Max "survives" trek into outback

By JEAN BOLDUC
chh@herald-sun.com
933-8883
Chapel Hill Herald
Sunday, February 11, 2001
Final Edition
Front Section
Page 1

AUSTRALIA - They're not part of the television series "Survivor," but the Lewis family of Chapel Hill have had some close calls in the outback and tell some harrowing tales of snakes and hang-gliding.

Nine-year-old Max Lewis and his parents, Mark and Julie, are spending a year hopscotching the globe on a trip they've always dreamed of. Since last summer, the family has wandered through Europe and Southeast Asia on their way to the land down under. Their path from this point on brings them closer and closer to home.

The Lewises arrived in Australia in December and have spent more than a month there, actually getting a telephone briefly and enrolling Max in a day camp for some organized fun.

"When I asked Max if he wanted to go, he shouted, 'Yes!' " Julie Lewis said.

"When I asked him if he was sure he wouldn't miss me, he said in his parental voice, 'Mom, I have been spending every minute with you for six months! No! I am not going to miss you!' "

While still in the northern coast area of Australia, the Lewises explored Byron Bay, which Julie Lewis describes as "a funky hippie town plump full of young people [with] tattoos, dreadlocks and body piercing."

Tie-dyed clothing and new age music stores compliment the yoga and meditation classes, she said. The beaches feature multiple coves strung together to create stunningly dramatic scenes.

Byron Bay is home to a lighthouse that marks Australia's most easterly point. It sits high on a cliff overlooking several coves with crashing ocean waves below.

"Surfers abound, waiting for the perfect wave to ride to glory," Lewis said.

"We walked around, ate and shopped the street vendors who were selling fairy wings, chokers and other assorted funky wares."

The family met a local man named Roy who was playing the didgeridoo, a native aboriginal instrument seen throughout Australia. Max fell in love with the sound of the instrument.

"Wherever we went, Max picked it up, got a quick lesson from the storeowner and started blowing," Julie Lewis said. "It is not an easy instrument to play, but Max was really getting the hang of it."

Playing didgeridoo demands that the player use a kind of circular breathing, using both voice and rhythms.

When Roy invited the Lewises for a free group lesson the next day, they gladly accepted. He instructed them to go to the Art Factory. The Lewises, who are art collectors, thought they were going to a gallery. Instead, in front of the Art Factory was a school bus with wild paintings and graffiti.

"Inside, we realized that this is a cool hippie hostel where you can choose to stay in 'The Nunnery' (all girls dorm), the wild buses, 'Cubes' (small dorm rooms), the family area or a huge teepee," Julie Lewis said.

Max was the only youngster in the group, but he enjoyed himself immensely. His parents gave him a didgeridoo of his own for Christmas.

Celebrating Julie Lewis' 39th birthday meant that young Max got a hang-gliding lesson and his mom enjoyed a close-up view of a poisonous Australian brown snake. Where was the crocodile hunter when she needed him?

Lewis has her own style of describing the experience of hang-gliding for the first time.

"You just run and jump ... trying not to wet your pants as your feet leave the ground," she said.

And when you return, it can be even tougher to keep your cool, as she was called upon to do in order to avoid disaster. While she was getting some videotape of Max and his dad as they were gliding along, Max's mother nearly took a wrong step.

"I was still taping when some guy screamed, 'Watch out! Brown snake! Get out of the way!' It was coming right at me, all 4 feet of it!" she said.

Brown snakes are among the most poisonous in the world and sometimes will chase after those who spot them and flee. Knowing this, Lewis stayed put.

"I just stood there and prayed it would head for the bushes, which it did! I ran back to the car, freaked out by every stick along the way," she said.

When Mark and Max returned from their gliding adventure, the three compared notes on their experiences and agreed it was a thrilling birthday for Julie Lewis - maybe a little too thrilling.

Moving on to the central Australian outback, Max learned a lot about the aboriginal people, thought to be one of the oldest populations on Earth.

"We learned a lot about the aboriginal culture in Sydney and were fortunate to be a part of a 'walkabout' one evening in Sydney as the Aboriginal Dance Theatre Group re-created their story," Max's mom said. "They had a 35-meter serpent balloon painted by aboriginal artists that interacted with the crowd, a truck with live music that followed us throughout the city to the various stages of creation, bursts of red fire, aboriginals painted like skeletons, dancers on stilts with giant animals floating above them as they weaved in and out of the crowd, and lots of drama!"

The show, which was a little frightening to Max at times, took a few hours and ended at a stage in front of the Opera House, where the "White Man's Law" was introduced to the aborigines.

Much like Native Americans, the aboriginal people's religion is closely tied to the use of the land and natural resources.

One site that the Lewises visited and which has great meaning for the aborigines is Uluru, or Ayers Rock - "as the white people renamed it," Lewis said.

"It is a sacred site containing evidence of the many myths that comprise their religion and laws, sacred burial grounds and the primary water source," she said.

Ayers Rock is the world's largest monolithic rock, at 1,043 feet above the desert floor. It extends more than 3.5 miles beneath the surface.

The aborigines have been given back the rights to the land that includes the rock, but prior to returning it, the area was turned into a national park.

"The government added poles and ropes to the rock so it could be climbed for a great view and become a major tourist attraction. This practice is still in place, but climbing the rock is considered very disrespectful to the aboriginals," Max's mom said.

"There are terrible, mysterious stories [about what] happened to several people who climbed the sacred site, death by falling, sudden fatal illness when they arrived back at their hotel, or sick for no apparent reason. Each month, the Department of Tourism receives rocks in the mail that were taken from the site by tourists whose luck has suddenly gone bad."

The history of the aboriginal people is handed down from one generation to the next by storytelling, much as the African griot does.

As has happened in many cultures, children of mixed race were not accepted by the aborigines. During the 1960s and continuing through the 1980s, Lewis said, the government took children of mixed race - aboriginal and Caucasian - from their parents and brought them to orphanages to be raised as Caucasians.

The genocide, Julie Lewis said, has left a terrible mark on the people. "We spent six weeks in the populated areas of Australia and saw perhaps three black people during our visit," she said. "There are stories of rape and abuse, beatings and torture. One story involves three girls who learned the truth when they were 12 years old and escaped from the Children's Home.

"Stranded in the outback, they followed a 1,400-kilometer rabbit fence built to keep the rabbits out of the area. Their journey is unforgettable."