Kimberley Expedition: Day 3 (Morning)

Today we had our first experience with Aboriginal Rock Art … estimated to be around 10,000 to 20,000 years old!

After breakfast, we gathered up our stuff and headed off on the Xplorer for a landing on Jar Island … in Vansittart Bay. The Island was so named in 1819 for Macassan pottery shards that were found here. Nowadays it is best known for the three easily accessible Gwion Gwion (sometimes spelled Giyorn Giyorn) rock art sites.

Gwion Gwion (aka Bradshaw) rock paintings are one of the two traditions of the Kimberleys. The paintings have been categorized into two styles. These are not the earliest Aboriginal paintings … hope to see some of those at other sites.

We were told there was the possibility that this would be a wet landing so we went prepared for that. As it turns out, the tide was out so the gangway was deployed onto the beach and we didn’t have to get our feet wet. Hiking across the sand, we followed a narrow path through the grass … some of it prickly.

Following eroded rock plates, we eventually came to an area where we were split into two groups … one set doing the easy and hard walks; the other set doing the moderate walk. And then we swapped places. Mui and I opted to do the easy-hard first.

True, we had to clamber over rocks and squeeze through some narrow paths between boulders on the way to the “art gallery.” And once we got there, we had to lie down on rocks and squirm around a bit to see some of the art painted on the bottom of protected ledges. Nonetheless, I’d be hard pressed to consider the hike a “hard” one.

After swapping places with the other group, we trekked to the moderate site, which, by far had some of the best rock art … though some of them were particularly hard to photograph.

We wrapped up the outing with a cruise around Jar Island, checking out some of the interesting formations and using our imagination to find dragons and toads.Baca lagi