Crocodile Country

Today we saw some Crocodiles. 

They are big and nasty looking.  And they watch you.  It’s a bit scary.

We started off today pretty slow, letting everyone have a sleep in, and Grant made some yummy pancakes and did all the washing up!  I had a lovely morning!

Katie and I headed off to Ubirr, another rock painting site, and listened to Ranger Pete, the man who is here for six months from Phillip Island, talk about the Rainbow Serpent and the different “skins” of the aboriginal people.  He had two aboriginal rangers with him also, Marcus and a lady, and they were able to add different information to Pete’s talk.

It was interesting to hear the way the aboriginal people teach their children to respect their elders.  The story of the rainbow serpent that we heard was that she lives in a billabong near here and hates the sound of children crying.  The rock painting illustrates the time when a child was crying for a sweet water lilly root because her mum had given her some and now she wouldn’t eat any sour water lilly root.  She cried all day and into the night (now that’s a temper tantrum!) and in the evening the rainbow serpent came and surrounded the camp (it felt like a cool air) and swallowed the child and caused the area where they lived to stop producing plants.  Marcus, the aboriginal ranger, said it was partly the fault of the mother who shouldn’t have given the child the sweet root.  He said the mothers in aboriginal culture are punished if their children misbehave!

There were a few more “teaching” stories they showed us in the paintings on the rocks.  One about the Namidjarr sisters who turned themselves into crocodiles (Marcus said one became a bird who steals the souls of children who cry at night – all aboriginal children go to bed when it’s dark and stay quiet according to him) because they wanted to eat forbidden food.   The different skin groups (you are given one when you are born depending on your mum and dad) determine which other skin group you can marry and which food you can eat and hunt.  The elders can let you have a taste of different foods you are not allowed to eat if they want.  When you hunt, you go and catch what the old people tell you to get.  One wallaby or some turtles.  If you get magpie goose eggs, any with chicks growing in them go to the old people.  Any big barramundi  go to the old people and they can give you which bits they don’t want.  There are lots of things like that where the old people get preference and decide who gets what and who can eat what.  And lots of stories about bad things that happened to children who disobey the rules!

Katie and I found it very interesting and were surprised when we came upon a British tourist who was “very disappointed” with the rock art because it was so primitive, and couldn’t believe we were still paying the aborigines for what we had done to them, because the British had invaded lots of countries in their time, and didn’t pay any of them.  I was a bit dumb struck.

Meanwhile, Grant had been busy taking everyone fishing again, this time in daylight.

They went to Cahill’s crossing again, and there were so many crocodiles (it is their mating season, and one ranger told us Cahill’s crossing is like the crocodile's nightclub) that he got a bit freaked out by Cooper and Joseph down at the edge of the river and came home.

We went for a w
alk at Manngarre this afternoon, again with Ranger Pete from Philip Island.  This was a monsoonal forest and has lots of wildlife as the rest of Kakadu dries up.  We saw and heard a lot of bats in the trees.  We stopped and watched the crocs in the East Alligator river.  There were nests like mounds of leaves on the ground made by the Orange Footed Scrub Fowl.   Birds like turkeys with pointy hair-dos.  Part of the walk was only allowed for women, so Katie, Nadine and I went on that while the boys waited with the mosquitoes.  Aboriginal men and women have different stories and topics that they won't talk about to each other.

We met a family from Melbourne who have been travelling for three months and still have another three to go.  They also had a Cooper who is 6.  That is our third Cooper so far!!! 

Cooked on our fire again and had a yummy casserole.  Grant tried the fishing again.  Dom hooked a Barramundi but it slipped the hook.  It’s getting bigger every time he tells the story.