This past Wednesday was a really interesting day on our trip as we took a journey to a nearby animal reserve and then went on a walking tour through a local rainforest called Mossman Gorge. This was one of those days where we were going to get a chance to get up close and personal with the Roo babies and then be introduced to Australia by an Aboriginal Elder. So there were two amazing experiences that we were going to be part of and I couldn’t have been more excited.
For the nature reserve there isn’t much to really go into detail about regarding the zoo. The main attractions were the interactive kangaroo and wallaby exhibit and the opportunity to hold a koala bear. I decided to do both, but out of the two I would say that the kangaroo babies were by far my favorite. The baby kangaroos were only about three feet tall and from a distance they reminded me of overgrown gerbils. While walking through their part of the zoo visitors were surrounded by more than twenty roo babies scattered about the park. Some of them would hop right up to the humans who were on a pebble pathway while others lounged about the area. If you were quiet and gentle, the kangaroos would let you walk right up and scratch them on their tummies. When you do that they turn over on their backs like puppies and stretch out their legs to get more rubs – its quite cute. Although the koalas are very cool, the interaction you get with them is minimal. In Queensland it is illegal for a koala to work for more than thirty minute which means that when you hold them it is for literally two seconds and then the koala is passed along to the next person.
After we left the zoo we took a bus ride up to Mossman Gorge to get a Dreamtime Tour through the rainforest with an Aboriginal Elder as our guide. In Australia, there is now a movement to integrate more of traditional Aboriginal culture into the celebrated identity of Australia. As part of that movement, visitors who come to Australia are supposed to receive what’s called a Welcome to Country. For this particular Welcome to Country the group I went with attended a Smoking Ceremony. A smoking ceremony entails that the new comers walk around and absorb the smoke from burning tree bark while the elder recites a phrase that lets the ancestors know that the visitors are part of their people. This is also meant to help secure good fortune for travelers who come through their region.
Once our elder was done with the smoking ceremony he led us on a walking tour throughout the rainforest where he pointed out the various flora and fauna and their significance. He described dangerous types of plants and their remedies, debunked misconceptions about boomerangs and dijeridoos, and taught us how to mix our own pigment. When he finished taking the ochre and turning it into paint he invited all of us to make designs on our skin with the ochre, chiefly motifs of dots which were symbols of rain and represented his nation of people. Near the tail end of his trip he told us stories of female and male initiation into adulthood and about the significance of dreams and sacred sites. I wish we could have stayed and learned more, but alas we had to get going.
Later that evening, after a brief resting period, the group went to have an evening on the town. We walked several blocks and wound up at a place called The Wood Shed, a local pub known for its “wild parties and table dancing.” We spent a short while eating and then my roommate Eliza and I took to the dance floor and stayed there until 11 pm. Our dancing was like a contemporary interpretive type of dancing and resembled really confident but ultimately awkward emus. Lucky for us it was ladies night at the bar which meant all the ladies received a free glass of champagne. So while everyone else rushed the bar at 10:30 for their free alcohol, Eliza and I had the entire dance floor to ourselves.
Until next time …