Today we took off for Kunanurra to get groceries and gas, and had time to shop a bit and look through a very large Aboriginal art gallery. When we stopped to buy some beer, one of the ladies in our group saw this aborigine, named Mark, carving this boab pod and ended up buying it from him. He was happy to pose for photos and seemed very proud of his artwork, which he carved using only a butter knife.
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| Mark, with carved boab pod |
Since the towns out here have such a problem with Aborigines drinking, only “lite” beer is sold before 5:00pm. It’s only 3.5% alcohol content instead of 4.4 – 4.7%. We stopped in Wyndam and then drove on to Digger’s Rest, a real, working outback station. They have 100,000 acres, lots of horses and 8000 head of cattle.
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| Digger's Rest |
Some of our group opted to go with a couple of the drovers to see where the movie “Australia” was filmed, described as being “just out the back”. Others went horseback riding and we and several others went with “Old Bill” on an outback walk. Old Bill was not very talkative on the walk but as I’m writing this he’s telling tales and reciting poetry round the campfire, to a captive group. He's been working on the ranch for over 40 years, and towards the end of our walk he kept stopping to listen. Someone asked him what he was listening for and he said, "For the dogs barking so I can find my way back to the ranch." We were in good hands with Old Bill.
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| Old Bill |
As I'm writing my blog the owner is here talking about their 3 working dogs, and she says when they had 700 goats they really needed them, but now they’re down to only 60 so the dogs have become lazy and just want to sleep on the bed all day.
We drove down to another river crossing that was closed, and will probably not reopen at all this year, there is so much water still coming through. Well, tomorrow Brekky is at 5:00am – ugh, so need to sign off now.
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| Ivanhoe River crossing |
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