Simpson Desert - Hay River 2009

Today started with a couple of different agendas.   For Ivan and Adam, it started at 4:30am when they hit the road headed for Port Augusta - time to get that windscreen replaced.   When Adam grinned at Ivan and said "Road Trip!" as he looked through sleepy eyelids, it was always going to be a laugh.   We got down to Port Augusta, dropped the car off and headed into Macca's for a good old junk food breakfast.   After doing some shopping, headed back to the car and while the windscreen was in its one hour 'curing' period, moved the car over to get a wheel alignment.   Inside their office was a TV, coffee machine, and internet access - what better way to spend the hour than uploading trip updates to the list..

Back at Iga Warta, most had slept in, but were now looking to do cultural tours.   Cliff took most of the crew off to see some aboriginal rock art - his wealth of information, not just on rock art, but local aboriginal history, family history, customs, bush tucker etc - when he spoke, everyone listened.

Tim kicked off Happy Hour with some damper around the camp fire, which led to dinner and with the size of the fire ring, we had camp ovens everywhere.   We were all looking forward to the evenings activities because the Iga Warta community was coming up to run a camp fire evening with us.

We had already met Cliff, and he was first to arrive after dinner - he enjoyed the Story So Far, and then he told his own story about how the Magpie and the Crow got their black coloring - first he told it in his native tongue - very quietly - almost a whisper - but you could hear a pin drop - his hand actions spoke fluently as well.   Then he told it in english, with the same hand actions.   It was an amazing moment.    Shortly afterwards, Terrence came up with his guitar and some more of the Iga Warta crew.   They told us the history of Iga Warta, of their family in the area, and played some music which we all danced to:

Oh my walla (tummy),
it's rumbling,
it's tumbling,

Oh my walla,
it's rumbling,
it's tumbling,

Oh my walla,
it's rumbling,
it's tumbling,
like a big bass drum
Di di di Di Di di.

Sounds a bit corny here, but we were all having a great time.    Tim, Di and Adam show us how it's done here.   While we were singing for our food, Terrence had put a damper in the hot sand, and cooked it for about forty minutes.   When it was cooked, he brushed all of the ash off and served the damper with locally produced quandong jam.   He told us some more stories before leaving us to finish off the damper.   A couple of wines and we were looking at bed - another lovely day!