Day 5 - Ancient Aboriginal culture and art



Wallace Rock Aboriginal community

 

 

This is Leah is sitting beside a grinding stone that is 400-500 years old. (way older than any European artifacts or buildings)

 

Leah took us 'walkabout' up a small pretty gorge where her people have been going to collect food and swim in the waterholes for thousands of years. She talked to us about the old ways of collecting food, and hunting. She passed around some tools, music sticks, wooden carrying bowls and pictures of animals and plants which are used for food. She told us how for her people, hunting kangaroo is men's business and when she visited South Australia and saw women killing a kangaroo, it really scared her. This brought home the fact that there are many different Aboriginal cultures, languages and practices in Australia. Aboriginal culture is very diverse. Leah told us about the traditional ways of living, and the modern ways, eg. her eldest sons live away from her to attend school in Alice Springs as she wants them to have a good education, but she worries when they come home during school holidays as she knows that one day soon the men will come to take the boys away for their initiation ceremony which can take two or three months, and she cannot stop it from happening. The girls also have an initiation. I won't go in to details about what she told us but I was struck by the deeply held respect and fear for the traditional ways as well as the love of Country and the melding of our modern white ways into this ancient culture. It is an intricate balancing act which is often difficult.

These hand paintings are around 1,000 years old! They mean that you are welcome to enter this area. If you see paintings of spears or shields, you must go away as it means the area is for men's business only and women cannot enter. If they do, they will die.

Concentric circles carved into rock mean a waterhole and meeting place. They are a sign to others that there is water there even if you must dig below the ground to find it. A very important message to leave for other people in the dry country.

After our walk, we were treated to morning tea, and a dot painting workshop. We were given a laminated piece of paper with numerous symbols and their meanings and a bookmark sized piece of canvas upon which to paint while a video about the origin of dot painting at Wallace Rock was played. There was a white artist who was instrumental in starting the dot painting movement.

I have not painted since high school and I really enjoyed the process. I found it quite meditative and relaxing. My bookmark tells the story of walking the Larapinta Trail from waterhole to waterhole through green spinifex dotted hillsides.

There was a wide variety of artistic skills within our tour group, some not so good and others quite beautiful such as these:

While we were there, we met an artist called Glenice who was working on an amazing dot painting of thousands of ants in swirling lines as if viewed from above. It was quite beautiful and dramatic and very intricate. She had previously completed another ant painting which had 28,000 ants and was sold to someone in New York for $12,000!

 

Wallace Rock is a 'dry community' which means there is no alcohol allowed. They seem to be quite organised at managing their lifestyle in a way which is healthier for them and their children. The art centre is a major part of that process.

 

After lunch at Wallace Rock, we had one final visit to a waterhole at Simpsons Gap before Annabelle delivered us back to our hotels and the white world in Alice Springs.

 

Later that evening we all met for dinner at a local bar. Annabelle joined us. There was much laughter and chatting and hugging and photo-taking, and plans were hatched for future travels and meetings on the other side of the world. All agreed that the tour had been wonderful, due in part to a great group of people and a wonderful tour guide, Annabelle and her stories about the places she took us to, added greatly to the value of the whole experience.

 

And there was some 'tribal dancing'! Footloose!

 



Good Morning, Campers!

Imagine waking up to the sounds of classical music filling the air as you lie all snug and cosy in your bed (aka swag and sleeping bag) while gazing up at river red gums as golden sunlight begins to highlight branches and leaves. So began the final day of our Wayoutback Camping tour.

 

Loretta with the toilet facilities.

 Packing up the camp site.

 

A typical Nada pose - book in hand. Nada wins the prize for best reader on the tour. I am really jealous as she can even read while in the bus which sure helps pass the time on 3 hour journeys. I struggle to even glance at a map in a moving vehicle.

Kate, Mumu, Cindy and Peter - the  mornings were cold!

Even the Canadians look cold. Anabelle talking to Colleen and Lionel



Day 4 - Ormiston Gorge and party time

A two hour walk brought us to the stunning view of Ormiston Pound - too big to capture in one photo. Next time I buy a camera I will try to get one with a panorama function.

 

The Ormiston Pound lookout where we enjoyed the view while eating Arnotts family assorted biscuits produced by Annabelle, prior to her suggesting we take three steps back for her photo of us as we stood on the narrow ridge.

View from the gorge lookout down in to Ormiston Gorge.

 

 After a delicious bacon, fried egg and salad lunch we spent longer than we should have relaxing in the gorge, choosing names for the first children of our French honeymooners who were swimming and taking photos of each other. None of the rest of us were brave enough to swim in the surprisingly very cold water.

 

Then after a drink at the Glenn Helen pub while Annabelle phoned her bosses to reassure them she had not lost, or killed, anyone - we headed off to collect firewood and have a brief stop at Ellery Creek Big Hole before arriving at our final camp site.

 

We arrived at Hugh Creek as darkness descended. This time there were no glamping tents, no camp kitchen, no toilets - just creek bed sand, gum trees and millions of stars. The sky in central Australia is truly magnificent. We had perfectly clear skies and never a cloud in sight and barely a sliver of a moon, so the stars and satelites and shooting stars were spectacular. The starry skies are another experience that remains captured only within my memory as I have no photos to do them justice.

 

We sat on rolled up swags to eat our dinner, followed by toasting marshmallows and quite a bit of red wine (Nada!) Loretta introduced our international friends to the TimTam slam. I passed around Cadbury's roast almond chocolate. Peter (Pasquale - not my brother Pete) produced an iPhone movie guessing game and there were all sorts of stories told including some about various battery operated devices in swags and hospital emergency departments which I am not going to retell here. Eventually Annabelle had to be "Mum" and tell us all to go to bed!

 

Going to bed involved rolling out the swag, inserting a nice thick blanket and sleeping bag inside, and zipping everything up. Both blanket and sleeping bag were needed (as well as wearing thermals) as it is very cold in the desert at night - all our nights were definitely below 5 degrees which is about average for winter back home in Devonport, Tasmania. But, I don't sleep outside at home. However, I was warm enough and the sand was very comfy. The sound of the crackling fire was lovely and the ceiling of stars was incredible.

Symphony in the outback

I am standing in an amphitheatre, surrounded by an orchestra of bird song.

 

I had remembered Annabelle mentioning the birds at sunrise at Glen Helen Gorge. When I awoke in the darkness, unsure of the time, I'd heard just one bird, looked out of the tent and saw the sky was just beginning to lighten. I needed my torch to find the path through the tall grass and reeds and over the sand and loose river stones.

 

Now, I am standing on a small sandy beach, still water, a sliver of a waning moon reflected, music increasing from all directions - surround sound.

 

From the darkness I hear a low throaty warning bark. Then another. I turn on my torch and scan the reeds. Nothing. No movement. Dingoes? No, silly - dingoes don't bark. A wild dog perhaps? What will I do if it rushes at me from the reeds? I hear it again amongst the chorus of bird song.

 

The light slowly increases. Perfect still reflections of glowing red cliffs. I see black swamp hens fossicking on the reed beds - the source of the bark.

 

The melodious symphony continues. I try not to take photos but it is irresistible. I must capture something of this moment. The stillness. The colours. The peace. The joyfulness. But the sound will remain inside my memories.

 

Back at camp - delicious porridge for breakfast before heading off to Ormiston Gorge.

Day 3 - Stairway to heaven and the garden of eden

Day 3 - Kings Canyon - even more sensational and stunning than Kata Tjuta or Uluru

All on the tour agreed that Kings Canyon was even more spectacular than Kata Tjuta or Uluru. The sights just seemed to get better and better as each new day dawned. Interesting thing is that Annabelle told us that even when she does the tour in the opposite direction, people say the same thing. So regardless of whether Kings Canyon or Uluru is last, it seems that the last site visited always seems the most impressive.

We climbed up the stairway to heaven and then walked around the top of Kings Canyon.

Today's Annabelle Aboriginal story involved a kangaroo trying to dig a short cut through a mountain range while his brother, the sensible one, continued on the journey around the mountain range. The silly kangaroo brother finally gave up his folly and followed his brother, leaving the canyon behind.

I do like heights and standing on the edges of cliffs.

The same cliff seen from the opposite side of the canyon. Look closely and you will see little tiny people on the top.

You could so easily get lost wandering among the beehive domes. People have become disoriented and lost here, and people have died here. Fascinating geological features.

 

We descended into the Garden of Eden for morning tea - so tranquil and cool, peaceful and protected.

 

Following a BBQ lunch we embarked on the most gruelling drive of the tour - four hours mostly on dirt, much of it corrugated. Sure shakes the bones and stomach. The terrain became more hilly, with curved escarpments and more vegetation. We saw wild horses and cattle and an upturned green station wagon - not a good place to have an accident, a long way from anywhere. I was lucky to score the front seat on the bus for this drive - thanks everyone!

 

We arrived at our campsite at Glen Helen just on sunset - another spectacular place!

 

Day 2 - stunning Kata Tjuta Men's Business

Day 2 - Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

We did a lot of getting up in the dark on this holiday. Day 2 began with breakfast in the dark, then a short walk to a small hill to watch the sun rise over Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

 

When we arrived at Kata Tjuta, Annabelle said she could not tell us any Aboriginal stories about it as it is all 'men's business' and so we are not allowed to know the stories.

 

If the temperature exceeds 36 degrees, the track is closed due to the dangers of heat stress and dehydration. Fortunately for us - it is winter and about 22 degrees.

 

The Valley of the Winds is a stunning 7.4km loop walk.

 

After lunch there was a 3 to 4 hour drive. Mostly flat boring mulga scrub scenery, but along the way - salt lakes and Mt Connor (also "known" as Fuluru because it fools people who think it is Uluru. American tourists are apparently very easily conned.)

 

We all thought Kata Tjuta was more spectacular than Uluru. Little did we know that the next day's sights would be even more impressive.

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!"