Rock Art

The day was going swimmingly all things considered, though Ella had consumed the entire bag of jelly babies with the gusto of a hungry croc and I was starting to feel a bit guilty about bribing her with lollies.

After our cruise, we headed back north to Jabiru for a dip in the community swimming pool then dried off and got back on the road north-west towards Ubirr, which is the exact spot Paul Hogan was swinging his bullroarer in Crocodile Dundee, though we've so-far been unable to rent this from the local video shop to check it out.

The two draw cards at Ubirr are the galleries of ancient rock art and the view across the wetlands and forest, especially at sunset, which is why we left Ubirr until the end of the day (if you need a tour guide, come see Sarah).

To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by the rock art. The main gallery of work is underneath an ancient cave-shelter where the aborigines used to gather away from the rains, but the very word gallery had set me up with some sort of expectation of little multi-coloured stick-men hunting barramundi and chucking spears at one another, a story in the style of the Bayeux tapestry perhaps. I'd forgotten it was all painted in red ochre, which isn't half as exciting, though I recognise it has historical value and all that, and the tiger's good.

1. a painting of someone-or-other doing a dance about an emu
2. a painting of a Tasmanian Tiger (now extinct)
3. a painting of a barramundi

Look, I'm sorry, I know I'm making light of this and I know it's all seriously impressive but as art goes, I could do better with an etch-a-sketch. Will generations of Britons be standing back to admire my infantile biro sketches on the plasterboard walls of Dallam-on-the-Hill? I think not.

nb Lollies, n, Sweets (Australian)