Sundays after church are good days to go out with Yapa friends. Last Sunday four of us, two Yapa and two Kardiyawent out to find a place on their country called Yamirrngi, where there is a rock hole and a cave with rock carvings. No one had been there for years, and the track along the old station fenceline was completely overgrown, so we were ‘bush-bashing’ all the way, stopping to clear fallen trees, driving around or over younger growth. This went on for ten or more km, and I was nearly ready to give up, but the friend who was guiding us said we would soon reach open country, and she was right, because suddenly we came out of the mulga scrub and on to an open plain of tall grass and minkiri (termite mounds). They look like piles of earth but they are hard as concrete and can cause serious damage to a car.
We could now see the range of rocky outcrops that we were looking for, so we went on, steering between and around the minkiri and over small shrubs. We found yakajirri and stopped to pick some. They are small bushes which grow green berries, which turn sweet and yellow, then turn brown as they dry out – bush raisins is the Kardiya name. A rare treat. Soon afterwards we found the rock art and the rock hole, then drove across to another hill where we lit a fire and cooked hamburgers and tea, and heard the story of the possum dreaming that belongs to that place.
By the time we were packed up and ready to leave the sun was setting, and we failed to find the tracks we had made coming in. Before long we were disorientated and back to bush-bashing, but in a fairly haphazard kind of way, and this soon resulted in a flat tyre. We changed it by torchlight and, after another brief attempt to find our way out, gave up and resigned ourselves to a night in the bush.
We were well out of mobile range. I carry an emergency GPS beacon. I have had it for years, always with me on my travels to remote areas, but we didn't feel any need to use it. A night sleeping in the car was an inconvenience, that's all, and as it turned out we were very lucky with the weather. It can be bitterly cold at night at this time of year, but it was warm inside the car and most of the night I had my door open a crack, my nose against the fresh, wild air. It was overcast and there wasn’t much chance to look at stars, which was disappointing, but the country breathed around us with a mild, benign breeze and there was no reason for any anxiety.
SUNRISE
In the morning Yamuna found witchetty grubs under young mulga trees just metres from the car, and we had them for breakfast, along with tea and some bread left over from our picnic. Hard to believe witchetty grubs taste so good until you have tried them.
And there is never a shortage of firewood in the Tanami desert.
After breakfast we set out again, but there was still some uncertainty about the right direction, and we weren’t all in agreement. As it happened, we were still going in the wrong direction but we didn’t get far, because we got our second puncture. I had bought a second spare wheel in Melbourne but I hadn’t needed to use it before this, and now it turned out that it didn’t fit the car. So we were now properly stuck.
If we had been sure about how to get out of there I might have chanced limping out on the flat tyre, but I wasn’t up for any more bush-bashing with the poor thing in that state, so there was nothing for it but to light up the beacon.
And then wait.
As it turned out, the police had already been alerted to our absence by our Kardiya friend’s husband, and they were already out looking for us, but they couldn't find where we had gone in from the main road. But once the beacon had pinged around the world and been directed into the Yuendumu police station with our coordinates their job was a lot easier. It still took them a few hours to make their way in there, though. We were round about here:
Meanwhile, around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, we reached an agreement about the direction we should have been taking, and began to crawl out. Within 5 minutes we reached the fenceline we had been unable to find in the dark, and no sooner had we crossed it than we saw the approaching police troopies winding their way in. The spare wheel from one of them fitted my car, so an hour or two later we were all out on the main road, safe and sound, driving back to Yuendumu.
I returned the borrowed spare and am now grounded, since I can’t drive my car. There is no mechanic in Yuendumu so I have to wait for someone to go into Alice Springs 300km away and take one of my wheels with them. But we’re all safe and sound, which is the main thing. And we did get in to Yamirrngi and visit that place, which had been lonely for a long time before that. I have photographs of the rock art, and I apologise for not posting them here, but it wouldn’t be culturally appropriate. Instead here are a few photos of the general area.
Post script. Just saw on Facebook that Yamuna took a class from the school out there yesterday, the day after we got back, straight away, while our tracks were still easy to find. So now that place is not lost any more and a new generation of Warlpiri people have had a chance to see it. Well worth all the drama to see a result like that.
