Marpoon - Weipa

We are happily ensconced in Michelle's house in Weipa.

Swimming at Archer River Crossing

Marpoon - Bush Camping

This is us after our first night camping in the bush. The fire of course was still hot from the night before and just needed some dry grass and sticks to get it going again.

We had sausages, cornflakes, OJ, toast.  Tea andCoffee.

To make toast one had to first go bush and find astick suitable to use as a toasting fork.

After breakfast we walked up to Wujal Wujal falls andhad a look.  There is a separate photo of the falls.

This is camping the night before

Marpoon - Wujal Wujal Falls

This is Wujal Wujal Falls.

Very beautiful as you can see.

The name Wujal Wujal means the waterfall never stops.

These falls are known as a 'story place' and
apparantly this means that one does not swim here.  So
we didn't.  However we did swim down stream and in
various other picturesque locations.

Near these falls we also saw a Bayan.
This is a traditinal shelter constructed from laywer
cane and covered in paper bark.  The one we saw had
been built in the last few years to showcase
traditional dwelling places to tourists.

Marpoon Trip - Laura Festival

This is a photo of the Laura festival.

They had some big signs up saying "No Filming" so I was not able to take any photos of Aboriginal dances. I had been told that the Laura web site stated no filming and so that did not come as a big surprise. I had assumed that it was a spiritual thing. However the dances shared the performance areas with several very conspicuous camera crews. Presumably the official recorders however sometimes I wondered whether they were part of the dance group as they seemed to ne to be quite happy to get in the road and get up close. Right up close. So I guess it is not a spiritual problem.

 There were two performance areas. This one and a more standard stage. There was a food court that sold smoothies and hot food from various vendors. There was also a information side show populated by government agencies and ngo's like the flying doctor. I availed myself of a free apple from the flying doctor as that along with a very nice fruit smoothy was the only thing resembling fresh food available at the festival. Hot chips were in abundance as were the very nice beef curry and rice dinners.