Yogini Kaliji, accompanied by a TriYoga group of 15 from the United States, Germany, and Austria, traveled to Australia in March for a TriYoga retreat in North Queensland, followed by Sri Ganapathy Sachchidandanda Swamiji’s historic concert at the Sydney Opera House.
Arriving in the tropical North Queensland city of Cairns on March 29, the group enjoyed two full days of sightseeing while visiting the Daintree Rainforest, part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site, and the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Site. In the evenings, Yogini Kaliji taught open workshops for local students, arranged by local TriYoga teacher and retreat organizer Dagmar Hirsch.
After Cairns, the group traveled two hours south to spectacular Mission Beach, Queensland for the TriYoga Retreat. Dagmar organized a wonderful program at “The Sanctuary” retreat center, located at the top of a rainforest covered ridge. The retreat was filled to capacity with Dagmar’s students from Queensland and a group from Ballarat, in southern Australia, led by TriYoga teacher Pene Foord.
The retreat included TriYoga Flows and Prana Vidya, Jnana (philosophy and Q&A), and chanting.
Many thanks to Dagmar for inviting Yogini Kaliji to Australia, for organizing the retreat and the workshops in Cairns, and for inspiring and developing a dedicated and enthusiastic TriYoga Community. Dagmar has also joined the TriYoga Teacher Training staff as a junior member. She is working with John and Santoshi with the ongoing teacher training program in Cairns. They finished the first Basics training last March, and when Kaliji and the group arrived John and Santoshi were already in Cairns teaching a Level 1 training. The next Basics training begins in November!
TriYoga Secretary Hari Krishna made the trip possible for Yogini Kaliji and the tour group by arranging…everything. 🙂 Travel, accommodations, transportation, sightseeing, meals, and fun!
Santoshi, John, Eva-Maria and Ganga assisted with Kaliji’s programs.
The Sanctuary retreat has views both east (toward the Pacific) and west (across the rainforest covered mountains). The nearly full moon added to the magic!
A special high-clearnance 4-wheel drive vehicle is needed to drive the access road to The Sanctuary—the other approach is a wild, single track hiking trail through the jungle.
Dagmar teaches at locations throughout the Cairns area. The workshops she arranged for Yogini Kaliji were at separate venues to reach different groups of students. Scenes above are at the workshop in Brinsmead, just outside of Cairns.
Kaliji’s second workshop was at the “Fiji Hut” on the edge of the beach at Kewarra Beach Resort. This special location is everyone’s favorite—the ocean, the palm trees, the breeze, and the sounds of nature are a beautiful complement to TriYoga flows.
Kaliji and the group enjoyed the SkyRail Cablecar ride into, above, and across the rainforest canopy to the village of Kuranda. Kaliji shares yoga knowledge everywhere. Each time she read the information on rainforest trees, she found perfect comparison of those facts with yoga journey: “May the yogi be like the rainforest plant, that spends energy growing towards the sun with minimum number of leaves. May we spend energy growing towards the sun with minimum desires and attachments.” The group also enjoyed s a visit to the Kuranda “Birdworld” Bird Sanctuary. Afterwards, the rainforest train returned them to Cairns.
The group also spent the an entire day on and in the Great Barrier Reef. The warm, clear, tropical water was teeming with life, perfect for snorkeling. The full rainbow on the onset of the journey was the perfect beginning.
Kaliji and the group stayed at Trinity Beach, north of Cairns City, and were treated to unbelievable sunrises, gorgeous sunsets, and sublime tropical weather.