The road from Annesley Bay to Koomaylo can hardly be termed either
interesting or strongly defined. It at first goes straight across the
sand, and, as the sand is trampled everywhere, it is simply impossible to
follow it. We were told that the route lay due west, but that just where
the jungle began there was a sign-post. Compass in hand, we steered west,
and entered the low thorny scrub which constitutes the jungle. No
sign-post. We rode on for a mile, when, looking back at the rising sun, I
saw something like a sign-post in the extreme distance. Riding back to it,
it proved to be the desired guide, and the road from here is by daylight
distinct enough. For the first six miles it runs across a dead-level of
sand, covered with a shrub with very small and very scanty leaves, and
very large and extremely-abundant thorns. Bustards, grouse, deer, and
other game are said to be very abundant here, but we saw none of them. A
sort of large hawk was very numerous, but these were the only birds we
saw. At about six miles from the sea the ground rises abruptly for about
ten feet in height, and this rise ran north and south as far as the eye
could reach. It marked unquestionably the level of the sea at some not
very remote period. From this point the plain continued flat, sandy, and
bushy as before for two miles; but after that a rocky crag rose, rather to
our right, and the sand became interspersed with stones and boulders. Our
path lay round behind the hill, and then we could see, at about four
miles’ distance, a white tent or two, at the mouth of an opening in the
mountain before us. These white tents were the camp at Koomaylo. About
three miles from Koomaylo we came upon a very curious burial-place. It was
in a low flat, close to a gully, and covered a space of perhaps fifty
yards square. The graves were placed very close together, and consisted of
square piles of stones, not thrown together, but built up, about three
feet square and as much high. They were crowned by a rough pyramid of
stones, the top one being generally white. Underneath these stone piles
was a sort of vault. From this point the ground rose more steeply than it
had yet done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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