Skywalking

The longer I spent in remote wilderness in Australia, the less inspired I became by constructed landscapes, even if they were the product of wondrous feats of engineering. I have been well schooled by my friend, an engineer, to appreciate such feats: but if I had to choose or die, I would most probably opt to gaze upon a remarkable feature of the natural world rather than a human construct.

Occasionally, you can combine the two. On Australia’s Coral Coast, in Kalbarri National Park, you can walk out 25 metres beyond the rocky rim of the Murchison River Gorge, all the better to marvel at its bright-red cliffs towering above the snaking Murchison, WA’s second-longest river. Looking down from a great height is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you wobble a bit at height, hold on to a friend or look around rather than down, and she’ll be apples, as the Aussies say: it’ll be fine.

There are twin skywalks – cantilevered steel platforms – on which you ‘float on air’, an effect helped by semi-see-through mesh beneath your feet and perforated balustrades, but which might add to the angst of some. The walkways are 100 metres apart: one extends 25 metres from the cliff edge; the other 17 metres. They are anchored into the Tumblagooda sandstone by means of 10-metre-deep sub-surface concrete box beams.

The country of the Nanda Aboriginal people is remarkable, especially for its dramatically incised river.

I once took a tour on country, further north in WA, with an Indigenous guide. What he didn’t know about leaf or rock wasn’t worth knowing. I was envious of his connection to the land on which he had been born and raised, and which he now interpreted for us. At one point, while visitors admired or photographed their surroundings, I noticed he took a moment to separate himself slightly to look out over country. He began to talk to the spirits of his ancestors. His voice was animated and quite loud at times, as if he’d just popped round for a quick chat. I would loved to have asked him what he was saying, but it felt like a private moment and therefore inappropriate. I later regretted not asking him. He seemed to me to be someone who could read a human as well as his country, and would have understood why I was asking. Sadly, I’m unlikely to get such an opportunity again.

I was so taken with the red landscape, I forgot to take more pictures of the skywalk itself. Sorry about that.