Today we rose long before the sun (as in 3:30 AM) for bleary-eyed ride into the outback for a hot air balloon ride. When we got off the bus, we had a quick astronomy lesson - it's seriously dark out there and the stars were magnificent. We spotted the Southern Cross, several other constellations, the Milky Way, and some man-made satellites.
The balloon arrived about the same time we did, all folded up on a trailer. The crew unloaded it and inflated the balloon by filling it with air from a big fan, followed by heating the air with the onboard gas burners.
As the balloon began to rise, we were hustled on board to serve as ballast, lest the whole thing float away. There were 17 people on board, sorted into four compartments with the pilot in the middle. The ground crew were ready to follow us across the countryside to wherever we landed.
The pilot controlled the height of the balloon with four gas burners, more heat - more height. Otherwise, we were at the mercy of the wind, which sent us gently gliding over the countryside.
The terrain was mostly flat - seemingly endless miles of red dirt, low shrubs and a few trees. Looking straight down really accentuates the red colors at dawn. We were flying over a couple of cattle ranches, but we didn't spot any cows - or any kangaroos. Just emptiness - and totally quiet (when the burners weren't blasting away).
We could see another balloon ahead of us - it looked just like ours - a nice silhouette against the early morning sky.
Our pilot landed us smoothly in a little clearing - as he turned off the burners, it didn't take long for the balloon to collapse behind us.
And then - standing around wasn't an option - the crew recruited everyone to help with squeezing the air out of the balloon, rolling it up, and cramming it into a big canvas bag. When it was all done, we loaded back on our bus for a glass of outback champagne (water) and the ride back to town. We were back at the hotel by 7:00 AM, just in time for breakfast.
No rest for the weary. Just after breakfast, we headed off on an Australian outback cultural tour led by Lindsay, a local Aboriginal guide. He was able to take us places that other tours can't; from him, we heard about both the past and present of the local tribe (the Arrente or caterpillar group) of Aborigines.
The Aborigines people were all over Australia (and Tasmania); today there are still over 500 tribes, with members belonging to smaller groups called clans. Each clan had its own distinct body of sacred sites and the area surrounding these forms the clan's land. These groups are linked by common traditions, intermarriage, and shared language. Each group has a totem that provides a tangible expression of their link to the dreamtime ancestral beings. Within and between groups, ceremonies and rituals are held, stories are told, pictures are drawn, and daily life is defined.
The history of the Aboriginal people is complex, starting with the dream time, the time of creation. Their world is inhabited by ancestral beings whose activities were of some significance in history and which has a living presence today. These beings and their stories may be represented by a rock, a sand hill, a grove of trees, a cave - for the Aborigines, the creative essence remains forever within the physical form. Dreamtime was in the past, but it is the Aborigines present religion and culture. The saying, "As it was done in the Dreamtime, so it must be done today," dominates all aspects of behavior.
Theirs is not a world that blends well with the white European world of the 21st century. The present-day picture is not a pretty one - it's a tale of poverty, welfare, unemployment, lack of education, diseases (especially diabetes and kidney disease), alcohol abuse, gas-sniffing, domestic and child abuse, and mostly ... boredom. Their land has been taken, their culture is largely destroyed - only 20 years ago some of the people were hunter-gatherers living in the outback. Adjustment to the white man's civilization has been not very successful.
We visited Corroboree Rock, one of the sacred places where ceremonies were held to mark the transition of boys to men. This is one of the places that people from many clans came together for ceremony - at other times of the year, trespassing on another clan's land usually resulted in death.
At Jessie Gap, we saw the only white sand known in this part of the country. The sand is believed to be the fat of the emu - a large flightless bird that lives in these parts.
Another stop was Emily Gap, where we could see kangaroo tracks around a waterhole and rock paintings on a cliff wall.
We went into Amoongauna Aboriginal Community, a totally depressing place not usually visited by tourists. We were able to go there because Lindsay has relatives living here. This place is home to about 300 people, a mixture of skin groups unaccustomed to living together - Lindsay says this causes lots of problems, but the white man's government refuses to understand.
He took us to the Amoonguna Arts Center, where several women from the community were painting and many beautiful pictures were available for purchase. Lindsay brewed up a bit of billy tea and gave us some damper (outback bread), the traditional food and drink of Outback adventurers.
In late morning, we arrived at Yipirinya School (
http://www.yipirinya.com.au/), which offers two-way education, bilingual and bicultural, to indigenous students. There are about 200 students enrolled, but attendance only averages 60%. These kids come from in-town and remote "communities," which are about the same as some of our worst low-income housing projects. This school was founded and run by indigenous people, receives some funding from the government, and struggles to provide quality education, health care and nutrition to its students. The school also is supported by the Grand Circle/Overseas Adventure Travel Foundation, which provides a mentor-teacher for the primary grade students to help improve their literacy.
After meeting the principal and offering our small gifts of school supplies, we set off for the 5-6 grade class to read with the students. They were waiting for us - Fran was paired with a girl named Nakita and Margaret with a boy named Roland. They were very shy and soft spoken, and as they read to us, it was clear that they are far behind expectations for this grade level. As the principal pointed out, most of them live in crowded conditions where they have no room or even bed of their own, no books in the house, and no adults to take the time to read to them. They seemed to enjoy our time together, but we wished we could do something to improve their long-term outlook.
After about 30 minutes of reading, we adjourned to the school cafeteria for lunch - sandwiches and juice. The most interesting sandwich was one made of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and beets - on buttered whole grain bread. It actually tasted pretty good! From the lunchroom, we went over to the language arts building and heard about their efforts to instruct the children in their native culture - by teaching four different local languages, through arts and crafts, and by field trips into the community.
We left the Yiprinya School to visit a very different type of school - the Alice Springs School of the Air. This is a distance education organization that involves teachers, parents, and home tutors to provide education to isolated students in a rural area twice the size of the state of Texas. This high-tech, state of the art operation currently enrolls 167 students, ages 4-13. After 6th grade, the kids continue their education through correspondence courses or go to boarding schools. This is an amazing process, using computer and satellite equipment, correspondence materials, on-air lessons, private lessons, and support through home tutors. The contrast with the Yipirinya School is striking.
Dinner tonight was a special occasion. We all chipped in to buy all sorts of goodies at the supermarket, the hotel provided salads and fixings, and we had a big cookout by the pool. Alec (from the Telegraph Station) and Lindsay (along with his family) came to join us for dinner. All manner of things ended up on the 'barbie' -- honey soy chicken kabobs, lamb chops, pork sausage, beef sausage, lamb-rosemary-cheese patties, chili bangers, gem fish, kangaroo steak, and beef steak. Just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite, out came the Tim Tams - everybody made room for one or two ...
