Remembering

For a country with a relatively short history compared to its European or Asian counterparts, the past may not be steeped in rich incidents. But whatever memories it has, the country has beautifully preserved the same for the future. One such rich jewel is the Kamay Botany Bay National Park - more famous for being the landing site of the British explorer James Cook than the Botany or the Bay. In fact, this was the first landing site of the British on the continent, and hence a watershed event in the anglicized history of the country.

The story goes that Britain had sent an astronomical expedition to Tonga to study the transit of Venus (a rare instance perhaps when Tonga gets preferred to Australia while making travel plans). A secret Mission Impossible planted within the innocence of stargazing was for Cook to map and explore the-then unknown and mysterious land of Oz. And explore he did - much of which helped Britain to consider the setting up of the island at the end of the world as a penal colony for its overfilled prisons at home.

Being a National Park, the place today is beautifully maintained with typical jade green carpets, small sandy coves, bleeding blue seas and a wonderful cocktail of quintessentially colourful Aussie birds (sample the kookaburra, cockatoo, galah, lorikeet among others). The hikes through the vegetation here is pleasant especially on a sunny day when you can bask in the brightness and imagine the bicentennial past. There is a modest monument erected at the spot where Cook’s entourage met the aboriginals for the first time as well as a small tombstone for one of the crew members who sadly died within a few days of the landing (thus holding the dubious record for the first English burial in the country). 

What I really cherished however, was a small memorial celebrating this mingling of cultures. There was one word on it: ‘Remembering’ – a small endeavour to not forget the country as it was once: a simple life with rustic people happy in the primeval beauty of their own lands. Much has changed today, not without the controversies of how the land was won over from those to whom it belonged. And yet, even after two centuries, the kookaburra still sits silently atop a eucalyptus, inspecting the rugged land; the spear lily still grows tall with its vividly red flowers offered as bounty to the blue skies; the golden wattle still shakes mirthfully in a Southerly.  That’s nature’s way of reminding us that life needs to go on as ever, that nothing really changes.

Having had our share of history, we travelled a bit southwards from the National Park to Cape Solander, named after the famous Botanist from Cook’s entourage. It is a beautiful view point to gaze into the seas, especially during whale season from June to November when these behemoths migrate from the Antarctic waters in cold winter to the upper latitudes, grazing frequently along the eastern coast of Australia.

Considered to be one of Sydney’s most beautiful vantage points for whale watching, you might be lucky to spot a giant humpback somersault in the waters here (and sometimes going down to meet little Nemo). The cape oozes with the raw primordial beauty that is so vivid all over this far flung continent. There are steep cliffs that have been patiently, yet furiously eroded by the lashing mega-waves of the Pacific. (The entire southern coastline of Australia is actually filled with such escarpments, the most popular being the twelve apostles on the Great Ocean Drive in Victoria.) Walking on these cliffs, I observed the striated marks of the lava flow that once made these igneous rocks milennia ago. For a brief moment, I was wondering of the travels of this oldest continent on the planet, breaking away from the Antarctic shelf far south and sailing alone on the Pacific, until it anchored itself on one end of the planet.

As I mentioned before, the best term to describe the beauty of Australia is ‘primordial.’ Stark, vivid and raw would suit just as well, defining this vast wilderness sprinkled with its own version of floral and bestial beauty.