Cooinda Lodge Kakadu

Left: a couple of  shots from Ubirr, talking about weird sickness. Could this be induced by radiation from the uranium?

The local people have been aware of the areas to avoid, with hot rocks. It is critical not to injure or cut yourself while in this area. The Jawoyn believe that it will never heal. Can you imagine the complexity of the song that records the boundaries and landmarks to navigate quickly across sickness country, and where must be avoided?

Coronation Hill used to be a massive uranium mine. I wonder how many got sick from working there. The PPE looked to be pretty much non existent, meaning high exposures, particularly from breathing the dust. Further mining of this hill was overturned by Bob Hawke, and the land returned to Aboriginal ownership. The trees and vegetation are slowly returning.

First contact: rock art that clearly shows all high details of colonial time ships, even the anchor chain.

Left: first contact.

Bracelet making; both the boys sat with Violet here, and learned how to weave their own bangles. We used fibres from the Pandanus (spiralis I think). The ladies must pull the very central leaf out, then split it into strands, dry it, wet it, dye it etc. Then the weaving fun can begin. That's why the baskets etc are so expensive! They had a hat for a lazy $500.

Weaving some gold: Ollie made a really nice one with 4 colours.

Bangle making.

Later that afternoon, we went on the Yellow Water river cruise. They call it yellow water, as the buffaloes stir up the mud, it colours the water yellow.

This bird has no wax on his feathers. This gets them wet, and lets them dive and swim under water with their wings, to swing around and spear fish with its beak.

After they need to dry off in the sun.

Unwelcome guests; buffaloes trample the water holes. So do pigs. The introduced salvinia weeds choke the water. Cane toads have culled the freshwater croc population right down. This cruise was a bit depressing really.

Mighty eagle!! A sea eagle flying free.