Waking up in Mossman Gorge is similar to turning on my I pod shuffle. You never know what the day will bring. One particular morning as Janice arrived for playgroup, she announced that her nephew would be taking us on a bit of an adventure. The way she described it at first didn’t seem so adventurous: “Wear long pants so you don’t get bit up by the mossies (mosquitoes). Put socks and closed toe shoes so you won’t lose your flops in the mud. Have fun.” WOW!
It was actually rather enjoyable. We didn’t wear long pants but shorts instead. We didn’t wear socks or shoes either. We actually went barefoot through the knee deep mud flats. There were many instances where I was grateful for holding on to the spear; for it helped me get a hold of my stuck foot.
As we struggled walking, her nephew explained how the Kuku Yulanjis hunted and gathered. As we passed different trees, he picked flowers off showing us how the abos find medicine.
We then walked through the swampy ocean looking for crabs. We only caught one. We were supposed to see one from a far off and through the spear to kill it right on. Ha Ha! Not us. I think the one crab we caught was actually caught by him. We cheated!
After finishing the 3 mile walk through the water, we were guided into the Mongroves where we searched for mossels and snails. The roots of the trees were right above ground, colliding with that of the other trees.
After walking for hours it was a nice treat to be served our crabs, snails and mossels for dinner.
