To be a guide in any of the national parks you have to undergo proper training. Early the next day we met Nile and he was both a professional and a good guy.

Litchfield is full of sacred sites, lots of nice swimming holes with waterfalls like from a Bounty commercial. (Side note: it’s hard to breath behind a waterfall) Mostly we have the place for ourselves until some tourists arrive with a pack of kids in tow.

You have to hike a bit to get to the cave art in Kakado. There is more art here than around Uluru because the living conditions are better; more food and abundant water. The Aborigines had more free time for fucking around with paint. We had time to check out the interesting biodiversity display at the park information center before our cruise on the Mary River, where we saw both salt and fresh water crocodiles, sea eagles, kites and wallabies. Yes, salt-water crocodiles are impressive.

That evening they had organized an Aboriginal Corroborree at the Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge camp. The story teller/narrator, an Aborigine named Kevin, told stories, explained some beliefs, history, music and dance. He was quite a joker and often laughed deeply. He along with Ricky and Jeff had traveled in the US and Europe as part of a troupe bringing Aboriginal culture to the world. They, along with 8-year-old Clifton, performed dances accompanied by music on didgeridoos.

After a break we had the opportunity to learn some of the dances. We had to have totems painted on. Only the boys needed to take off their shirts. I suspect that is not due to any Aboriginal custom. I'm not one to join the type of activity, but, I was hanging out with Randal, drinking beer, and, Randal feeling a connection with the area and these people was compelled to join in, so as not to let him make a fool of himself alone, I joined him.

Randal and been painting Barramundi, Balin in local dialect, hich is a river fish, so he had a Barramundi painted on his chest. I let Ricky pick for me and he chose a Crocodile, or Barro. Let me mention here, as natural as the black color they use is, it does not wash off easily. We danced around the fire, jumped, clapped and I for one was happy no one important was watching.

Afterward we had the chance to ask question and there were many serious questions from the group concerning Aboriginal thoughts and feeling about the future and such. Randal and I wanted to know if they'd like a beer in the Pub. That ended the question and answer session pretty quickly and we headed to the bar. There are some strange laws about alcohol and Aborigines, so we were not sure if it was Ok to drink in the bar. We did get some funny looks from the fishermen, but it turned out ok, and enlightening.

Ricky, a tall quiet man with a distinguished gray beard, after much prodding from Kevin, showed us a photo on the wall taken 40 years earlier of his father and uncle standing next to the hide of a 10 meter crocodile they killed with spears.

We learned many things from them; Randal was completely transformed, promising to move up there to live as soon as he could organize it. He meant it at the time, and maybe he did it, I haven’t heard a thing from him since. We learned that Aborigines in the north get along much better with the white people than the central Australians. We learned about the world tour they did and that Kevin likes Chicago Blues, and we learned that Elvis is now black, -- a reverse Michel Jackson -- and has built a new Graceland just outside Sydney. Kevin is 100% sure. I questioned him on this several times.

There are many swimming holes and the ubiquitous crocodile warnings posted everywhere do keep the crowds down. We spent the hot afternoon in a deep quiet pool, surrounded by cliffs, half in shadow. Later we climbed up to the top and found a series of small pools. One "hole" in the rocks looked impossible to climb out of. Nile jumped in and disappeared, showing up several minutes later climbing over the side of another hole. When you jump in feet first and open your eyes, about 6 feet under, you see light shining through the rock and you can swim through to the next pool. It does take a certain leap of faith. You can then swim upstream through pools and high walls, climbing up to smaller pools.

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