Walkabout

Walkabout is a way of life for the aboriginal. Walkabout refers to a rite of passage during which male Australian Aborigines would undergo a journey during adolescence and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months. Coming to Australia I knew that I will want to make m own attempt at a walkabout; and although I am not prepared to spend six months in the bush I kind of consider my whole trip to Australia a form of walkabout. A couple of days ago after finishing work around one-o’clock I wanted to go out on an adventure, John was not up for it so I figured this was a great opportunity to venture out on my own and brave into the Australian bush. I set out to find an Aboriginal cave which Mike had described its whereabouts a day prior. So off I went with my water bottle and walking stick in hand out into the bush. The path I took started out along a fire-burn but eventually I had to leave the cleared area and head into the sticks. Walking deeper and deeper into the underbrush my viewpoint of the mountain face (where I set my bearing) was becoming more and more difficult to see. The dense brush prevented me from seeing anything off in the distance so I occasionally would climb upon the trailer-sized boulders to keep my heading. As I traveled further I noticed the tall grasses were coming up to my armpits and I could only help but think about the two 6-foot Tiapans and other venomous snakes I had spotted just two days prior. But never the less I pushed through keeping confident in my awareness and abilities, climbing over yet larger and larger boulders. And finally as I cleared over the top of one of the boulders the entrance of the cave came miraculously into view. Looking back towards the way I came I was overcome with a sense of pride thinking that I had done an excellent job at finding an efficient route and sticking the course through the brush. After exploring around the caves I notice a couple of aboriginal cave drawings, I could make out one to be a Crayfish (Lobster) but was at a loss for the other two. I then climbed above the cave to look for the palm farm that I had waked from (if you look in the last picture your may be able to spot a couple of palm fronds and white structures off in the distance towards the middle/right of the picture). All in all the experience was something I thoroughly enjoyed and am looking forward to taking on longer and more self-reliant trips into the wild.