Thursday 21st July 2011 Animal Tracks Safari

We had one of the best days and we're so glad that we made the decision to go on Animal Tracks Safari. Left at 1:00 p.m. and returned at 8:40 p.m. The coaster bus has no windows and allows passengers to experience the weather and the other parts of nature that we sometimes forget when we're driving around in air-conditioned cars.

picture paints a thousand words

Sean (white fella from Cairns who is so respectful of indigenous people and is passionate about their lore and country) was our driver and guide. We collected Patsy (a traditional owner and bull farm owner with her husband) who was also our guide and teacher. 


The safari aims to inform passengers about country, lore, the past, the present and what may be the future for Kakadu if climate change continues to go unchecked. Kakadu may be one of the first places to be lost. Patsy and Sean also teach us about finding bush tucker and how to cook it. 

Listening to Sean explain the connection that indigenous people have for the land and connecting white fellas culture to this ancient culture is interesting, informative and relevant. He told us about the wild buffalo and the impact they have had on the land because Australia had no animals with cloven feet until Europeans brought them over here. 

damage from buffalo and wild pigs

When the government at the time decided to cull the wild buffaloes, some of the indigenous people weren't too pleased because they had become used to hunting and eating these animals. A buffalo farm was established without financial support from the government; money from mining companies that had paid for exploration and establishment of mines in some places of Kakadu, was used. Many buffalo were killed but some were farmed. Fences had to be built to keep buffalo confined. 

The cane toad has also had an enormous impact on so many of the animals that used to live in this area e.g. water goannas are not found very often if at all. Sean is quite cynical about the eradication of cane toads because it seems to be in the too hard basket for governments.

 Sean's commentary and Patsy's stories made dotted our bus trip as we travelled along narrow tracks through some stunning scenery. 

On one side of the bus would be tall trees with tall grasses  (unless there had been a burn off) and other the opposite side were kilometres of tall green grasses that spread over the flood plain. It's hard to imagine this area being inundated by water in the wet. There's still water here but Sean told us that it was drying up fast and in a few weeks there wouldn't be much lying around. 

In a couple of weeks time, there will be millions of bird life here. We're thinking that we may stop here on the way back from Darwin to see what it looks like. 

Finding paper bark was one of the tasks that Patsy had so we wandered through the trees until she found one that would be OK. After she'd used a long sharp tool to break the bark, a couple of passengers did what she told them and peeled back the bark in one long piece. This was to be used for cooking our tea.

Patsy finding paper bark

Next stop was to look for seed pods of water lilies. With the water levels decreasing daily, this wasn't as successful as Patsy had hoped and she didn't want to go into the bigger billabong because there were a few crocs there. She was almost taken by a croc not long ago but she also caught 2 recently. 
There was enough of the seed pods for all of  us to have a taste. 

Mussel searching was next with everyone given a metal poking rod. We followed Patsy down a dry creek bed and watched as she looked for tiny holes where mussels would have dug in when the water level was higher. Once the hole has been found, then light poking is the next step and you have to listen for the rod to tap against the shell of the mussel. Some of the kids really got into this with one young lad, taking off his shoes and socks so that he could gt up and close and personal in the water. He found heaps. Bobby was pretty pleased with his efforts because her found them without Patsy's help.

Bobby mussel hunting

Back on the bus, Sean told us more about the land, the flora and fauna and how important the connection with the land is for indigenous people. He's been given a skin name by the local people. The kinship system sounds complicated but Sean simplified it for us and it made sense. Patsy told us that Sean's son was also given a skin name.

You can check out more looking at this web site: http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/socialorganisation.shtml

Further along the track, we stopped again to look for water chestnuts. Sean gave us all a heavy metal mallet (a bit like a mini sledge hammer) and this was used to hit the rock hard clay to find this tiny pea-like food. Every time the hammer hit the clay and got through the thick crust, a swarm of mossies would fly out and attack. Nice work if you can get it!!!

Hunting and gathering is bloody hard work! It's not like going to a supermarket and finding everything in one shop. They had to walk kilometres to find one type of food then more to find another. No wonder they were so fit. 

hunting for water chestnuts

The role the grandparents played was integral to their way of living. While the men were out hunting and the women gathering, the grandparents would look after the children and tell them stories about their culture, the skills needed to live and to follow rules. 

Sean compared this with what our grandparents can teach us. With the world changing so fast in western society, most grandparents are unable to teach the young people about how to use technology. Sean believes that television has had a significant impact on indigenous people's lives.

I agree to a point but there are many grandparents who look after their grandchildren in our society now because both parents work or there are single parent families. Sometimes, the kids see more of their grandparents than their parents. Both societies are very different and the traditional indigenous ones are changing as well because many young people don't want to know about the stories, songs or dances nor do they want to learn the skills of hunting and gathering. I spoke with Patsy for a while about this and we both agreed that it was very sad as the stories and skills will be lost. 

fire pit for cooking

view from bush camp over flood plain

 The culmination of the safari was to eat dinner at sunset using the food gathered along the way. When we picked up Patsy, she had a magpie goose and a barramundi that had been caught that morning. 

looking for seed pods

Everyone could help with the food preparation but I wasn't keen on plucking the goose. Once plucked, the goose was placed on top of wet gum leaves that were put on hot stones (we'd placed them on top of firewood then lit the fire).
The barramundi was next followed by pig, buffalo and vegetables (sweet potato and potato from the supermarket). All of this was covered with the paper bark then dirt was piled on top. Sean had boiled up billy tea and made damper that we had hot with golden syrup - yummy.

The mussels were cooked in a billy can and the food didn't take long to cook. 

I'm not an adventurous meat eater so I had a bit of barra, veggies and damper. Bobby tried most of the food  and he thought it was pretty good. 



 While the food was cooking, Patsy showed some of us how to split the pandanas grass to begin the weaving process. Hard work again - it's not as easy as she made it look. I did a bit of weaving a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed it - might be inspired when I get home. Patsy weaves and paints as well and these art/crafts are sold. She showed us some of her work and she's a very clever woman. 

Patsy showing how to split pandanas for weaving

When we first arrived at the bush camp, toilets were set up. I thought it wise to use the facilities but nearly fell down the hole because my knees don't like to bend as much as they should and the toilet was very low to the ground. 


Another awesome sunset with birds flying in to the reeds and nearby trees to roost for the night. Sean had placed piles of hot coals topped with bull dung which was a mossie repellant. 


As soon as everything was stowed away, we boarded the bus to head back to Patsy's then to Cooinda. This was a really amazing experience and we would recommend it to anyone. There's a lot to learn and enjoy.

Sean with damper