TOD Tour 2.0 Day 54 - The Arnhemlander

Arnhemland has always been an impenetrable barrier to us, mostly because of the gear required to traverse the rough roads and the inability to have the cultural aspects of what we might see interpreted. Then there was my fear of passing over Cahill's Crossing without ending up in the East Alligator River, swimming with crocodiles.

That latter fear shifted heavily to the worse end of the scale after hearing of the the feeding frenzy that occurs at high tide at the Crossing. Fish choose to try and jump over the roadway and waiting on the other side can be up to 40 estuarine crocodile, some of whom leap from the water to catch the flying fish.

So, as a result, the chance to go on a guided tour of Arnhem Land in an appropriate vehicle seemed too good to be true. By appropriate, think the equivalent of an armoured personal carrier.

We traveled on the Arnhemlander Tour, operated by Kakadu Cultural Tours and were guided by Doug. His knowledge base was wide and deep and despite both Sue and I feeling our cultural knowledge was already pretty well developed, we learned a lot we hitherto did not know. We visited art sites that no one else sees, because even if you have a permit to travel through Arnhem Land, you aren't allowed to stop enroute between towns. There were also freshwater billabongs populated with estuarine crocodiles, a good reason to not refer to them as saltwater crocs. Another highlight was a controlled visit to Gunbalanya, formerly known as Oenpelli.

The art was dramatic, some of it 8,000 years old and was far and away the best of this type of "primitive" art we have seen. Primitive! What an impossibly inaccurate description. I don't think I can describe how moving it was.

Screen printed cloth
at Injalak Art

In Gunbalanya, we were given a tour Injalak Arts, a local collaborative of weavers, painters and printmakers. The young printmaker who showed as through was very thorough, explaining the materials used and the process. One chap explained the artwork he was creating on a section of tree branch, which was a decorative version of the Rainbow Serpent with the cross hatching typical of the area, known as Raark. There were the most exquisite screen printed materials, one of which was eight or nine metres long. Outside, we watched a group of women weaving - well two women weaving and another two looking at their smartphones.

Our lunch - a sumptuous little picnic - was taken beside a freshwater billabong which lies beside the eastern side of the town and is overlooked by a big stone hill. It was just one of several beautiful spots we stopped during the day.

Click for today's photos

The peaceful end to our time in Arnhem Land was beside a billabong, which was peaceful, sunny and quiet. Had it not been for the big lizards, even I would have wanted to swim.

We finished the day with another trip over Cahill's Crossing, this time with the water level higher but still not over the crossing. You feel every bump in these big vehicles but it was worth it.

Two wonderful days in a row.