Jump to content

SOMETHING DIFFERENT #5 : Desperately seeking Tommy Bootja in Western Australia (Part 1)


jean marc

Recommended Posts

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA - NEAR ALICE SPRING

 

He is often on the road, walking in the bush, from place to place, following his dreams, parts of his story. He is on his Songlines...

 

#01

9SQqTz1.jpg

 

#02

o6JOiBI.jpg

 

"Mamanha nyiya bandiku kankala Minkala..." : "When the earth was soft, creation spirits travelled all over the country, giving it shape and form, making the rivers, the gorges and the mountains....

 

#03

mRwYtVv.jpg

 

...They created and named all the animals, birds and plants. They gave people their own language and laws to live by. Everywhere in the land there is evidence of their travels...

 

#04

ZIzUGwX.jpg


...They sometimes transformed themselves into features of the landscape. They are the spirits ancestors of all of us, Aboriginal people.
Their presence remains in the land today..."

 

#05

zkWfZ3W.jpg

 

 

I met Tommy many years ago near Uluru, in the Valley of the Wind of Kata Tjuta 

 

#06

A9o2cRh.jpg

 

#07 

sH4a5i8.jpg

 

I was looking unsuccessefuly for a new kind of the very rare kangoo-mouse as well as possible "fossil living" dinosaur-ants...(the Graal for the entomologist !)

He told me he maybe had seen such tiny marsupials (he said "kalunnytia" in Yinjibandi), a small group of them once in the Tanami Desert near Birindudu... and he kindly drawnt me a small note about the location...

We came back together via Kings Canyon to Alice Springs. In the museum, we talked about the crash of the Kookaburra plane and famous Coffee Royal incident : 
- "Tommy, surely they should have learnt from aboriginal people how to survive in the desert..." 
- "Oh yes Peter... but it takes many years to learn, and a long practice..."

 

#08

wq6KAyz.jpg

 

#09

5xSugBo.jpg

 

I remember his words : "My strength, the strength of the land. I can feel it in myself, I belong there. It’s our country, our dust, our place. We remember the old people..."

 

#10 

Q0bIUqK.jpg

 

 

 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA - SOUTH OF PERTH

 

#11

gJt5yCm.jpg

 

#12

O9ebWnB.jpg

 

#13

QT4bg3S.jpg

 

I had to look for Tommy, stopping my survey in the karri forest. Anyway I did not find any new type of velvet worms - I was more lucky last month in New Zealand...

 

#14a

d0XH2Ah.jpg

 

#14b
 24XbcoS.jpg


Lucy called me this morning : "...It is about Tommy...his mother is dying, Peter. He must be back as soon as possible at Balgo Hills... He should be near Dongara in the botanical park, or in the Karijini Park...you know...as a ranger...and he still does not have any personal phone..."

 

#15 

OOeeX1f.jpg

 

From Manjimup, I would need about 1h30 to go to Perth Jandakot. There I will catch another plane I could load a lot of furniture for the Balgo Community, and I will try to find and pick up Tommy before the end of the day.
It would take about 2 hours to fly to Geralton and 1 hour to drive to the Lessuer botanical park...1 hour to fly to Kalbarri, and finally 4h to fly East to Karijini...quite a long road...!


WESTERN COAST

 

#16

frg2Fmx.jpg

 

#16b

bFhytg7.jpg

 

#17

OAiV3Rb.jpg

 

#18 

aMKVam0.jpg

 

I remember when Tommy told me while visiting Perth, how its Grand-Grand-Father T. Windich left the city with John Forrest, and all the details of the 6 months expedition along the Nicholson and Musgrave Ranges upto the Overland Telegraph Line near Lake Eyre : "His story is famous in the family...he had a very long scar on one arm due to a fight against a group of native hunters ... they were more than hundred and against only six - fortunately the terrific thunder of their guns has been so impressive that it affraid all the group......All the way they found spinifex, grassy plains or drift sand hills, sometime a fine pool of water...incredible journey...and they finally survived !"

 

#19

ZukMHxk.jpg

 

#19a

rbPTzPW.jpg

 

#19b

wek6YrS.jpg

 

#19c

03AZplM.jpg

 

#19d

aWDceoU.jpg

 

#20a

Uf9rVH5.jpg

 

#20b

gWkDwux.jpg 

 

I did not find Tommy at the Lessueur botanical park. The rangers told me he left a few weeks ago to Karijini...


From Geralton, flight along the coast to Kalbarri (72 Nm at 337°) and next to a small airfield in Karijini NP (406Nm 40°)

 

#21

dSY6wMI.jpg

 

#22

BNiP1ut.jpg

 

#22b

2ibbFga.jpg

 

#23

cY9bbGe.jpg

 

#24

aO8oU5t.jpg

 

Close to here, for its 50 years old birthday, we took him on a plane - landing on the NW Coastal Highway near Nanutarra Roadhouse on a specific part of the road enlarged for this purpose (normally only in case of emergency !) : he discovered the reef, enjoyed to snorkeling ...and met a whale-shark ! "Maybe Rai, the father of all fish, Peter, so huge !"

 

#25

MwHN48f.jpg

 

#25a

zvH6ikE.jpg

 

#25b

b1ylLbi.jpg

 

#26

IzSwner.jpg

 

#26a

x8dcEEA.jpg

 

#26b

MNxhxLE.jpg

 

--------------------------------------------------------

. . .  SEE PART 2 COMING NEXTLY ! 

-----------------------------------------

 

(NB : Previous posts : Something Different #1&#2 : How how I met Lucy on the Eastern Coast ... and travelled with her and a strange guy up to Wolfe Creek Crater, Peter, and their amazing adventures in Solomon Islands Something Different #3 :-D  ... about the family of Lucy coming from Alaska in Something Different #4 )

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, VH-KDK said:

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all of the pictures you have shown here.

Some marvellous Australian scenery in the FSim views too.

Thank you very much Martyn.

I was very happy to recognise in the ftx scenery the places and type of vegetation I saw during my trip ... and quite easily to put my pictures to show how it is similar...excepted in Hamelin / Mokey Mia and Karijini areas where it is to poor about the ocean/reef and  rivers & cliffs relatively to real places (shots #25b / #26a & #26b)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Ray Farrugia said:

Wow Jean Marc that is a fascinating tribute to a great southern land!

Kudos to you sir.

Very glad of your comment - thank you Ray. Great area, wildlife and culture mean a lot of matter to arrange easily a story ... :smile: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Stillwater said:

An outstanding post Jean Marc, right from dreamtime. With enough material and work in it for 5 postings and a week of reading! 

Did you take all the real life shots on your own during your travels?

Yes Gerold my post are a bit long ... it is to provide a very... very time consumming reading  :-D ! 

Here about 90% of the shots are mine from the travel (coming back with about 3000 pictures - a lot of landscapes & animals...) - the 10% from internet are mostly the wonderful aboriginal people pictures (#25a ...) and painting and of course old B&W pictures as well as the rare animals mouse / spiders / snake ...)  (NB : for my previous post about Alaska and Solomon Islands there were all from internet as I did not yet travel there !!) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Jack Sawyer said:

I'm amazed Jean Marc, this is awesome and must have taken days to put together.

Thank you Jack - indeed quite a few long evening and almost 2 full week-end...therefore I do not make many post ... But it is a real pleasure - a kind of second way to travel again in the place I visited or where I would like to go one day. Sometimes a bit difficult to arrange the story : trying to be not too long with so many things to tell or to show !

(About the Soviet/Alaska story, the difficulty was to suit with the real History !)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, jean marc said:

Here about 90% of the shots are mine from the travel (coming back with about 3000 pictures - a lot of landscapes & animals...) 

Fantastic Jean Marc. That must have been an outstanding tour - thank you for sharing it with us!

 

11 hours ago, jean marc said:

it is a real pleasure - a kind of second way to travel again in the place I visited or where I would like to go one day.

This is exactly what I feel when making these real-life-sim comparison posts. And our sims get better and better, thanks to some good scenery providers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is one intensive, in depth and well put together series Jean Marc!  I cannot imagine the time and effort that you put into it (even though you stated that fact)!  All of the commentary along with the pictures had me enthralled for a good while, gonna read it a again later!  Thanks! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, teecee said:

Stunning post Jean Marc.. I have lived and worked in the Red Heart and the West but I saw nothing of it when compared to your post.. Thank you for all your hard work

Thank you Teecee, I am very glad you had pleasure with the screenshots of your own wonderful and HUGE country/continent :)

...It is probably necessary to have more than one life to discover all we could watch by there !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, jankees said:

that certainly brought back a lot of memories!

oh yes ... and therefore so many things to tell and to show - that is the main difficulty when preparing the post : try to not be too long :lol:

 

Also when I do not have good personal shots and look for on internet ... I find so many good pictures to use...another point is to select only the best ...that's why I put a lot of aboriginal paintings  : all these are wonderful for me, with a distinctive touch of art,... :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Wakashi said:

That is one intensive, in depth and well put together series Jean Marc!  I cannot imagine the time and effort that you put into it (even though you stated that fact)!  All of the commentary along with the pictures had me enthralled for a good while, gonna read it a again later!  Thanks!

I am very happy you had pleasure to read it...and if you will read it a second time nextly... ;) 

Personnally I have still a huge pleasure myself to watch the small inserts of the views, the all amazing animals, the baobabs, paintings... :P  (and there are only a part of the about 3000 pictures I collected from my trip ::blink:)... (and same for the Siberia/Alaska or Salomon post : I like myself to watch it regulary :rolleyes: I am my own spectator :wacko:)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 30 août 2018 at 11:14 PM, Anthin Delahunt said:

That is truly incredible Jean Marc.

You should submit this to the Australian

Tourist board...Stunning.

Thank you very much Anthin oh yes ! I would be happy to attract some people to go and visit this wonderful huge country :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

for the Australian flight lovers, I inform you get free aeronautical charts VNC 1-500.000& VTC 1-250.000 pdf when you purchase australian MSE photoscenery (which are really excellent - I purchased Tasmania & Victoria and there are really good also for low altitude flights - to wait upto get the same and better in TrueEarth ftx coming maybe in a few yeas :rolleyes: I would like to post some screenshots but it is not authorized :( )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

hello friends ! Just to remind the post ... :) 

and also well I 've just uploaded today 2 savage ultra shocks repaints for Australian flights at flightsim.to 

... these 2 savages could be very convenient for somebody who would like to perform the same flight into msfs2020  O0 :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...