Thursday, September 4, 2014

Annabelle - amazon woman, and keeper of knowledge and culture

Annabelle - amazon woman, and keeper of knowledge and culture.

That's Annabelle, our tour guide, up on top of the trailer.

 
Not only did Annabelle crack the whip to keep our group of fifteen moving along, but she also drove, cooked, cleaned, informed and entertained us immensely. She also swears a lot, but  conveys a genuine understanding of Aboriginal and European history, culture and geology of all the places she took us too.  She is a talented story teller and if she ever writes her book called "There is a camel in my swag", do yourself and favour, and buy it!

This is a geology lesson.


Telling us about bush tucker. It is amazing how many plants are useful for food or medicine.

 
Storytelling around the fire. Very funny.
 
 
 
Somehow Annabelle managed to herd all 15 of us cat-like tourists for 5 days without losing one of us. She even got us to stand still in a group. We were a multi-cultural bunch - from France, Belgium, England, Canada and Australia. At one point she had us lined up along a very high narrow ridge for a photo and then said "Now, just take 3 steps back." It would require a great deal of patience and a good sense of humour to be a tour guide.
 
 Looking after us tourists was obviously bloody hard work. Catching a few z's while Leah tells us about bush food and living in country.

 
How I 'miss' Annabelle's early morning before sunrise wake up call - "Good morning, campers!"

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