Kakadu National Park, on the border of Arnhem Land
Scene 8
Everywhere in this land, there were fires; everywhere, the meagre bush burned. What Maille initially perceived as a natural catastrophe was actually an age-old practice of the aboriginal people, who had, for thousands of years, cultivated the land with the help of fire. Whatever their tradition, to the secret agent's unwary eyes the smouldering fires held a certain darkness and dramaticism – also because the flames chased some little creatures on the road that there were prey of predator birds, who themselves were often on collision course with the heavy wagons and cars racing along the highway. A sort of food chain – at the end of which waited a «roadkill barbecue» – an institution unique to Australia.
The smell of dried earth, smoldering fire and fresh ash that was blown trough by the wind into the car, recalled Maille the very specific, slightly dusty, musty smell of dried and ground turmeric.
The fire belonged to some of the labours that Maille had to carry out on this continent. But when the heat of the flames wafted through the intensity of the sun to burn his face, he immediately wished he could flee to a cool mountain lake in the Alps, replete with snowballs from another reality.
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Menu Maille
To cook a crocodile stew in a river bed, as Hektor Maille was asked to do as his eleventh labour, is quite something, even for our secret agent:
- Darwin-Dip (Fresh cheese with bush-tomato and pepper)
- Crokodile Stew «Burdulba Creek» (Crocodile with Tasmanian pepper)
- Anzac Biscuits (Cookies with oats, coconut and wattleseeds)
