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A day in Dreamland

By Bobbi-Jo // 13 May 2010 // Comments: 0 // Related Categories: aboriginal, adventure, Best Backpacker Job, cairns, daintree, rainforest, Review, Things to do, tour

Picture the scene: Your friendly neighborhood travel ninja following a 20-something aboriginal man through dense mangroves, spear in one hand, digital camera in the other.

One of these things doesn’t belong, and it’s not the electronic equipment.

I said that I wanted an authentic aboriginal experience, and that’s exactly what I got.

For a full day, I fished in the ocean, looked for mussels in the mangroves, hiked through rain forests, and sat at the bottom of a towering waterfall. In fact, the only thing that made me feel as though I was in 2010 and not 1710 were my camera and the riverboat cruise we took through crocodile territory in the middle of the day.

The Daintree Dreaming Tour, one of the aboriginal tours in Tropical North Queensland, takes you on a serious journey through time with the Walker brothers as your guides. Aided by our tour driver, Roger, we spent the morning learning the proper technique to spear fishing (which I clearly didn’t take to as I caught nothing) and put the lesson to practice on Cooya Beach. After hunting around for some mussels and picking up coconuts on the way back, we stopped in at the Walker house to cook our catch (which was more than enough thanks to my fellow travellers climbing up the learning curve faster than myself) and have a nibble before the next stop. Brandon, one of the Walker brothers, spoke about traditional aboriginal items through the meal - we were shown different types of boomerangs, the deadliest thing on the Great Barrier Reef that will definitely kill you in less than an hour (and it’s not a box jellyfish), and a collection of didgeridoos. It was a unique experience getting to hear about the hunting culture of the Kuku Yalanji and one that was made into an amazing experience due to the fact that the hunting style now is the same as it was for them for so long before the rest of the world knew Australia even existed. Being invited to learn about one's culture is one thing, being invited into their home is entirely different and all the more powerful.

After we were stuffed with some delicacies from the sea and the mangroves, we were off for an hour long cruise on the Daintree River. Honestly, this was my least favorite part of the day as the cruise driver fell on the wrong side of rude and dismissive fence, even if he was informative. Regardless, we got to see a few small crocodiles in the wild, a couple of snakes and a few birds. The river itself is incredibly scenic and boating along through the brackish water is a relaxing treat after a morning of hunting, but as with anything to do with tourism, the disposition of your tour guide can make a hug difference, and in this instance it was a fairly negative one.

Luckily, when we got back to shore, Roger was waiting for us with lunch and a smile, so after we finished we were off to the final stop of our adventure: a rain forest hike up to the Bloomfield Falls. Unfortunately, there was a recent crocodile spotting (4 meters long!) in the area, so were weren’t able to swim at the base of the waterfalls, but it was a breathtaking sight. The walk was peppered with insights from Roger about the uses of different plants, plant and animal behavior in the rainforest environment and history of the rainforest itself.

Before I came to Australia, I wasn’t much of a nature girl. I can’t say that I am one now, but I have a newfound appreciation for the power of the earth and all that can be learned from it. Tours like The Bama Way can only serve to heighten the awareness of not only what life was like, and still is for some, for the aboriginal people, but also the importance of conservation so that more non-nature girls can grow to love it as I have.

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Many special thanks to VIP Backpackers for being our gracious hosts throughout this trip! You can also receive amazing discounts the activities mentioned in this post with VIP Membership!