Redhed's Rambles: Full Moon on The Flinders

Friday, March 6, 2015

Full Moon on The Flinders

One of the most pleasant campsites I have ever encountered: deep in the Flinders' Range with a full moon rising. I am grateful that I can enjoy this Australian adventure and see this wonderful land.

A Triumph in the ferry line, departing Tasmania..

Did I mention that the Australians have some fantastic camper/trailers?

There were a lot of bikes returning from their rides in Tasmania...

Paintings trying to emulate the Aboriginal style. I suspect the artist was not an Aboriginal Man...

A great little campsite, all alone...

Except for these deer, which I swear, "barked" at me....

And an up and coming full moon....

The architecture does not seem to change, the deeper one heads into the outback...

I am currently reading a book whose author's main thesis is that the denial by the contemporary Australians of the massacre of over 30,000 Aborigines in the takeover of their lands is basis for the current militarization of Australian history. I cannot deny that the Australians certainly honour their war dead. With the 100th anniversary of Gallipolli this year, I can see a heightened interest and focus on remembering the dead of the European wars, while I have yet to see any acknowledgement of the natives lost during the theft of their lands and territories.

I have noticed a number of references to "Men's Sheds." They appear to be supportive groups of men mentoring yu

This rig from Queensland was set up to take on the Dakkar.....

Another flight of duck snoops, skulking about and ready to pounce on unwary tourists...

For my horsey friends...His name was Marlu, and in the view of the Aussies, the best horse ever....

For my teacher friends, and their supporters......

For my fairie friends...

Sailing off Davenport, where the Spirit of Tasmainia leaves for Melbourne....

Regatta time.....

Some of the bikes waiting for the ferry to load....

Somewhere back on the mainland...in giant crayfishland, I think...

Roobie has new shoes, Heideneaus to boot.....(at the rear)

Off to Alice Springs and the Center...

Southern Alberta? Nope....

Those aren't chickens.......

Weather is getting hotter and drier....

I saw 4 wedge-tailed Eagles munching on a road-killed Roo today...magnificent birds.

The mountains behind me are rising out of the rolling prairie as if they are the backbone of a giant Snake sleeping beneath the surface of the Earth....

"Aboriginal Art frequently manifests the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is a complex metaphysical concept which essentially subsumes not only the past but the present and the future. Dreamtime beliefs explain the universe as it appears to Aborigines. they provide for the people a system of laws and guidelines why they can live. The beliefs have their origin in the ancestral past, that period long ago, when the Dreamtime Beings, in a series of founding dramas, emerged from the subterranean world, moved over a featureless earth, and , by their deeds, brought into being the whole Aboriginal cosmos. The places where these Dreamtime Beings emerged, the places they visited, and the places where they finally disappeared become the waterholes, rivers, rocks, hills and all the features of the environment. At the same time they placed in this environment all of life-human, animal, bird, fish and plant-forming one interconnected system of relationships linking back to the Dreamtime Beings. Often these Beings were both man and animal at the same time or they could change from one to another. The features of the landscape have been shaped , the Dreamtime Beings left human children, and they themselves disappeared underground or went into the sea. Before they disappeared they formulated the sets of rules for all living things to live by-the law.....there is a reciprocal and abiding relationship between people and the Dreamtime Beings." From the ochres of Mungo-Aboriginal Art Today

Giant Red River Gums live in the Canyon...

As the light changes, more of the engravings show themselves. Some are clearly older than the newer pecked pieces...

Tracks of Dreamtime Beasts...

Eons of water has rushed through this Canyon, washing away the hardened rocks, making a magical spillway....

The ancient shelter at the end of the canyon. People may have camped here as long as 30,000 years ago. If the rocks would come alive and speak of what they have seen....