Koalas, Aborigines, Kangadoo, and Pinnacles. Oh, and a busted knee.

Thursday and Friday was our last fieldtrip of Murdoch. With the same crazy tour guides of our last trip, we set off in our very-touristy looking vans at about 7am.

We drove for a bit until we arrived at our first stop, Yanchep National Park. Here we toured a Koala Park and also caught some crazy half-wild kangaroos hopping around freely, but spastically. Did you know that koalas sleep for nearly twenty hours a day and for the remaining four hours they just stuff their faces with leaves? Also, koalas don't drink water, or even really drink at all- they get all their hydration and water needs from the leaves that they eat. Alsoalso, they only feed on the leaves of the Eucalyptus tree, which is actually oddly enough a poisonous plant, and some think that this is one reason they sleep so much-- because the plant poison makes them drunk! Koalas are one out of only three species of animals that can survive on a Eucalyptus-tree leaf diet.

We then had a three hour long "aboriginal culture experience" in which we: learned how to throw spears, boomerangs, make tools, and learn about dance and the didgeredoo. The spear and boomerang throwing are pretty easily explained by these pictures (shoot, I'll insert pictures when I get them off Maria's computer).
As for the tools, we got to make little tomahawk-like objects. The glue-like substance used to put the sharp rock on the stick handle is made out of: charcoal, some type of seed or something from the grass trees, and... kangaroo poop! Which we also termed kangadoo. We had to crush up said ingredients with a large rock until it became a fine powder. Here's me and Jason attempting to crush up some kangadoo and charcoal:
After this we each got a stick for our handle. We held the stick in a fire until it got hot, put it in the mixture, heat the stick again, put on more mixture, etc. until there was a good glob of it on your stick. Then we had to mold the kangadoo mixture with our hands in order to stick the rock in. Siiickk. And the finished product?(look how long my hair has grown!)

Then it was time for "Didgeridoo and Dance" in which our tourguide dressed up in his aboriginal costume (which looked vaguely like a diaper) and special paint and did a few traditional story dances, such as fishing and one about searching for honey in the trees. I spur-of-the-moment-ly volunteered to help with this and acted out the part of the tree (a superb performance, I might add) in which mostly just stood there with my hands up ridiculously while he danced around me, until the stunning climax of the show where I was chopped down and had to lay down in a pile of sand. Hahah. Very fun tho. He then had us all get up and stand in two lines, one for boys and one for girls, and we each had our own section in which to dance. That was a riot. Lots of mimicking the butterfly with our legs, as he explained it. Then he played some very cool didgeridoo and told us that the females shouldn't play it because legend has that it can make a woman infertile. Huzzah for women's suffrage in the western world.

But that's not all! No, in the same day we trekked to Nambung National Park, location of the famous Pinnacles desert!

Epochs earlier ago the land was once a sea. As most sand was formed, so too here, in which shells are eventually broken down into limestone particles and washed and blown ashore. Over epochs the sea and beachfront rescinded and vegetation grew where the former beach had been. Rain water would seep into the ground and carry the limestone from the sand deep below which eventually compacted into a soft limestone layer. The roots of the vegetation eventually bore down deep into the limestone layer and formed cracks in it. As the climate continued to change, as always, the vegetation began to die and the cracks become more apparent and the top most layer eroded away. The quartz sand that was underneath was sand swept for thousands of years until the crack became more apparent until you could start to see the eroded limestone in what seemed to be pillar-shaped objects rising from the ground. These are the pinnacles.Some are gigantic, both wide and tall, some are small as my knee. Here's me standing next to some pinnacles. Unfortunately, as we're all taking pictures pretending to be pinnacles in the landscape, Taylor's knee somehow dislocated and he collapses to the ground. One of the teachers who were taking us around had to run back to the tour guides who were taking the caravans to the end of our walk on the other side. Sadly, Taylor was incapacitated for the rest of our trip. He had to go to the doctors when we got back who told him that his knee in general was fine although there was a piece that chipped off and was floating around somewhere. But they said it shouldn't be a problem, heh.

After all this we camped at a trailer park, of all places, and then the next day went on a tour of a Catholic monastery which was interesting for its artwork, but generally pretty boring.

And I'm tired of typing, so I'll wish you all a grand farewell and hope you're doing well. Until next time!