I stood exactly where Crocodile Dundee was! The view was spectacular.
Have a look at the clip to get a feel for the place. It’s only a minute long.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Zoom in on the information board and you can see the walk that we did to see the art. Some people elected to go back to the bus before we did the big climb to the top, but we all did the first circle.
Pascal led the way. It was quite a walk to get to the first paintings, but it was pretty much all on flat, easy ground like this.
I found this fascinating. Except for Dreamtime paintings which can never be touched, the people used rock art to spread information. They painted over paintings when the information needed updating.
Look at the man’s swollen joints. Uranium is mined from here. The art is basically telling anyone who follows not to stay here for too long because they’ll get sick. They wouldn’t have known what caused it, but they certainly knew that it kept on happening.
Here is another warning.
Pascal told us many stories associated with the paintings, but I feel that they’re not my stories to tell. You’ll have to come here to hear them for yourselves!
This was a very old painting – one of the Rainbow Serpent, which is an extremely important Dreamtime creation character. Nothing has ever been painted over it, but you can see how thousands of years of water running down the rocks has washed away some of the colour.
Zoom in to read the story.
Pascal says that because of this story, you rarely see Indigenous kids left to cry. Someone around them always comforts them.
Walking along with Pascal and he pointed out the cockies sitting quietly above us in the tree. Would I have noticed them on my own? Not a chance. I have many excellent qualities, but being observant isn’t one of them.
This is the sort of country we were walking through. I love snowgums.
Now I’m sorry, but this derpy one is so my level of drawing!
Now this is wonderful. Zoom into the orange level underneath the overhang, which has protected it. It’s called ‘The Menu.”
Fish, fish and more fish!
Way up high is a drawing in yellow of a Mimmi spirit, under a large overhang which has protected it from the weather.
Remember? The ones who are shape-shifters and are unpredictable. They can be either good or bad. But how did the Mimmi spirit get up there to draw this in the first place? Trust me, it was very high.
The explanation is that when the Mimmi spirits want to leave a selfie, they pull down the cliff overhang, draw their picture and then put the cliff back again. Simple!
OMG.
The poor Tasmanian Tiger never stood a chance. They roamed all over Australia until the dingoes came around 4,000 years ago and wiped them out from the mainland. The poor little buggers survived in Tassie until the Europeans came and exterminated all of them because they were worried they were going to kill their sheep.
But look at this. At the top of Australia, here’s a drawing of one. It’s proof that they once lived here.
This is a closeup. Now look at where it is:
It’s up high, in between the two yellowy stripes on the left. Unsurprisingly, I needed a couple of people to point it out to me. I tried, but I couldn’t see it on my own.
Then it was time to decide whether to go back to the car park or climb to the top of the hill to see more paintings and the view. Naturally, I chose to climb. The car park people peeled off, and off we went.
Truly, things like this make me determined to keep travelling while I’m (comparatively) young and nimble. The view we were climbing to see was wonderful. I’m sure everyone who went down to the car park would have appreciated it, but they were either too old or too unfit to do it.
I have to travel while I can still see and do everything!
It was a scrambly sort of climb, and this was the view from what I thought was the top. As I said, not too observant.
Nice, hey? It was a little bit windy.
Here comes the rest of the group. I like to be in front when I travel.
But then I looked around…
And THIS was the top! Off I went again.
The view was amazing.
So was the wind! I don’t normally wear my hair in a mohawk.
It didn’t look as windy when Crocodile Dundee was here … just saying.
Those who clicked on the link about Jeffrey Lee will recognise some of the places I’ve been showing you. This is one of them.
The colours in this country are incredible. I expected the reds and oranges. What I didn’t expect were the blues and greens.
On the way down, we saw some more rock art:
Wallabies.
Just after taking this I was on my way down the slope and suddenly there was the noise of someone slipping right behind me. I knew it was a large man wearing thongs on his feet instead of boots. (For the American readers – he was wearing flip-flops, not scanty women’s undies.) I braced myself, thinking that if he loses control, he’ll slide right onto me.
Fortunately, this didn’t happen. But it makes you aware of how things can turn pear-shaped very quickly.
After this, we went to Nourlangie, after swinging by the hotel. Some people elected to stay at the hotel and swim in the pool. It was around 40C so I get it, but my thinking is that I’m probably never going to come here again, so I have to see EVERYTHING.
Off we went for more rock art.
Before we started on the walk, Pascal told us about the traditional owner of this land. All of Australia is split up into traditional lands and the head of a family group is like the top elder. He manages the land and though he has a council of elders, the buck stops with him. It’s all run on traditional family lines.
Jeffrey Lee is the traditional owner of the land that we’ve been touring today.
Next door is a French mining lease that is mining uranium. Jeffrey is the last of his line. When he dies, the land will pass to another family. When the French company found this out, they thought they had a wonderful opportunity to swoop in and grab more land for their mine.
They offered Jeffrey 100 million dollars. He refused. They kept calling him, upping the number each time. He kept refusing.
He bought a new phone with a different number to avoid getting their calls. This didn’t work. They kept calling and calling.
Fed up, in the end he booked a flight, went to France and told them NO to their faces.
They countered with an offer of 450 million dollars with royalties on top.
He still said no, but he was tired of it. So he sought help from Peter Garrett, who was minister for aboriginal affairs at the time.
He wanted to give his land UNESCO World Heritage status. It was made a part of the National Park a year later. All he wants is for the land, the art, and the creatures in it to be appreciated and seen by people worldwide.
This cockie kept chiming in on Pascal’s explanations of the art.
The only souvenir I bought on this leg of the trip was a magnet from the hotel gift shop after I saw these paintings.
See?
Here are some women in ceremonial paperbark skirts.
This is funny. When Leichardt was exploring around here in the 1840s and mapping out the countryside, he described a colourful cricket with brilliant shades of blue and orange. No European person saw these crickets for 100 years. Everyone thought he was just making it up and wondered what he was smoking.
Turns out that they exist. They’re named after him as a sort of posthumous apology.
After we finished here, Pascal took us to a billabong for a walk. He dropped us off and drove the bus up along the track for a way.
“Just stay 5 metres from the water and you’ll be fine!” he said as he drove off. Bloody hell…
It was stunning. Look at all the birds!
There was a soft breeze blowing, which was very welcome considering the heat of the day.
I overtook the people who were ambling along and talking. I was in front.
Suddenly I thought of the snakes that must be around here. I was in front and didn’t know if anyone else had been walking here today. Just to be safe, I began stomping my feet on the path as a warning to them to get out of the way.
It was so beautiful and peaceful. I passed a man who was sitting on a stool, painting. His campervan was parked behind him on the road. He had a hammock slung between two trees.
We nodded as I passed.
All too soon, I saw Pascal sitting on a picnic table, waiting for us. People asked about different types of birds that we could see. Apart from us, all we could hear was the distant sound of the birds talking to each other.
On the way home we saw a massive plume of smoke right in front of us.
“Look out for the Whispering Kites,” said Pascal. “You’ll see them just outside the smoke, waiting for the mice and reptiles escaping from the fire.”
It’s true. I saw them swooping in the air. I don’t think my phone caught them.
As I walked back to my room to get ready for dinner, I saw these cockies enjoying the sprinklers. The noise they were making!
Tomorrow we head back towards Darwin.
Dad joke of the Day:
You are so right to do as much as you can now. I’ve been surprised to find out 65yo is the cutoff for some activities on tours and was really shocked! Great posts of this trip!
65? Wow. The insurance payments must be huge for them to do that.
Thanks for the memories again. I’m very glad we did both walks and climbs in July weather and I remember the aches in my legs for a couple of days after.
Haha! No aches here! Though I’m sure there would’ve been if that guy crashed into me.