Lombadina - Dampier Peninsula

Today we're in Lombadina doing school work. Going is slow. I'm getting super duper frustrated with Lou who has spent the morning so far on one single page. He really doesn't like writing much. It's a shame - the subject is first white contact with Aboriginal people, a subject I'm very interested in at present. Since Yuendumu, we've been reading up a lot on the achievements of Aboriginal agriculture, food, culture and kinship systems. They are vastly underappreciated. Louis loves learning about their culture, just not writing anything except two word sentences that don't have a verb and hence don't make any sense, dammit!

After a frustrating day, we went for a frustrating walk for a km in the dunes to get to the beach. But once we arrived, as the boys splashed around, wrestled, and caught waves, all our cares melted away, except for the gripping fear of sharks in this totally isolated area full of fish. One guy blasted past on a motorbike, a car or two came for a bit. The walk back took no time at all with all the pleasant chit chat.

Right: Ollie tries out spear making.

Satuday went for a cultural tour with BUndy, a local elder. He explained words for white people (it's the same as for the white sand), Bard is one person, Bardi is many people from this area. OOdnaday is a woman. There was one missionary who said language and cultre was wicked and must be stopped. The next minister was German. He said he had his language, and there's nothing wrong with the culture, so keep both, and he'd just teach some religion, and take care of people. Lombadina was a variation on the Bard name Lombadinar, and Chile for Chile Creek also.

He was part of the stolen generation and grew up in an orphanage with his parents and other family right nearby. He is concerned about the nearby oil and gas extraction, oil spills. Climate change is happening noticeably here, with changes in bird life, dry spells and rainfall. He showed us how to find fresh water. We went spearfishing, firstly knee deep, then waist deep, then me and Ollie were up to our necks swimming trying to get some. He got 3 fish, we got none.

We got some larger pippies, like mussles, superbly delicious over mangrove wood fire, like a smoked fish. The fish itself was also sensational. He threw another fish to a sea eagle. He has a spiritual connection where he can see the water, and become one with the birds to astrotravel. Lastly we saw petrified footprints from 7000 years ago.

Right: at Kooljaman for the wood fired pizza night and trivia.

Snack at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, pizza at Kooljaman with a trivia night. Louis went nuts for the science questions.

The following day we went to the Trochus Hatchery at Ardyaloon. There was a map on the wall with al Aboriginal names for all the places on the peninsula. If there is a single r, it should be pronounced like an American r, and double rr is rolled like an Italian R. The guide warned if we're tall like him to be wear of the bar over the entrance, which he missed by at least 50cms. They used to only do Trochus shells. These were to make buttons in the days before plastics. They made a good living. The coming of plastic brought an end to that.

The guy was telling a lot of funny jokes about bumping your head if you're as tall as him, the fish that was as handsome as him, and the turtle who's 20 like him so they get on.  There were Barras. mangrove jacks, the ugliest fish in the world. Each get fed when there are visitors, so they all love visitors. Barramundi change form male to female after about 40 years of age. That's why they get so grumpy; can you imagine feeling and thinking while going through that change? The Barras like fish fingers. He popped his finger in, and the Barras snapped onto it. Easy fishing eh.

The turtle loves a scratch on the back. He was right - we spent a good 10 or 20 mins scratching the turtle as much as he wanted. He breathed just near then swung his back to let us gently scratch the moss etc off. What a cool turtle.

Drove back to Broome on the dirt road, not too bad, walked into the Cable Beach Caravan Park, and got back our devices, bless them. Not sure how we ended up at the other park, but I guess we were looking for cabins for one night, then decided to stay for two. Got an appointment with the optometrist, who was extremely extremely thorough. Now I have full 20 20 vision, great for watching the stars at night. Can't wait for the next low moon. We bought Ollie a fishing rod.