In Which I Forage, Camp, Learn New Weapons, and Discover a Whole New Meaning of "Chinese Food"

Sorry it’s taken me so long to update, I’m back in the land of computers and iPods! And watches. The whole lack of technology thing was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. It was actually really nice, even though I missed hearing about what everyone back home was doing. I didn’t even really miss my watch. It was nice not to know what time it was for a while. Other people were trying to guess and it actually got kind of annoying. It didn’t really matter. It was food time when we were hungry and time to sleep when it got dark and time to wake up when it got light. It was pretty great.

In the morning we had a breakfast barbeque (“brekkie barbie” in Aussie slang) with our host families and then they left and the Aboriginal elders came. Their names are Russell and Ian and they were both really awesome. We loaded up in three huge off-road vehicles with sideways benches in the back (like an army transport) and snorkels (so you can drive through water without flooding the engine). We could pretty much tell it was going to be epic.

We stopped for lunch at a beautiful waterhole. It turns out that crocodiles can’t stand cold water, so all the places we swam were crystal clear rivers with freezing cold water in the middle of the tropical rainforest. There is no point at which this becomes less amazing. This particular swimming hole had a rope swing. We started out just jumping off the rocks on the bank, making sure it was deep enough, but soon people in our group were climbing the tree to jump off. Obviously I was not going to pass this up. There was a thick branch, a little wider than a balance beam but gnarled and uneven. You had to clamber up onto it and then use the rope to steady yourself as you walked up and out onto it. All well and good except that by the time I got up there the branch was wet and slippery and sandy from everyone else’s feet and I didn’t entirely trust the rope as a support. I was slow and scared climbing up and at one point my feet slid out from under me. I fell straight down and grabbed the branch as hard as I could with my hands and legs. Thank god for horseback riding, cause being able to cling for dear life on a rearing horse is probably all that saved me from cracking my head open on the rocks under the tree. My legs and hands were scratched, bruised, and stinging, but after all that there was no way I was going to give up and just climb down. So I climbed much more quickly and successfully swung into the river. It was awesome, even though I rope-burned my hand. I probably spent way too long describing that but I was very proud of my accomplishment and it was very fun, so there you go.

Poor Russell has diabetes and had an attack or something on the way to the campground so we had to pull over and switch all the stuff and people into a different truck so Jack’s partner Shell could take him to the hospital. He came back in a few hours though, and said he was fine.

The campsite was actually way less hardcore than I was expecting. It was off the main road and everything but not too far away from the nearby Aboriginal community. It had two permanent structures (really just roofs with pillars, no walls), one for eating and washing up and one for cooking. We had not only a fire pit but a barbeque and a portable stove thing. We even had a bathroom not too far away with flush toilets! It was basically the Hilton as far as camping goes, compared to last summer.

It was also BEAUTIFUL. Surrounded by palm trees with the Murray River on one side and a swimming hole not too far upstream. Past the palm trees were the mountains. The mountains here are absolutely phenomenal because there is no tree line. It’s rainforest right up to the top and on a lot of the days there would be clouds hovering around the tops of the mountains. One morning I woke up around dawn to see a cloud sitting in the field just beyond the palm trees, turning all pink and gold with the rising sun. Every night when we were going to bed the nearly full moon would hang right above the mountains and there were a zillion stars and the whole thing was just more gorgeous than I could describe.

The first day we set up tents and the first night it poured and poured and everyone’s tent leaked at least a little, so the next morning we spent a long time rigging a giant tarp to go over all the tents. It took a lot of maneuvering and teamwork but when it was done we had a nice little tent city under the tarp and we didn’t have any more water problems for the rest of the trip! It was pretty cozy.

After all the work of setting up the tarp in the rain and being bitten by the first round (of many many many rounds) of bugs we were all ready to jump in the water hole. On the Aboriginal walk we did before, Rosie taught us about sarsaparilla or soap tree. It’s a magical tree that makes foamy soap when you crush the leaves in water (it also has a natural sort of bengay in the stem) so Rachel and I decided we should forage for soap tree to wash ourselves. We asked Russell and Ian where to find it and they pointed up a steep, slippery-looking, muddy bank covered in vegetation that looked about perfect for lurking snakes. But we were determined to “live off the land” so we climbed up. The trees were too tall. So we went back to camp and got a rope and climbed up again, getting nice and scratched by twigs in the process and bitten by about 8,000 mosquitoes. Rachel did not believe that we would acquire soap tree and wanted to give up but I had faith! I tied a knot in the rope to make it heavier on one end and then threw it at the tree. I missed the first couple of times but eventually got it around one of the branches. Then I jumped and caught the other side of the rope and pulled and off came one branch with enough leaves for all. Success! I am probably prouder of this than I should be. We did not run into any snakes. Russell seemed surprised and impressed when we brought back our prize and we all washed in the river. It actually worked pretty well, I felt clean and smelled good afterwards, even though I had little bits of leaf stuck in my hair. I am Wilderness Karis!

The days all sort of run together now. We spent a lot of the days relaxing – playing cards or reading (I learned how to play Spades and a game called Squares as well as the regular ones I play and I started reading Lirael which I really like so far). They gave us very rough boomerangs that we sanded to perfection, painted, and learned how to throw. They’re not that hard to throw, really. The hardest part is knowing where to throw them in relation to the wind; that’s what makes them come back. You have to stand with the wind blowing in your face and then throw a little bit out to the right so that there’s a free ride back. We learned about and tried to imitate Aboriginal art on our boomerangs. I’m pretty happy with how mine turned out, actually. I’ll post a picture soon.

We also learned how to throw spears! Aboriginals didn’t just throw their spears, they use what’s called a woomera which fits into the end of the spear. You hold the woomera and use it sort of like a catapult to get more distance with the spear. It’s a little hard to get the hang of. I even managed to break one of the spears just by throwing it (I have no idea how that happened). But by the end I almost hit the cardboard wallaby we were using as a target. It was only about a foot away! Made me proud.

On the third or fourth day we learned how to make jewelry. You strip the bark off of the native hibiscus tree and take the inner bark in long thin strips. You roll it on your leg to make it round and then roll it the opposite way to twist it around to make it sturdy. Russell said the more you wear it in water the stronger it will get. When he finished showing us how to roll it he took my arm to show how to tie the knots. As he was tying the strand around my wrist he said that the name he had given me was Nara which means the beam of sunlight that shines down into the rainforest, usually around when the sun goes down. He said “You are that beam of light. Probably because of your smile.” It made me really really happy.

What else did we learn? So much! He showed us how to make fire with sticks (we never did get it to work, but I got it to smoke!), and we went yamming (we found wild yams and dug them out of the ground). They were very difficult to get and were tough and grainy and didn’t taste like much but it still felt really good to collect and wash and cook our own food.

Probably my favorite part was story time. At night we would turn all the lights down low and gather around as Russell strummed a guitar or sang a song and then told us about Aboriginals now, when the white people first came, and dreamtime stories. Dreamtime stories are my favorite. We learned about how the crow became black and why owls only come out at night and the Aboriginal story behind the Southern Cross constellation. When I get time I’m going to go hunting for a good book of more of these stories, but it won’t be the same as having an Aboriginal elder tell them to you while you sit outside in the dark. It was amazing.

He also talked a lot about Aboriginal customs from the old days. They were cannibals, which I did not know. He talked about ritual cannibalism and how apparently Chinese was a delicacy, and considered pretty easy to catch because it was always at the end of the wagon train. He told us a couple of ghost stories, too, which I appreciated less but were still cool. I love stories, are you getting that yet?

We travelled around a bit, too. We went to the ocean to look for dugongs but we never saw any, and we went to a river to fish and thought we would see crocodiles but we didn’t. It was sort of disappointing, but I wouldn’t want to see a croc from too close, either. He told us stories about the islands too, which parts were the “women’s areas” where the men were not allowed to go, and he showed us where his grandmother went after she died (it was a certain mountain peak because she was able to control the weather) and we went up to one guy’s house on top of a huge hill where we could see for miles and miles in every direction. Someday I want to live somewhere like that. It was AMAZING! On the way there we thought we saw a cassowary but it was a fake. Not fair! That was really annoying.

We went to a little Aboriginal history museum too! Mostly it had artifacts like shields and baskets and blankets and that kind of stuff. It’s really wonderful to go to a place like that with someone who knows exactly how each one of those things were made and can explain anything and everything on the walls to you, because that culture still exists. It’s dying out now, which is sad. Russell said he thinks it will only be a couple of generations before they lose the knowledge of how to make blankets out of tree bark, but this is why it’s so amazing! It’s the oldest continuous culture on Earth, almost no other culture could actually walk you through their ancient artifacts. Fascinating!

I talked a lot about Russell (did I mention he was movie star? He was in a movie called Nim’s Island. Must remember to buy it when I get home. It’s a kids’ movie with Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster in it) but I didn’t say much about Ian yet. Ian was really cool. He didn’t know as much about the cultural heritage side, because his tribe’s information has largely been lost. But he was funny and was always the one who pulled out the candy or bickies (biscuits/cookies) right when we needed them most. He also had all the music. He introduced us to Slim Dusty (an Australian staple, apparently, with such classics as “G’day G’day” that get stuck in your head for the rest of your life) and the Pigram Brothers (I think that’s how you spell it. They were much better and also the only Aboriginal group I know of).

On the last day we stopped at a huge waterfall, bigger than any I’d ever been to before. It was called Murray Falls and was absolutely breath-taking. The whole experience was phenomenal and unforgettable.

As soon as we got back to civilization we showered and changed and ran across the street to the theatre to see a new movie before the elders had to go back to Townsville (yes that is the name of a real town. Very creative, these Australians). It was called Bran Nue Dae (I think that’s how it was misspelled, not sure) and is only the second Australian movie I’ve ever seen (the first one was The Castle with my host family which was hilarious and I highly recommend). Anyway, Bran Nue Dae was a musical and is one of the few movies that has ever been made about Aboriginals, especially (somewhat) modern. I recommend it.

Anyway, that night we went out which was a ton of fun and ever since then we have had a ton of work to do which is why I haven’t managed to blog until now. We had to interview people on the street (terrible, I hate talking to random strangers! Surveys are much easier to do on a college campus) and analyze the data and make a powerpoint and do some other research-y type things. Really, it’s not that much work at all compared to what I would be doing if I were at school but it is hard to concentrate on work when I am in a tropical wonderland with eleven crazy Americans. We are all really good at distracting each other so none of us get work done. But I’m almost done with everything now and I wanted to finish blogging about this before I go on the rainforest trip.

That’s right, tomorrow I leave for ten days in the rainforest. We’re staying at a lodge, but it only has one computer and it only has dial-up. I don’t even remember using dial-up! We haven’t had it since…I don’t even remember, fourth grade? Ridiculous! So I will probably not be able to blog and maybe not be able to have very much contact at all, which is too bad. I will miss all of you!

But the trip sounds pretty fun. We are doing some data collection in the field and a canopy walk and going to a lot of different national parks. We are also one day getting up at 4:30 in the morning (around bedtime for me when I am on my natural schedule) and doing a 12 hour hike up Mt. Bartle-Frere, the tallest peak in Queensland. I am both very nervous and very excited about this. I have no idea if I am fit enough to hike for 12 hours (six up, six down) I’m guessing that I am not, but I guess we’ll see. Also, we have been pretty lucky weather-wise up to this point *knocks on wood*. For the most part rainy season has not meant even full days of nothing but rain, which has made me really happy, but apparently during the rainforest trip is usually when the skies open up. So says the academic director, Jack, anyway. After that he says the rainy season usually dies down, though, so overall it probably won’t be nearly as bad as I thought it would that first day *knocks on wood*.

Anyway, I should get the last bit of work done and pack. We’re leaving in less than eight hours. I love you all and hope you have a great ten days!