From: Jeff Pages
Subject: Aboriginal site
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 20:56:37 -0400

Last weekend I visited an Aboriginal rock-carving site in the national
park nearby. There was a walk of about 500 metres from the car park with a
bit of a gravelly surface, but it wasn't too uncomfortable. The site
itself is on a sandstone shelf about 30 metres across, with a wooden
walkway around the carvings themselves. It is surrounded by euculypt
forest and scrub.

It was very quiet and still, the only sound being the occasional traffic
on the road. Standing there with the sandstone under my bare feet and
looking at the carvings that may have been up to 10,000 years old was a
very moving experience. What I felt was a very peaceful, wholesome
sensation - I was experiencing the site on its terms, through my soles, my
eyes and my ears, not dominating it and observing it from outside as would
have been had I been shod.

The spirit of the land is very strong in Aboriginal culture, and I think I
felt something of that. I'm also convinced that one must be barefoot to
really experience this.

..Jeff