We Go to a Land Down Under -- VII

Not quite on the dot-dot

Saturday, Oct. 8

Our hotel provides free use of laundry facilities and free laundry soap. Now, the laundry facilities comprise two washers and two dryers. With 48 tourists in just our group, you know the demand was high. But this morning the guys let us know that they’ve been using the machines and that they’ll be free soon.

Dot-dot paintings by our tour group.

We already have a load fixed up and jump on the opportunity because we figure we’ll have just enough time before we leave for Cairns later in the day. We do, but I had a moment of panic because we get confused about the time thanks to the weirdness of the time zone shifts we're experiencing and to the clock in our room that’s not correct by any time zone. We’ve been unable to figure out how to reset the darn thing. I know my phone will have the right time, but I had glanced at the TV, tuned to a morning news show, and then the room clock.

This will be a travel day, but we don’t leave until after lunch, so we have an activity scheduled for mid-morning. We walk to the town center, which only takes a few minutes, to meet with a group that conducts sessions on Anangu lore and something called “dot-dot” paintings.

Two young women – sisters -- along with an Aboriginal woman discuss how stories were communicated through drawing in the sand. Obviously this kind of art doesn’t survive, so eventually the “dot-dot” painting was developed. The name describes the style. Using brushes and pointed sticks, the artist draws on a canvas by creating various sized dots -- but not like pointillism, where the resulting picture can show great detail.

Large sections will be covered with large dots. A certain amount of detail will be added with smaller dots. Certain symbolic elements are drawn on in another layer, and these symbols give the basics of the story being communicated in the painting. Because of the sacred nature of some of the stories, another layer can be added to obscure the story to the uninitiated. Tony has told us several times that these paintings can only be properly interpreted by their creators.

"Hey, mate. Whacha doin'"
"Just hanging around. You?"
"Getting a new perspective on life."

After the presentation, we’re led to tables with supplies so we can make our own dot paintings. Now, I probably wasn’t paying attention well enough, so I don’t realize that except for the symbols, mostly dots are used. I brush paint over a large section of my canvas and then add symbols for the story I’m trying to represent. One of the sisters looks at it and encourages me to add more dots. I don’t get the point she’s trying to make and continue on my track. When she checks in later, I tell her I've completed my painting. She points out that a large section of my canvas doesn't have anything on it and encourages me to add dots to the blank area, picking up a brush to help me out.

We’ll have a chance afterward to share the stories behind our paintings, and I wind up being the first to talk about my painting because I remember the native word for an implement women use. At the end of my description I make a crack about the dots the woman made me add to my picture, and she tries to cover by adding symbolism to my narrative. I think I wound up upsetting her a bit, but I’m sure she’s past it by now. In my defense, we had purchased a painting earlier that has a small section that's painting in a solid color and not dots, but I really need to curb my wise-acre nature, even if the person I'm kidding will never see me again.

Surprisingly to me, we will fly out of Yulara. They only make a few flights to a limited number of destinations from that airport each day. It’s a pretty small plane, but the flight will be short enough, and Qantas leaves more legroom on their planes than airlines do here.

"That bloke in the hotel used to be a journalist.
Let's give him the standard pose"

We’re flying to Cairns, which Tony tells us should be pronounced as though we have Boston accents, so it comes out more like “Cans.” Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and a thorough-going tourist town. Need proof? Find Cairns on Google Maps and then ask the app to show you souvenir shops in the town. Lots of dots will appear.

Our hotel overlooks Cinnamon Creek, which empties into the ocean and looks from our hotel room more like a bay or inlet. All of our tour group have rooms facing the water, and the view is spectacular. Cairns is a tropical paradise, quite a contrast to the red, sandy landscape we’ve come from. Our rooms also have balconies, and Sharon and I will spend a good deal of our free time on ours, watching and listening to the birds, taking pictures or sitting in the furniture reading and enjoying the splendid weather.

We join the boys for dinner at Splash, a seafood place on the Esplanade, the main road/area fronting the waterside. We dine al fresco and one of the waitstaff who helps us is from Paris, her accent adding nice touch to the experience. The owners of the restaurant have their own trawler, so we’re guessing the food’s pretty fresh.

Foodie break: We eat a lot of seafood while we're in Australia. Why wouldn't you when you're on the coast much of the time? We’ll have prawns, which is what the Aussies call shrimp. Technically there’s a difference between the two, but they're all called prawns here. The ones I have at Splash are huge and delicious. We’ll also have the aforementioned shark, barramundi, scallops, calamari, baby octopus, etc., etc., etc. I loved every bit of it.

While watching morning TV one day -- morning TV shows are much like they are here, a mixture of hard news, not so hard news, and downright silliness -- one of the featured stories is how a group of researchers in Australia is developing larger prawns and hope to create a variety as large as a lobster – and that would still be tasty. Prawn steaks, anyone?

We stroll about on the Esplanade for a while before returning to the hotel. The next day will be one of the top highlights of the trip -- we’re going to the reef!

Part of the Esplanade at night. Reminds me of the old
Chesapeake Christmas display in downtown Fort Worth