Peter, all Australians. All had worked with Keila at one time or another. Peter and Janet have a company to lead trips into the bush for several weeks. Keila took one from Cairns to Broome, and she was gone for two months.
Keila organized the program, and we watched the magic tricks, some silly, some clever and some hilarious. Ours had been spoofs on magic tricks and fairly simple to learn. Henri’s was the funniest. He wore white socks and showed his two feet from behind a red curtain edged with gold. He lowered the curtain and was supposed to then balance on one leg and raise the curtain again. However he kept losing his balance and falling over much to everyone’s delight. Peter brought out a chain saw but couldn’t get any volunteers for his trick which was a good thing because that was the intention. I don’t know what he would have done had he been able to recruit one.

As the magic tricks ended, meal preparation began. This was unlike any picnic or camping trip I’d been on where the fare is fairly simple. About half the people began chopping vegetables for a stir fry, others were chopping vegetables for a salad. It was explained that this was not the usual Australian camping tucker but special because of the birthday party. We feasted under a few bright lights, balancing our plates and slapping at the bugs. As two of the women plan to go up into a hot air balloon to celebrate the actual event, one had made a delicious chocolate cake in the shape of a balloon. It was decorated with M&Ms and tasted divine. At one point Peter shone his flashlight on the nearby creek, and we saw a group of turtles at the water’s edge. Magic!

We said our goodbyes and headed for home at about 10:30 p.m. We were relieved to be returning to the house for hot showers and a comfortable sleep albeit under the mosquito net.