Animal Tracks Tour - Cooinda - Kakadu (10th July)
Yesterday, 10th of July, we headed out early to the Woodland's ranger talk at Mardugal. Fantastic 2 hour led walk introducing us to all the plants of the woodlands, which cover 80% of Kakadu. The other 20% is stoneland or wet lowland areas. This allows for the incredible biodiversity in this region. We saw three sorts of bush plums, learnt about two sorts of bush apple, of which we saw the red one and the turkey bush which is my favourite as it is not only a beautiful pink flowering bush it also is a mosquito repellent. The bush grevillea is used as a lolly by tapping out the nectar onto your hand. We saw and learnt about the Strychnine and the Quinine bushes which looked uncomfortably similar. You must make sure that you do not mix them up, which when sick with malaria, I am sure could occur quite easily. The ranger advised to remember that smooth fruit is Strychnine and quartered fruit is Quinine. We saw many ironwood trees, the main source of fire retardant, hardwood that the aboriginals used to make many spear head and hunting implements, not to mention musical tapping sticks. We saw two types of Carrajong, banksias and a bridal tree which are all used for food or medicine. The Darwin Woolybutt tree is used to show the aboriginals that it is the season ( one of six that the aboriginals recognise here) to burn off as it is early in what we call the dry season. It was interesting as Riley came with us and he knew the ranger and they really ended up doing the tour together, Riley having such a keen bush eye pointed out many bush tuckers and medicinal plants. Most people who came on the tour said, ' if the ranger had been ill they would have been happy with their 7 year old guide'. Maddy talked to the ranger and other adults on the walk about all sorts of things, including papa rescuing a bird at his kindergarden last year to Oma and Opa in Holland. One lady stated that his imagination was amazing and the stories he will write, when older, will be quite impressionable. I told her about his picture books which already have amazing stories linked to them.
In the afternoon we went with Sean and Riley and Patsy out on the bush tucker tour. FANTASTIC!!!! What an experience. By far the best tour here and great value for money. The kids had an amazing time, plucking magpie goose and whistling ducks to watching damper being made and cooked directly on coals and then eating it smothered in butter and honey. We collected water chestnuts, bush carrots, looked for the biggest wittchety grub there is with no luck however, collected huge pieces of paperbark to wrap dinner in, collected leaves of pandanas to make string later in the tour with Patsy and her sister Jennifer and the list goes on. We learnt about many plants and ate some bush plums, ate handfuls of green ants at a time and then finished off the evening with beautifully cooked magpie goose, wild pig leg, whistling duck and sweet potatoes (purple and pink). We had billy tea and beautiful damper. The sunset was amazing and watching the kites swoop down to eat the entrails pulled from the goose and duck was mesmerising. They then perched high up in the nearby trees to scour for more food that may become available or just to rest after the fine feed. I could have watched them for hours.
Patsy and Sean told many stories about hunting with crocodiles and developing relationships with them from when they are young, the changing seasons and identifying nature to know which season you're in and most haunting the dreamtime stories incorporating the creation ancestors and the terrible occurrences that can occur when they are disturbed. Aboriginal people are very careful about what they do and where they go otherwise their spirits can be taken and therefore with the spirit gone the person will die. Lightning man (namarod) could be heard taking spirits with loud bangs but eventually the spirit would always be returned to country. Amazing dreamtime stories are still told and lessons learnt very closely adhered to in Aboriginal culture in these areas for fear of the ramifications if they stray.
Whilst talking to Patsy, Luuk asked whether she had heard of Adrienne Kneebone, knowing that Patsy and Adrienne do similar weaving work. Sean could not believe it when Patsy said Adrienne and Dave, Adrienne with big father. She remembered Eugene when she had met him when visiting family in Katherine. We went on to say with Holden and Ziggy, her children, and Patsy continued to nod, 'yes, yes, I know them!!'. Luuk continued with ' we almost family'. It created a lot of amusement as, if you know the aboriginal kinship system and skin name system, then you would understand it takes a lot to become accepted as part of the family/community. We had a great chat and talk about it all the same.
A fantastic night and to the lady who wore white pants, " what were you thinking?" Kids were black from head to toe on return, especially Maddy who loves to get his hands dirty.
Today we went to Yellow Waters which was the river nearby Cooinda. It is also absolutely beautiful. We can't justify another cruise but great to see it with the reeds, crocodiles lying in the sun, along the side of the boardwalk and the variety of birds everywhere. The fish are huge and we saw an aboriginal family going down to stun the fish with the water pandanas fruit so they get confused and float to the surface. They had their cooking palm leaves and paperbark ready to make a beautiful bush tucker meal. We then headed to the Warradjan Cultural Centre where Maddy sat fascinated watching an aboriginal man painting a didgeridoo. He had a great chat about dot drawings and said that he had done some as well. He then listened to the man playing before putting it out to dry. We read many of the stories in the centre, many from the missionary, mining and buffulo hunter times, none that make you proud of what occurred during these times.