Friday, September 20, 2024
After saying good bye to Sab, we went to the airstrip near Davidson’s camp and flew back to Darwin in an old Cessna 210,
where we were immediately picked up and driven to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory for a private one hour tour of the current aboriginal Exhibition.
The curator, Bryony Nainby, met us at the entrance and wasted no time imersing us in aboriginal art. Here are some of the most impressive pieces we saw. Double click for a full view.
After the tour we had a quick bite, and were driven back to the airport for our 3:30 commercial flight to Cairns. It was a crazy day, but we made all our connections and got to Cairns in time to catch our ride to the Silky Oaks lodge, have a light dinner……and slide into bed. Hope tomorrow is a slower day.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Our accommodations are in a lovely lodge called Silky Oaks on the bank of a river in the middle of a rainforest. It was nice to wake up to the sound of the river just outside our cabin. After breakfast, we were met by Cathy Wharton, our guide for the next two days. Off we went for a drive through the countryside to the rainforest property of Alan and Susie Carle, which they named, Botanical Ark. Cathy introduced us to them and soon we went walking into the forest with Alan to learn about his property and his life’s work of saving rainforests everywhere. He talked about starting with an empty 21 acre piece of ground and collecting seeds from all over the world to plant in his Botanical Ark. The plants have grown quickly in the 43 years since they acquired the property. His ark is now a magnificent rainforest.
He and Susie wanted tropical fruit so they started with 25 fruits from Asia. Then purchased 80 more fruits and kept them in pots while they grew. To date they have collected 500+ different fruits and flowers. Åt one point they had 2500 different flowers.
Sue had a very nice spread laid out for us and we sampled a few pieces, took a photo and departed.
We left Alan and Sue around noon and headed to lunch at a restaurant in the National Park after crossing the Daintree River on a ferry to get there.
The nearby Daintree Forest contains 900,000 acres and is a National Park. At 1.45 million years, it is the oldest rainforest in the world.
After lunch we went for a boat ride on the Daintree River.
The most exciting part of the afternoon was finding the cassowary bird and her two chicks along the roadside. The rest of the day was quiet.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Silky Oaks puts on lovely meals. This morning was no exception. I had Avocado Toast and Mark had smoked Salmon with poached eggs and spinach with hollandaise sauce.
Then we drive to the nearest helicopter pad a few miles away and flew about an hour to a place called Jerramali, which means “thunderstorms”to meet another couple who are friends of Cathy. This couple belong to the western Yalanji people, “people that belong to this place”. They are Johnie, his wife Erica and their three children. There are thousands who belong to this group of people. Johnie will be showing us the traditional art gallery on his property. He has an old utility ATV that he uses to take people close to the art site. It is a scary ride, but better than walking. Anyway, there is still more boulder walking after exiting the vehicle before we are finally at the art gallery. Johnie is pretty good at explaining the figures. What I notice is that the drawings are different in style and color and shape from the art in the Arnhem collection. Here are samples from the art wall.
Once we finished visiting the art wall, we had lunch with Johnie’s family and helicoptered back to the car.
Back at the heliport, we say farewell to Cathy and take the hotel car back to Silky Oaks. We both felt sticky enough to want to jump in the pool, so we did, then chilled the rest of the day. I finished this post and got it ready for Mark to proof it.
Time to pack and head for the Aroona. Time is flying by.
Adventures with Julia 