We woke
while the night
was still dark,
committed to climb
“Wadna Yalda”
in time
to watch dawn
over the salt-lake
“Munda”.
With torches
and headlights
we started –
first scrub,
then scree,
then rock
and, finally,
a leap
over the narrow
but deep chasm,
cut into the mountain
by a boomerang
of the dream-time
“Blue Wren Man”,
and on to the summit.
As dawn brightened
we could sense
the glowing white
of “Munda”,
then the brightness
of the sun itself
gleaming
off the salt.
Exhilarated,
we returned to camp
for breakfast
of billy tea
and damper.
Oct 11, 2022
Oct 11, 2022 at 10:15 PM UTC
We woke
while the night
was still dark,
committed to climb
“Wadna Yalda”
in time
to watch dawn
over the salt-lake
“Munda”.
With torches
and headlights
we started –
first scrub,
then scree,
then rock
and, finally,
a leap
over the narrow
but deep chasm,
cut into the mountain
by a boomerang
of the dream-time
“Blue Wren Man”,
and on to the summit.
As dawn brightened
we could sense
the glowing white
of “Munda”,
then the brightness
of the sun itself
gleaming
off the salt.
Exhilarated,
we returned to camp
for breakfast
of billy tea
and damper.
“Wadna Yalda” is Mount Chambers in South Australia, part of the Flinders Ranges. “Munda” is the dry salt “Lake Frome” to its east.
The story of “Blue Wren Man” is told by the “Adnyamathana” (people of the rock) who traditionally live in the Flinders Ranges.
Billy tea is made in a billy-can sitting on a campfire (often just a large preserved fruit can with two nail holes and a handle of wire). The tea leaves are settled to the bottom by tapping with a stick or swinging vertically around the shoulder.
Damper (made of self-raising flour and water with perhaps a little salt) is sometimes cooked in a camp oven or directly in the hot ashes of a camp-fire.
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