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Staying at the Aboriginal cultural centre of Manyallaluk has been one of the highlights of the trip for me. We spent that night sleeping out under the stars, a completely different blanket of stars, where constellations disintegrate as others stars peek through between them. This was only made all the more adventurous by the pack of four dogs that had adopted the campground as their home. They kept watch over us in the night, waking me up several times to try and lick my face, and to try and step on our tour leader's stomach in the night!
The next morning, we were met by a group of local Aborigines, who then took us out into the bush, teaching us all about the different trees and shrubs that you can use: whether it's food, water, didgeridoo making, or making twine, it's all there if you know what you're doing. We also got to sample some more green ants, which didn't taste quite as lemony as the last lot we tried, but were still surprisingly tasty.
We then learnt which rocks to grind down, to make all the different rock art we saw in Kakadu, and art that is sold on canvas, and how to make a paintbrush out of long grasses. Needless to say, my efforts would not make money on the tourist market.
Then, we split off into men and women, as the women learnt how to dye and make weaved baskets, and the men got down to the vital tasks of making fire, and throwing spears to get food. Needless to say, us men were absolutely pants at any of this! We got as far as smoke with the fire, but couldn't quite get the flames up and running. With the spear throwing, with a little practice, I'd like to think that I could be a champion hunter. I managed to hold the spear and thrower, and get it to go in the general direction and distance to nab myself a kangaroo. Now, if only cardboard kangaroos roamed free in the wild, and could provide sustenance, I would be fine!
After a lunch of kangaroo tail (completely different from kangaroo fillet, like stewing beef almost), salad, and damper (bread made on an open fire, like a scone), we watched as some of the women did the men's tasks. And trounced us in every event! Especially painful was our tour group succeeding in making fire.
You can't win them all though!
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