Pajinka was then part-owned by several airlines but Byrne helped the Injinoo to buy back their traditional land

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Pajinka was then part-owned by several airlines, but Byrne helped the Injinoo to buy back their traditional land. He's also a member of the Pajinka Wilderness Lodge executive committee, which is owned and effectively staffed and managed by the Injinoo, one of three Aboriginal communities native to the Cape York area of Australia.This is Pajinka's fifth year as an Aboriginal-run lodge and, according to David Byrne, policy director of the Cape York land council, it is "the jewel in the Queensland government's crown of indigenous tourism".Byrne first met the Injinoo on a camper van trip to the peninsula in 1983 "I didn't know they existed," he admits Neither did most of the lodge guests. "If you have a cold you scrunch the ants up and take a deep breath to clear the nose - but not too deep because it may knock you out," says Rusty "It's strong. And if you put them in hot water and drink it, it will keep the throat clear Good for singers." Then he adds: "You can eat them too. Just bite the tail off." George "Rusty" Williams is no ordinary guide.

A serene, kindly man in his late sixties, wearing jeans and a freshly pressed shirt, he is an Aboriginal tribal elder. "The nest of the green ant," explains Rusty, who crushes both leaves and ants with the palms of his hands, rolls them into a ball and inhales deeply. "Smell." I'm reluctant to get too close, as I've met the nest's inhabitants before and they've a ferocious bite Luckily the fragrant mix of lemon and lime is tempting. I love leaving London on that elevated section of the motorway.

It's usuallyaround sunset and I get a great feeling of being some sort of pioneer - leaving behind this great, buzzing city for the countryside beyond."Emma Townshend's first album, 'Winterland', is out now on East West Records.. TWO LEAVES are curiously joined together by their edges and inflated into a glossy green pouch. "There were valleys where you could still see the wagon ruts made by the original settlers who'd come over the Rockies - these huge tracks in the ground where the earth has never been ploughed since. There were little houses that had been built just for one winter, and plenty of real cowboys hanging around," she says."I never realised how addictive driving could be until I went to America We covered 4,500 miles. The landscape is so extraordinary, you just need to keep driving to see what's over the next horizon. One minute you've got the volcanoes along the Pacific sea border, next it's lush valleys and national parks."But Emma's real holiday romance is with a place much closer to home, where she doesn't need to pass through customs "I usually go to Cornwall for holidays My mum's got a house there, on the Lizard.