channelling orange

emma

wet season

perpetual mist, constant haze, heavy rain, aggressive insects, these birds that—i swear—spoke to me in english.

my photos do zero justice for tropical north queensland. things not pictured:

pic 1. descending a mountain to see the tallest waterfall drop in australia and seeing this ginormous toad. (so i never used to be scared of anything except maybe getting kidnapped, but somehow in australia these kids taught me to be scared of everything. i once picked up a toad at camp and carried it to show the other kids and this girl screamed, telling me it was carrying diseases and i was going to die. now i see a toad and i get a fright not because of it but because it reminds me of the time when i was ostracised for touching a toad as a 10 year old)

pic 2. in the middle of cairns cbd there is just this large public outdoor pool and i'm kind of thinking every city should have one.

pic 3. rosie, who was at rusty's market, taught me how to weave a basket. i wanted to learn how to weave a fan and she said 'no... i only know how to weave baskets' no worries, i now have two baskets.

pic 4. swimming in a volcanic crater. (okay you got me, i still don't know how to swim. but i prodded along and drifted and had a conversation about racism and land ownership for an hour with a random person while in the water)

pic 5. thinking it would be a good idea to sleep by a dam. the dam made lots of noises and was surrounded by tiny frogs (they were the size of your littlest finger nail and they covered the ground everywhere your shoes didn't) (yes they jumped up and down while making tiny croaks). the whole scene could have been directed by alfred hitchcock... and yet it wasn't as scary as seeing the singular giant toad. wait a minute—where they actually tiny toads????

[muffled screams]

pic 6. all the times i cooked nissin ramen over a portable stove, and the water boiled real quick which had me so freaked out i googled and learnt that water boils at a lower temperature when at a higher altitude.

pic 7. daintree. this place has rivers that will pull you away, crocs that will definitely eat you, bugs that glow in the dark at night—and during the day, a superb ice creamery, oh and a forest that will swallow you whole if you let it.

pic 8. basically all the waterfalls i dipped my feet into while my arms got torn alive by flies above water. these flies had wingspans the size of a dorito chip, and a painful bite not dissimilar to me trying to tear open tofu packaging with the stab of a knife.

there were many other kodak moments, but i brought a roll of fuji film so i couldn't capture them.

if i could do this again, i would avoid the wet season.