Selfie vs Country

  A selfie? Of gnarly feet!  But check out my campsite.

Spending time in spaces of incredible natural beauty with handfuls of other tourists this week, I’ve intersected with lots of selfie-takers. I find the world of selfies cringe-worthy! It really grates.  Maybe it’s a boomer thing, the relative absence of technology in the era I grew up, a valorisation of the past.   Don’t get me wrong, faces are fascinating, their shape, contours, creases, the eyes, everything. I understand the arguments that selfies express personal agency and identity, its fluidity, construction.  Everyone needs to be seen, and heard, and selfies excel at this. Images are a language too. But a selfie foregrounds the self, fails to show the spaces we inhabit, the wonder of nature.  In the vacuum of climate change, a condition largely a result of human greed and disregard for the living earth that sustains us, it feels critical to direct attention away from the self, and focus on service, care and respect for country.

So you won’t be seeing selfies from me.  If you do, know I’ve been kidnapped, maybe even dead, and someone’s hacked my computer.  I'm making an exception for the selfie of the feet!

It’s my last day on Kangaroo Island (KI).  I love how locals welcome you on the road with that raised finger signal. No, not that one! The one that smiles, says hello, having a good day?  I remember a similar gesture in the early days in Mullumbimby.  Drivers raising their pointers from the steering wheel in salutation. It’s probably a rural or remote thing.

 

I’m disappointed not to have seen a koala. During the devastating fires in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island a little over a year ago, over three-quarters of the koala population perished.  We all saw images on TV and social media during the 2019/20 bushfires of the effect wrought on species like the koala.  It breaks my heart. I recently read an article that explores why humans are so emotionally charmed by the koala.  Apparently we attribute human qualities to them, that is, they share characteristics with babies.  I did give birth to one relatively hairy baby, but I'm not sure she'd appreciate being likened to a gumleaf-eating tree-dweller!  Anyhow, locals assure me the koala residents are being well cared for by the wellspring of adorers all over the country, nurturing and rehabilitating them in specially dedicated koala hospitals in three Australian states. 

 

The bush is recovering too, parading extraordinary resilience (see pics below), bursting with brilliance.  This happens in spite of a seemingly universal common indifference to country, multispecies and diversity.

 

Kangaroo Island weather’s been Melbournesque.  Cloudy, rainy, sunny, windy, warm, and really fucking cold.  I’ve fished out the thermals. Congratulated myself a couple of times for having the foresight to pack the sheep!

 

Disclaimer! In my time on the road, I’ve attempted the selfie twice.  The result revealed my arm was way too short, my face occupying two-thirds of the frame.  The camera must also be faulty! Hear me when I say I’m doing you a favour by abstaining from the selfie. 

 

Enjoy the images of our beautiful, rich, fascinating country.

Stokes Bay campground, I prefer gnarly trees to feet. 

 

These images are taken in Flinders Chase National Park @ Cape de Couedic in the far west of the island.  Over 90% of the park burnt. The wild beauty of destruction and despair.  Such resilience.

Sunbaking seals at Cape de Couedic

 

Admiral's Arch, the seal's hood

 

 

I see a deranged dinosaur

 And a sad pig

The 'Remarkable Rocks', by no other name. At Flinders Chase Nat Park as well.   Seeing and feeling the energy and symbology and strength of Uluru here.

 

  

Curlew doing a tap dance

 

At the Raptor Domain. The masked owl.  I swear he was eyeballing me. 

 

Magnificent coastline @ Weir's Cove

 

I'd driven 30 kms on a gravel, heavily corrugated road and had just turned onto the bitumen.  I think I was tired! I did a double take.  Thinking I might have seen a ghost, I stopped, and reversed.  

 

Back to the road now