Mutawintji Part 2

part 2 of the previous post


we went to sleep that night expecting our long hike around the park the following morning, but were instead awakened to the sound of someone pounding at our door at 7am telling us to get up and get ready to go because the rain was moving in early. my roommates and I were packed and dressed within 15 minutes, but quickly discovered the Aussie insistence on a leisurely breakfast and tea, even during moments of crisis. 2.5 hours later we were finally loaded on the bus and ready to go, and although it had not really rained at our camp yet, ominous looking clouds lay ahead.

although we didn't actually pass through much heavy rain, we did pass over areas that had experienced a fair amount, and the dirt roads there had become slimy and slick. this caused our bus to slip and slide a little, but every so often there would be a small patch of asphalt surrounding a little bridge, or a section of dirt road containing more gravel in the clay, allowing us to gain more traction. at one point though, the bus (with a trailer full of stuff attached) decided it had had enough of the clay, and we were stuck. we first tried getting out of the bus to alleviate the weight bearing on the tires, but it was no use. we were going to have to push. all of the following photos were taken by another girl on the trip, Michelle, with her iPhone. props to her for having it handy.

the road ahead of us. if you look really carefully past the larger sign ahead and to the left you might can see the asphalt we had to push to.

all smiles...

...kind of

our awesome bus driver, Doug.

my poor shoes

sweet, sweet pavement

the road behind us after

 after we made it to the asphalt, we realized there was about another 8-10 km of dirt road ahead of us past the bridge. the satellite phone was utilized to call someone with 4 wheel drive to come pull our trailer, and with hopeful hearts we all got back onto the bus. we made it to the permanent asphalt without having to push anymore, but it wouldn't have happened without our very skilled bus driver. on several occasions we were hydroplaning through mud, not water, so much that the side of our bus was facing forward as we continued to travel in that direction. at one point we off-roaded to take advantage of the traction the grass offers, but to get there we had to slide down the steep grade of the road's shoulder, what felt like a 45 degree angle, and we were all sure the bus would flip. we made it back safely though, and when we got to permanent pavement Peter got out and kissed the ground.

I fell asleep (shocking) until we made it to our accommodations in Broken Hill, the Palace Hotel, a couple of hours later. tired, cold, and muddy, all we wanted was a hot shower but alas, their gas heat was broken and we would have to wait to shower until the electric back up could turn on. finally we showered, and I fell asleep around 5:30PM...........only to be woken up 4 hours later by the fire alarm...which then went off again 15 minutes after we were back inside. it was like the worst possible never-ending day. did I mention it was a Monday?

Mutawintji Part 1

I broke these up into two posts because I'm very long-winded anyway and had a lot to say and didn't want everyone getting bored.

hi. here's an update. last Saturday (the 7th) we embarked on our 6 day field trip to Mutawintji National Park and the town of Broken Hill, both located north of here in western New South Wales.

notice the lack of roads leading to Mutawintji. this becomes important later in the story.

since Mutawintji is obviously in the middle of the Outback, the only contact you have with the outside world while there is via a really intense-looking satellite phone, and if you need medical attention you have to rely on something called the flying doctors service. that sounds almost more frightening than whatever illness or injury might befall someone, and thankfully we didn't have to call them using our satellite phone. so let me back up. our original plan was to travel to Broken Hill for 2 days and nights and then continue onward to Mutawintji for the remainder of the field trip, but when our trip coordinator heard about the potential for rain during the latter half of our trip, he opted to swap these two segments, so on the 7th, off to Mutawintji we went.

we arrived at sunset, only allowing time to snap a few photos before the sun went completely down. once the sun disappears at Mutawintji, though, is when the real beauty begins. we were so far away from civilization that we had an unimpeded view of the night sky. stunning does not even describe the view. the Milky Way was clearly visible as a bright smear of stars overheard, and within this pattern we could discern the shape of an emu, as Aboriginals throughout the area have been observing for thousands of years. the Aboriginal people do not use stars in the "connect-the-dots" method we are used to in the West for viewing constellations. instead, they find the shapes of figures, including the emu, in the dark spaces between the stars. my star pictures didn't turn out well enough to show up on this blog but I'll find a copy of someone else's and post it soon.

sunset

while star-gazing, we also got to work making our dinner. using fresh curry ground on site by one of my fellow students, we (well, they--I was looking at stars) made a beef curry stew using a traditional Indian preparation, and a complementary vegetable stew in a Thai style. served with rice and a dollop of Greek yogurt to offset the spice, it was one of the best meals I have had while here.

early the next morning I was one of 4 who actually woke up early to join one of our instructors to take photographs at dawn. if you know me and are reading this, you know it's completely uncharacteristic of me to do this. however, 1) you're only in the Outback once and, more likely, 2) since 6 am here means 3pm at home, that's my body's typical wake up time. later in the morning, we had the rare opportunity to visit the restricted area of the park, known as the historic site of Mutawintji. again, backing up. in the mid 20th century, Mutawintji National Park was a recreational park under the control of the government of Australia, allowing people to visit and camp at will throughout the park. the problem with this set up, however, was Mutawintji's place among Aboriginal people as a sacred place honoring their creation story, and the site of many important spiritual rituals and festivals. there are restricted areas throughout what is now the historic site that are either male or female only that were being completely (although probably unwittingly) disrespected by park visitors. eventually, the Aboriginals had had enough, and physically blocked the entrance to the park until the state agreed to turn control over to them. now, the park welcomes visitors to enjoy its scenery, but access into the historic site is restricted only to those (such as ourselves) who are led in by an Aboriginal guide.

dawn-ish. one of my later shots.

fun fact: I ate these.

prehistoric Aboriginal cave art

our guide for the tour. we never knew him by any other name but Smacka, and he said he got that nickname when he was a teenager because of how hard he hit while playing rugby.

more art. see the emu?

the bone of some unfortunate creature.

prehistoric tools

after we returned to camp from the historic site, we then set off toward the opposite side of the park to explore a deep and rocky gorge. throughout the outback, the earth is pretty dry, with only a few springs appearing now and then. but when it rains, it pours, and dry creek beds are suddenly filled with a torrent of rushing water. one of these creek beds connects to this deep gorge, and in the very back of the gorge it is deep enough that water remains almost permanently. because of this dampness, climbing around on the rocks, through which there is no clear path, was a little hazardous, but the views were totally worth it.

exhausted, we came back to camp around dusk and enjoyed socializing by the fire until I was approached by one of our Aboriginal guides, my best friend Peter, to cut up raw kangaroo for dinner. well obviously I said yes. it was gross and weird, but if I got over the fact that it was kangaroo it wasn't too bad. when I was washing the knives and boards (PS: can I just say that I have not eaten out of a dish since I've been here that wasn't washed by hand? it's a miracle I haven't been hospitalized), I felt one of the knives barely poke one of my fingers, and although it was painless, I looked down and blood was all over my hand. cool. now I'm going to get horrific communicable diseases from unwashed dishes AND have my finger amputated. anyway our heroic bus driver (as you will see later) bandaged my finger up and it has healed without incident.

War Eagle to that.

once the kangaroo was cooking over hot coals, we all took turns making Johnny cakes, which are flat breads made of just flour and water and actually taste pretty good; I had like 6. eventually dinner was ready and I got to try kangaroo for the first time. it's a lean red meat, so it was vaguely similar to a cheap steak but with a drier texture. much improved when I put ketchup on it. classy, right?

to be continued...

quick minute

I have a quick minute so I'll post pictures from yesterday at Mungo National Park. Lake Mungo was a lake about 50,000 years ago and now a dry lake bed and archeological site. the area has been continuously inhabited by human beings for at least the last 45,000 years, longer than almost any other place on earth.

dancers at the NAIDOC ceremony playing the didjeridoo. all of the girls kneeling with cameras and the 3 to their left are in my program.

Aboriginal art found on a rock

the sky here is really big.

soooo windy.

a natural spring on the other side of the dunes

this guy looked tired.

KANGA AND ROO!!!! kangaroos and emus are everywhere here.

sunset

ok I have to participate in class now so ttyl

xoxo

from the land down under

time for an update from the land down under. I don't even know where to start, these past four days have been fabulous and so full of interesting stories I don't really have the time or space to put them all here. BUT I will hit up a few of the highlights.

number one: the trip here. O. M. G. I literally thought I was in an alternate universe. QANTAS is a great airline and they did everything possible to make us comfortable but couldn't take away from the fact that it was 16 hours on a plane. and the weirdest part was that it was night the entire time because of how we were traveling. so by the time I saw the first glow of daylight as we approached Melbourne I had almost forgotten what it looked like. literally no sense of time or place the entire flight. but we got to eat and watch movies and tv shows for free so that was cool I guess.

dawn in Melbourne

so we got off the plane, got our bags, went through customs, etc. then went outside to meet chilly temperatures. after 16 hours on a plane it was actually really refreshing, but still a little shocking considering that last time I had been outdoors for any length of time it was circa 87 degrees. and that was at 9AM. our hotel wasn't ready for us to check in yet so we (with the help of our program director and guide, Neil) explored Melbourne a little before finally getting the chance to take a shower. then, we kept exploring and wrapped up the day with dinner across the river in Southgate (a shopping/restaurant district). everything was in walking distance.

first thing's first: coffee and blueberry pie. coffee shops here typically serve their coffee in those little glasses.

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Melbourne

Hosier Lane. grafitti in Melbourne, especially on this block, is often viewed as an art form, not vandalism. some of it was really impressive.

Chinatown. Asian culture (and food) is really big in Melbourne.

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another view of some city buildings

dinner at Blue Train Cafe. after about 60 pictures, this was my first with actual people in it.

Melbourne is a wonderful, creative place, very artsy, with a wide variety of people. one thing that was somewhat surprising to me about it was there weren't many "sketchy" areas. obviously we only saw a little of the city, but even when we asked our guides how safe Melbourne was, they seemed to think its biggest threat was drunk and "rowdy" people near the bars after 1-2am. well duh.

on Sunday we left Melbourne and went 6 hours north via bus (although our version of the trip took about 10 hours for various reasons) to Mildura, where we are now. I have a lot of things I could tell about the trip and what has happened since we've been here, but the internet in this hostel is really slow and loading just the few pictures I've shown took forever, and since this blog post is kind of pointless without pictures I'll just give a brief description.

our trip took longer mostly because we had to retrieve one person from the airport, and turn around and head back to the hotel to retrieve another person who didn't realize we were coming to get him at the airport so took a cab to downtown. okay. we also discovered that stopping for "10 minutes to refuel the bus and have a bathroom break" means everyone walks down the street to the coffee shop. okay. so then we arrive to our lunch destination (at like 2PM), Logan's Pub, which was so far out in the middle of no where it makes Carbon Hill look like a metropolis. also, there were children in the bar as well as a pony named Henry. IN the bar. people were hanging out playing pool, we got some weird but good local fare, and tried the local favorite beer (Carlton Draught) which kind of tasted like a mix between Yuengling and Bud Light and came in these miniature mugs. again, all of this is absolutely worthless without pictures.

we arrived in Mildura and unpacked in our hostel/guesthouse, Stopover. it typically serves as a traveling workers'/backpackers' residence but we have basically taken over and the few other guests that are here hate us, 95% positive. on Monday (yesterday) morning we got a tour and history of the area, then in the afternoon essentially had "syllabus day" for our class. today (Tuesday) we dove right into camera operation. I received a digital SLR on loan from the university and got to learn how to play around with some of those mysterious settings and absolutely loved it. we are also required to keep a journal where we write, draw, glue, etc. ideas and objects that inspire us. the right side of my brain doesn't get too much work, and let me tell you, it is sore. but I really do enjoy exploring this artsier side of myself (even if I'm making it up, which is a possibility). we also have been studying the work of other photographers and how they use different elements of photography to express their ideas. it's incredibly deep and a lot of it kind of goes over my head but some of it really resonates.

tomorrow, we are leaving very early to head 120km north (that's what they keep telling me, I forget the miles conversion so it's meaningless, maybe like 75 miles?) to Mungo National Park to spend the day and night before returning to Mildura Thursday morning. we pretty much will be walking around this park, hearing stories about the Aboriginal people of the area, and taking pictures. maybe I will be able to use the university computers next time I blog and upload some better stuff.

ok so I was just about to sign off and someone just said there is a mouse in our hostel. so two other girls and I just started meowing to try to scare it off..........................................bye

xoxo