Field Trip #2

So luckily I was able to go on my second field trip with another class this weekend. I even managed to wake up on time. We left JCU at 9am and headed for the salt flats. Uncle Rusty was our tour guide (btw, if you've ever seen Nim's Island he's in it) and he told us some history of the area and explained how Aboriginal people lived. While we were standing there a kangaroo hopped across the flat.

After a while we got back on the bus and drove down the road a bit. We stopped on the side of the road to learn about some of the plants. Uncle Rusty showed us paper bark and these sandpaper leaves and soap trees and he explained how they used them. He also showed us a fig tree and we ate some fresh figs, they were pretty good.

We moved on to the next stop which was an old Aboriginal camp with a little cave. We had to walk through four foot high grass to get to the cave. When we got up there we saw some of the rock art that is thousands of years old and Uncle Rusty explained what some of it meant and talked about other stuff too. Apparently Robert Towns, who Townsville is named after, was actually a terrible person and he murdered Aborigines and did awful things. Yep.

Our next stop was lunch. At a gas station restaurant. They gave us sandwiches which were actually pretty good and some fries and these tiny little juice boxes. I enjoyed the sandwich, but really that's all I get to drink? I payed $65 for this trip and I don't even get a full size drink? Oh well, at least I had a water bottle with me.

After lunch we went to our last stop. It was kind of a long drive and a lot of people fell asleep, myself included. Once we got up into the mountains we had to get out and walk a little ways. We were on farmland and there huge cow pies everywhere. At the end of the path there was a round area where no trees grew. This was where the Aboriginal people used to do their dances and rituals. Up ahead was a gigantic rock formation called Turtle Rock. We went up and inside the little cave area where we saw more rock art. There were also burials in this cave and some bone pieces were scattered about the area.

Uncle Rusty told us about his own life and about bringing groups of young people camping in the area and about working with Jodie Foster on Nim's Island. He also told us some of the Dreamtime stories about why the crow is black and why the owl only comes out at night. He says it is bad luck to see an owl in the daytime and if you do it means a death in the family.

It was a really interesting day, but very exhausting and by the time we got back to JCU (3:30) I just wanted to go to bed.