In which we learn to throw a boomerang

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Hi y'all,

Or G'day, I guess. Sounds kinda corny to me, although I might start saying "no worries", which is the translation for everything from "you're welcome" to "no problem".

So yesterday we went Tjapukai, which is a educational/interaction-oriented park on aboriginal-controlled land. You can throw a boomerang, see a dance performance, and buy lots of souvenirs, among other things.

Throwing a boomerang turns out to be not that hard to make it go whizzing all over the field. The hard part is knowing where its going next. The guide said in the mornings all the men compete to see who can throw AND catch the most times in a row, and the record is 36 times!

We also got to try a spear-throwing stick, which is trickier. Apparently the guy who holds the Guiness world records works there -- one-and-a-half football fields. We managed about 40 feet.

We spent a lot of time at the food-gathering show. That was the only one done by a woman, since food-gathering is traditionally the province of women. She said that she belongs to a neighboring tribe and ordinarily she would not be allowed to forage here, but because of the park she has been able to learn from elders and also from books. We got to smell the stinky-cheese bean (like blue cheese) as well as lemon myrtle and tea tree leaves. Some of the foods are so toxic that they need to be grated into thin slices, then hung in a mesh bag in a creek for several days until the water runs clear, to leach out the toxins. We came back to see her show a second time (actually we did alot of the shows twice -- really got our money worth!) and asked her lots of questions. She even cracked open a wild almond for Silmarien and gave her a pod to take home.

We also saw a couple of movies and spent a half-hour canoeing. It was very peaceful -- apparently there would normally be hundreds of people around, but because of the economy and swine flu, hardly anyone is here. During the dance show, there were only 10 in the audience, so they had us all come up on the stage to learn a kind of 2-part chant and dance. And a digderidoo performance, of course. We told Silmarien we could get a boomerang but not a digeridoo. No worries -- the boomerang is a light-weight plywood one, not heavy enough to kill anything, according to the guide.

We came back on the city bus (I'm allergic to being whisked around in those tourist transfer shuttles, it makes me feel like we're in a theme park). We went to a fantastic restaraunt for dinner called the Red Ochre Grill. It features all native, local food, including "bush" food. We had sliced kangaroo, crocodile wontons, bread made from wattle seeds (the ones that you have to grate and soak for 3 days), emu pate, and lamb smoked in tea tree leaves, and lemon myrtle couscous. The only thing we didn't like was the emu pate, probably because it was pate. Silmarien had the fish and chips, which she liked. Then she fell asleep at the table and had to be revived with chocolate Baskin Robbins.

After the ice cream we went to the Night Markets near the waterfront. We were looking for a scrapbook for Silmarien, which we never did find. However, we did have a great time talking to the young Swiss tourism student who was minding the opal shop while his boss was away at the mines. Opals are really beautiful -- I don't think I've ever really seen them before. They have all these deep, vibrant shades of blue and green and purple mixed together. I guess the most expensive ones are pure opal, but I liked the ones where dull non-opal was mixed in or framed the opal. We got to pick 3 opals-in-the-rough for a dollar -- they are mostly just shale, but with small veins or flecks...

Hey, we stayed up until 10! Hallelujah!

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