13th February 2010
Bright sunshine greeted us this morning which was our most relaxing yet. After last night’s late night we slept in until we were woken by the sun, then Paul cooked bacon and eggs, plus the flies who had clearly missed us last night during the rainstorm and were all over us like a rash this morning.
While we were eating breakfast, Robbie, the Aboriginal guy whose land we camped on last night came down and had a coffee with us around the fire. Usually his son takes us on a walk and explains about the culture and history, but he has had to go to Tennant Creek where his daughter was in a bus accident last night. Also, the walk we normally take is impossible to do today as the roads have been washed out by the floods.
Instead, Robbie takes us across to a small shed where he has some fighting sticks and boomerangs to show us along with some fossils collected on the land. They fought for 10 years to get the land back off the government, but finally they managed it. He explained that at home he and his wife live as traditionally as possible (although they use solar power), using bush-tucker and preparing and cooking it in the traditional way.
He explained that the fighting sticks were women’s fighting sticks and they would fight until one of them was injured too badly to do so. The one still standing was the winner and she would then nurse the looser back to health. He also told us that a lot of the young people weren’t interested in their culture and were moving away, blaming alcohol for a lot of the problems. Before the Europeans arrived with alcohol the Aborigines didn’t really have anything else like it, just a type of tobacco leaf that they would chew. He was really interesting and willing to talk and answer questions about Aboriginal culture which a lot of them aren’t.
With our normal route scuppered for the day we headed to some rock carvings not far out of Alice. Unfortunately Paul had never visited them before so really had very little to tell us about them. We did however see a really cool sand monitor lizard that was more than willing to pose for photos.
After lunch we headed back into Alice to ANZAC Hill which overlooks the town and the various mountain ranges surrounding it. It was time for one last group photo before we had an early mark and headed back to the hotel for a much anticipated shower. We had had a most enjoyable five days with a fabulous group of people and a mad tour guide (I think you have to be slightly bonkers) with an eclectic music selection who played just the right song every time.
We all met up again that evening for one last hurrah at Bojangles Saloon Bar in Alice for a meal and drinks. The night was spent reminicsing about our adventures over the last 5 days, exchanging email addresses, eating, drinking and of course dancing to Big & Rich ‘Save a horse ride a cowboy’ which had become the soundtrack to our trip.