Today, I directed my focus to the little moments that made me happy and thankful, in particular when I received some positive praise, sang to some wallaroo spectators and made a sunset sea creature discovery.

My morning began rather frantically as my alarm had not gone off and I only had twenty minutes to get ready for the drive back to Sal Salis. But it quickly began to turn around when upon getting into the truck headed for work, Tazzie showed me a TripAdvisor rating of Sal Salis where he and I had been mentioned in appreciation for our hard work. It was from a guest’s stay last week when Paul and Candice were away. Tazzie and I had put in extra effort to interact as much as possible with all the guest, something that I had a hard time doing a lot of at the beginning of the season, but I have been exceeding my own expectations lately.

At the beginning of the year, everyone was promised a carton of beer for every personal mention online. I jokingly brought this to Paul’s attention and he in turn remarked with his usual smart-ass smirk, “Absolutely! Just give Stuart a call and I’m sure he’ll get something for you.” Stuart, the owner of Sal Salis, is a giant, straight-faced, South African man of whom I am quite afraid, so Paul knows the likelihood of me making that call is very slim. Luckily, the beer here is free anyways, so I’m sure no one would notice a carton go missing. Hehe!

My second moment of bliss came later in the afternoon when I rode the golfcart out to the carpark to retrieve some new arrivals. On the way out, I dropped off some stones along the 1km path guests walk to get to the lodge. After guests eat lunch and before the 2pm arrivals come, I generally have an hour or so of downtime which, last week, I’d spent painting the stones with tracks of various local animals – Wallaroos, Echidnas, Dingoes, etc. I’ve found the names of a number of the shrubs on the way in, so I’m going to paint those on stones if I have time this week. Anyways, while I was waiting for the guests to arrive at the carpark, I sang to the wallaroos that were resting in the shade of a parked vehicle a few meters away. It reminded me of when Dad used to sit in the middle of the hallway and sing some of the old classics when Troy and I had rooms across from each other. I couldn’t remember them all, but I did recalled the lyrics to American Pie, Love Me Love (not sure if that’s what it’s called) and the one that starts out “Hey little girl, is your daddy home? Did he go and leave you all alone?” From there I added some other song to the mix: The Gardener by The Tallest Man on Earth, Man on Fire by Edward Sharpe, The Difficult Kind by Cheryl Crow, Hand in my Pocket by Alanis Morrisette, and Jordan by Rival Sons. (Dad, if you don’t know some of those songs, look them up – I think you’ll like them!) It was nice having some alone time, well, as alone as you can get while constantly being surrounded by wildlife.

Tonight, we served sunset canapés on the beach before dinner on the deck of the lodge. Two couples were already down by the beach, lying in the daybeds, watching the sun set when I arrived to set up a table of drinks. I went over to serve one of the couples some champagne when I spotted three fins in a row poking about 6 inches out of the water less than one meter from the shoreline. I called the couples over to check it out and we all followed it’s slow pace down the beach for a ways trying to guess what the creature was. The front half of its body was flat like a stingray and the back half was similar to the reef shark. It was unlike any fish I’d ever seen before, spanning about 1m in length. I ran back up to the lodge to find a book with more information on it. Turns out it’s a Western Shovelnose Ray, something I didn’t even know existed, although I’m surprised with new creatures nearly every day.

Two weeks ago, I was mopping the deck of the lodge when Tazzie spotted movement out beyond the reef. I’m the worst at spotting animals in the water, so I kind of sluffed it off thinking that I wouldn’t be able to spot anything as it was quite far out in the water and there was little likelihood of whatever it was resurfacing again. Someone else grabbed binoculars and passed them to me once they had a look and discovered that it was a pack of orca whales! I could see them surfacing several times through the binoculars. It was so cool! There were three or four of them that looked like they were leisurely swimming just past the waves that crashed on the outer side of the reef. I don’t think anyone else was as amazing as me. I’ve been greeted by a few other wandering creatures lately, some who’ve even managed to wake me from my sleep. The other night, I awoke to a moonlit animal standing at the foot of my bed who had just then realized that he was not the only one inhabiting the tent. It was luckily just a wallaroo and not a spider or snake (or one of the many less cuddly-looking animals that we share this land with). In his startled panic, he darted toward the unzipped screens on either sides of the tent, but managed to bounce off a few objects in his path, nearly knocking over one of our makeshift closet spaces. This is the fourth time I or my roommates have woken up to our furry friends.

I’ve been watching the stars as I write, drinking my tea, sitting in my bed under my warm blankets. There’s been an unusual amount of shooting stars lately so I’m constantly keeping an eye to the sky. I’ve only seen one so far tonight but Izzy, one of the housekeepers, has seen three. Every time she sees one she says in her sweet, British accent, “You have the wish. I can’t think of anything to wish for!” She’s the youngest of the bunch, and someone whom I did not care much for in the beginning, but her attitude and kindness has made me see her for who she really is; the most put together one of our group who somehow manages to radiate positivity even on the toughest of days when everyone is struggling to keep their heads above water.

We are all so different and come from such differing places. This is an amazing place and sometimes it’s easy to lose touch with all the qualities that make it unlike any other. Where else would you be able to wear shorts and flipflops to work, sleep in pimped out tents, eat three great, free meals per day, meet some of the most wonderful guests around and discover Australian animals like none other? And as much as we may all bicker and have the moody days where living and working together causes clashes more fierce than the crashing waves, this is my deranged, incestuous, Aussie family away from home and I love them all so much. I hope I never lose this feeling.