Day 30 – 22/4/2011 – Ewaninga Conservation Reserve – Alice Springs.
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| Rock carving |
Today, given all the excitement of the last few days we decided to take it easy and give Callum a chance to rest his foot. A very lazy morning was had by all and Pete and I gave the car a good vacuum and wash. I know one could question why we would wash the car as it was pretty likely that we would be on more dirt roads….but it had now been many weeks since we had driven out to Lake Eyre and covered the bonnet in mud that I thought it was time to wash it off!!
With a clean car and lunch eaten we decided to go to the Ewaninga Conservation Reserve. The Reserve protects rock engravings or petroglyphs, which are a valuable link to the activities of early Arrernte Aboriginal people. The rock carvings are different to rock paintings as they do not tell a story rather they are a type of written code that can only be deciphered by men or women who have been taught how to “interpret/read” the carvings. We were pretty excited because before today we did not even know that Aboriginal people did rock carvings!!
Unfortunately the drive out took us on a dirt road – 39kms – oops oh well the car was clean inside and out for a few minutes. On the way we stopped to photograph a monitor, we were terribly excited because we have seen very little wildlife so far on this trip.
The rock carvings were fascinating and I cannot begin to comprehend how long the Arrernte people must have sat to complete their work. The reserve also has a clay dam…..with you guessed it water in it!! The kids had a good time slopping around in the clay and trying to skim rocks. Callum was able to join us on the walk as it was only 600m long. Melinda, PJ and Jocelyn also joined us on this outing so it was great to go exploring with friends.
After driving back to Alice Springs a lazy afternoon was enjoyed by all.
Callum’s foot was a little better today, he has had little pain and is able to weight bear for one or two steps.
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