At one point, we were scrambling across Ayers Rock and we saw some
strange petroglyphs. Puzzled, we snapped a few photos of them but
we were concentrating on getting back to the trail and forgot all
about them for the rest of the trip.
Once we got home, we contacted an acquaintance in the Department
of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley,
Professor Stanton B. Fontell. He told us that they seemed to be
from a variant of the Red Rock glyph family. Aborigines and
Polynesians used them all over the Pacific to direct travelers and
record the locations of storehouses. He seemed only mildly
interested in the photographs the we brought him. Here's what they
look like...
The next day he called us and was much more excited. "Where
exactly were you when you took those pictures?" He kept asking.
Unfortunately we no longer had any tracklogs from those outings.
Apparently he was able to decode a few of the glyphs, and they
point to the mainland - California in fact. "Nothing like this has
ever been found before", said the Professor. "There are theories
that Polynesian sailors reached the California coast, but up until
now there has been no way to prove them. If we can locate whatever
these glyphs point to, we could make scientific history!"
Well, the Professor wouldn't tell us what he had discovered so
far, but we know he and a group of graduate students are hard at
work on the remaining glyphs. Considering the penchant that
Polynesians had for laying aside stores of ceremonial wealth, we
have no doubt that there's something worthwhile to be found there.
We decided we would share a peek into this fantastic real-life
treasure hunt with our friends in the Geocaching community. Who
knows, maybe you can figure out this Secret from the Island
Continent!
Prizes for the first finders: Red Rocks Travel Bug and t-shirt
contributed by discountgps.com (child's small).