DOWN THE ISLE AGAIN
The Duchess of Sussex joins her husband for a walkabout on Fraser Island, having spent the morning resting. Meghan clutched her baby bump for part of the walk in Queensland. Prince Harry had earlier attended three of the day’s engagements on his own.
IT HAD been occupied by Aboriginal Australians for at least 5,000 years when Captain James Cook “discovered” it. Yesterday, the world’s largest sand island was stirred up by two more British settlers.
The Duchess of Sussex had joined her husband for a walkabout on Fraser Island, known locally as K’Gari, having spent the morning resting.
Meghan, wearing a striped dress by Reformation and brown leather lace-up sandals, clutched her baby bump for part of the walk under blue skies in Queensland.
The Duke had told her to take it easy, and had undertaken the first two engagements alone on the latest leg of their 16-day tour of the South Seas. But the Duchess was glowing as she arrived by car to meet him.
A royal aide said: “She isn’t sick, she just had a tiring few days and we were concerned about the roads on the island which are incredibly bumpy and uncomfortable for anyone, let alone a pregnant woman.”
The islanders gave the parents-to-be gifts of flowers and bears during their walkabout, and the Duke was taken by a sign reading “Rangas rule” – Australian slang referring to his ginger hair.
He had been welcomed to the island by the Butchulla people, who are indigenous to Queensland, with a traditional smoking ceremony. The smoke was wafted towards him from a bucket of burning paper bark and blue gum leaves, while musician Fred Bulanyu Leone tapped out a rhythm with a pair of “bar gan” – boomerangs – and children performed a traditional dance.