Ubir and being eaten ALIVE!!! (7th and 8th July)

Yep the mozzies were so bad if you killed one three came in return. The ranger giggled when Luuk said we wanted to stay for four nights please. He obviously knew that the mosquitos were unbearable. We were glad we payed for one night when we didn't even make the one after all. We packed up at 23.00 hrs after Luuk had killed hundreds of mosquitos just in Ashley's bunk alone, being the highest and hottest and therefore the most attractive for the little critters. The poor little girl was being eaten alive and was covered in bites. Sammy was almost in tears but trying to hold it together and Luuk was beside himself with the unrelenting killing spree he was on. Maddy was cool, as for some reason, they are not attracted to him, lucky devil. It was a war we could not win so we packed our blood soaked caravan up and headed for Jabiru. In Jabiru we tried to get into a caravan park but they weren't interested in helping us at that time of night. After having given us a hard time, we left not wanting to give our business to such ruthless creeps. We had parked by a beautiful lake the day before, for lunch, so we decided to camp there and hopefully have less mosquitos to fend off. Luckily, there were hardly any, so after leaving the kids in the car for a further 30 minutes, Luuk and I had pretty much ridden the caravan of the last few mosquitos. I had to spray all the windows and doors and hatches with surface spray as we couldn't of done it otherwise. We just watched Sam to make sure he didn't have any anaphylaxis to the spray. We sedated poor Ashley for a few nights, as the itching from over 100 bites, was unbearable for the poor angel. Luuk and I and Sammy are also finding it difficult with the ones we have, as these ones seem to leave an itch which doesn't want to go away. No wonder Ross River Fever is common up here.

On a good note, on the evening before the massacre, Sam, Ashley and I headed up to the Ubirr art sites and were blown away by the stories and the views over the wetlands. We learnt about the creation being 'rainbow serpent' and the horrific story that underlied a time when she had been disturbed by a crying child. The child had been sucking on sweet lily root throughout the day and in the evening ran out of it. Not having any more, the child screamed until it fell asleep. During this time rainbow serpent, having been woken and disturbed, raised onto her tail and each time the child cried she slithered closer to the relentless sound. The next morning, the child having the taste of the root still in its mouth, started to cry once again. By this time, rainbow serpent had surrounded the camp and ate the child. People ran away from fright , however the rainbow serpent devoured each individual in the clan. Two men, who hid under a pandanas tree, were the last to be eaten and they became the two bloody fangs. This site is a dreaming site, where the rock art is, however, what looks like a painting out of ochre, has not been painted at all. It is an image of rainbow serpent and the story is quite chilling when you hear it. I have to say I was glad, when a lady at the site, left promptly as her child started to scream. The other sites were also amazing, each a story with a moral or profound meaning behind it. In the main gallery, an immense protruding rock made a roof over an amazing area where over 2,000 years ago people still lived in their clan and told stories through their paintings. There was a painting, many metres long, full of food that was around in that time. These paintings were on top of older paintings, which were on top of other even older paintings. For Westerners we have an emphasis on the age of these paintings, however for the aboriginals it is more about the stories and their meaning. This is why they painted over old paintings and as long as they didn't disturb the spirits this was O.K. We ended the rock art ranger talks by going up to the lookout. What an amazing place with views over Ubirr and the story of one of the elders Bill, an amazing Gagadju man, who accepts the past and invites white fellas to learn their stories to help us understand. He is buried at a rock site which you can see from the lookout and we stood, all in a minute silence, to take it all in. Unfortunately, the photos I shot of the kids do not do the place justice. When an elder passes, their bodies are wrapped in paperbark and put up in a high cave where, after a few weeks the flesh is gone, and the bones are collected and painted in red ochre before being buried in a special place.

A day in Jabiru to catch up on rest and tidy the mess from the massacre the night before. Although a caravan is relatively easy to clean, after a massacre, it takes a lot longer as it had been turned upside down to try and find things that were needed to ward of the ruthless insects. Nothing much else to say apart from the staff at the caravan parks in Jabiru were very unfriendly and we were happy to leave back to Cooinda. The kids are looking forward to seeing their friend Riley and we are booked on the bush tucker tour for Wednesday with Riley and his dad Sean. Can't wait, great people and we get to know Patsy, a very well known and highly respected aboriginal lady in Kakadu.