We learned to concentrate only on the positive, to think of snakes makes you slow and worried/stressed and tires you out sooner. To keep energy levels up and to keep soldiering on, you learn to just keep focused, keep drinking, never stop drinking and focus on your designated transect and the hunt for artefacts, in this case stone tools. To be solutions based, instead of problems based. Egos can fly high out here in the middle of nowhere, more so from the exhaustion from walking, the heat and general discomfort and stress, sometimes extreme stress both physically and mentally. It is not unknown for people to wonder off muttering to themselves from heat stress, to experience severe vomiting and incoherence, to get brain haemorrhaging from over exertion, to faint and not being able to answer back into their radio. To fight with others for no reason at all, other than they are feeling the pressure of being out here. It takes a lot to have a level or even coherent head, get the job done properly and efficiently and with enough sense to let people rest and recover during breaks. To do it with keeping an eye out for everyone and making sure no one has disappeared or has heat stress while trying to focus and cope is challenging but critical.
I've been flown in and out of this place for nearly 2 years now and have seen the land from up close and personal to from up-high in helicopters and it's been both an incredibly rewarding and intensely challenging time of my life. I've learnt to 4WD by an ex-Australian Army Captain, fish and hunt with only the materials the land has to offer. To know where to find water, make bread and which plant foods to eat or avoid. To repair a tire from a plant resin and to make a large black smog of a fire to gain rescue and much more. Once what looked like a barren desert wasteland with no means of survival if lost, has opened up to be a paradise full of sustenance. I've found that, indeed, she will be right! I've made life-long friendships and have gotten to know many indigenous groups or traditional owners of this land. They have kindly taught me their culture, their songs, how to survive out here and let me in on some of their most cherished and guarded secrets. For this and their friendship I will forever be grateful.
So the dream has come alive. I am now, indeed an archaeologist. Every other week from the field, I work in the office I write up field notes and write and edit reports for clients and the state heritage department. A considerable amount of time is also spent creating mapping files of surveyed areas and sites using various GIS software. Life is good and the pay is great and the exhaustion is just background noise hardly noticed anymore.
