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“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” –Mark Jenkins

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Day 217 – Monday 7th December – Cairns to Mission Beach

Last night with the Aboriginals was yet again a joy – we marched with clap sticks, sang fire chants and danced around the grounds. We had a gorgeous buffet for dinner whilst being entertained with live didgeridoo music. I was hauled up on stage with a Japanese guy to participate in the fire starting and tribal dancing (much to my humiliation, as I was wearing my pyjama bottoms to avoid sustaining more bites!) but I was rewarded for my efforts with my own left-handed boomerang to take home.
The knowledge that these people have is truly awesome, if only everyone on this planet took a fraction of the time to learn, understand and care for our environment in the way that they do, then maybe we could all be as proud of our heritage and culture as they are.
We drove much of the morning south, stopping at Mission Beach at a site on the edge of the forest. A family of Curlews came through in the afternoon, closely followed by two Kookaburras and as the sun went down the jungle came alive again with strange noises and plenty of bugs to zap in the van.

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