Up to catch the bus at 8.30am on Edible Desert Tour. Quite good but would have liked more input from Pintinjarra people Cassidy and Tikku. Saw weapons and bowls etc. water bowl, baby bowl, winnowing bowl, flynet and head band for carrying bowl. Man had human hair belt to carry boomerangs and 6 spears. Nulla Nulla – Kill carried round shoulders. Women provided 80% of food and 90% of time. Aphids on mulga – food for honey ants. Witchetty grubs in mulga root can tell by sawdust and noise if grub is there. Dig through crust with digging stick use winnowing bowl for shovel. Showed us winnowing of seeds. Drug made from powdered leaves from tobacco bush-ash from spinifex and leaves from the grevillia. Hold under lip and sucking through teeth. Used to keep up spirits on long walks, social drug. Man had a spear made from vine bound with kangaroo sinew moistened to bind. Resin on Nulla Nulla was from spinifex and fibre from mulga tree. Vine was straightened over a fire. Spear in one piece was punishment spear. Put through persons leg – if cant walk you fall behind and die. Serious crime through the kidneys. Water available in pig face like plant. Sheoak in fork of branches, root of tree. Came back and went for a drive to Uluru. Walked around base, quite impressive. Caves, gorge with waterfall when it rains. Back for lunch and then to Olgas or Kata Tjuta. Really wonderful. Tremendous number of plants, through valley of the winds and across middle basin to lookout. Very lush in the centre. Magnificent towering rocks at each side. Great boulders of conglomerate, very spectacular. Like walking through Uluru. Originally would have been a much larger version of Uluru. Really wonderful. Home by 6.30pm then dined at a Grill in Yulara. Good meal home to bed.
