I just listened to a podcast of a Radio National programme in which they were discussing the recent phenomena of "Geneological Tourism" - that Australian tourist destinations today are often based on a wish to explore their pre-Australian roots. The programme suggested that in the "post-Mabo" Australia non-aboriginal Aussies are trying to find their own "indigenous landscapes". Well here's part of mine:


Yesterday mum and I drove 2 hrs north of Riga to appraise my family's forest with the forestry people. It's good to go before spring, so that the ground is still frozen and you can walk through without mud up to your shoulders. We walked in gumboots on ice which was covered in ankle-deep crystal clear, cold water; crunched over the dwindling snow through birch and pine forest; breathed in the early spring air and felt the sun on our backs and wondered at the majesty of the trees around us. Thanks, great great grandfather Libarts.

Frozen wolf tracks