1.

THE FIRST HUNT

Stalking low through the sun dried brush, we came upon an open plain, where we saw a small band of giant red kangaroos feeding.   There were five or six adult females in the herd, a half a dozen or so joeys, and one solitary Old Man roo; a big boomer, standing nearly two metres tall upon his haunches.

Marbungga and Nanguru were reluctant to take on the powerful red kangaroos, preferring to bypass the herd and continue on to hunt for a band of the smaller, more docile red-grey euro (or wallaroos as they are commonly known).   But Gunbuk was adamant that we move in for the kill.   We had been walking for three hours already through the blistering Northern Territory heat, and might not get another chance at game all that day, or even the next.

Motioning for me to remain behind to watch, Marbungga and Gunbuk began to cover themselves from head to foot in brown dirt, “To keep in the man-smells,” as they told me later; “kangaroos cannot easily distinguish stationary objects, but they possess a very acute sense of smell.”

I remained behind as instructed, and watched as my tribesmen began to spread out slowly, circling around the small hard.   Their aim was to get Nanguru up wind from the herd, so that the roos would catch his scent and take flight, to head straight to where Marbungga and Gunbuk were waiting.

Crawling on their bellies upon the desert sand, Marbungga and Gunbuk moved ever so slowly forward, dragging their hunting spears behind them.   Every few metres they paused and waited for a few seconds, or even minutes, before slowly moving on again.   In this way it took them more than an hour to crawl from over one hundred metres away, to less than ten metres away from where the herd of kangaroos grazed.

It had taken Nanguru, on the other hand, little more than ten minutes to circle around the back of the herd, moving stealthily, head down, through the brush outside the clearing.   He was able to move much more confidently than the other two, being outside the range of vision of the herd, behind the tall grass and shrubs.   Then, in the distance, he waited patiently, standing like a wading stork on one leg then the other, until Marbungga and Gunbuk were in position.