We hit the road and ventured into Arnhemland. The journey took us to the town of Jabiru in Kakadu National Park turning off at the Border Store, crossing the Alligator River and officially entering Permit territory. A gravel track led us to believe that this was easy going. " We can handle this..4WD track pfft ..this is easy." Until we reached the Davidson's Arnhemland Safari turn off..
We spent the next 3 hours navigating sand, corrugated gravel, some water and alot of uncertainty about where we were heading. We finally arrived at a large clearing, (to discover this was the airstrip). And five later could see a dwelling of amongst the bush. We'd arrived!
The next couple of days were filled with amazing sights. Our first trip was to the Major Art site. A site that is situated amongst sandstone caves with Aboriginal Rock Art dating back 2500 years. Claire (another guide) showed tools and little trinkets (a cigarette box form the 1800's) collected by the local people and placed in cavities amongst the caves.
It is also a burial ground so we viewed some burial sites dating hundreds of years old. We could not photograph this due to Aboriginal custom. When a person dies they are not allowed to mention them by name ever again. Anyone in the family that shares the same name must change their own name for a period of time before they can revert back to their original name.
The afternoon was spent going for a swim in a waterhole 10 minutes drive to the camp. I opted out of that one.. Just a bit too cold for me, John, Thomas and Allanah had a great time cooling off before we set out on our journey to see the famous "Rainow Serpent". Aboriginal culture has many stories about this creature and considering Lucas had spent quite a bit of time at school on this subject it was a definite 'not to miss'.
No comments:
Post a Comment