Well, we have a couple of interesting stories to tell you about our travels from "The Alice".
On our way down to Alice Springs, we stayed overnight at a campground in Tennant Creek. We chose it because it had a pool. Once we got there, the owner told us he has an evening "Happy Hour". We liked the look of him....very attractive, quiet spoken and something about him that just didn't fit with the campground scene. We ended up not using the pool nor swimming since it had been a long day of driving.
On the way back up from Alice Springs, we decided to stay at the same campground and took advantage of both the pool and the Happy Hour.
When we arrived at the pool, there was a Danish couple plus two characters; one a young grandfather with his 2 year old grandaughter in tow and the other, his brother Mick. Try to picture Keith Richards on speed (now there's a stretch!) with long hair, huge bushy black eyebrows with large grey patches in them. He was "minding" the baby in the pool while grandad sat on the deck chair embellishing the stories Mick had to tell of his trip from Sydney to Tennant Creek a few days previous.
Grandad said he was retired and made his fortune in real estate in Sydney. He was travelling around the country for the 4th time in a fabulous Winnebago. This Winnie had a $5000 Roo bar on the front that he regretted never having had to use. This set Mick off on his tale which is:
Leaving Sydney and once out of the built up areas on the eastern coast, he hit a roo almost immediately after turning onto the east/west highway. He did a lot of driving in the evening so this is to be expected. It seriously dented his hood (he's driving a car) but he continued on only to encounter a "herd" (his words) of kangaroo's further along. Then the rain began and having been told by a cop that he'd be ok to drive across the flood-plain, he drove into a dip and the water came up to the middle of his door. With the car steaming and chugging, he continued on, too afraid to do anything else when he encountered km after km of locusts! To add insult to injury, he'd only gone through the worst of that with his wipers trying to beat them away, when his engine caught on fire. He told this story with extreme animation, flopping about in the pool and looking a right loony. I commented "that was fairly biblical wasn't it" and his brother replied "Those were almost his words when he joined me here! He actually said "I've just had experiences of biblical proportions!" We all were fascinated, listening to and watching him. Suddenly we realized that the little girl was disappearing under the water and as the four of us were about to jump into life-saving mode, the grandfather said, calm as can be..."Mick, grab the kid will ya, she's going under". Mick grabbed her and she didn't cry or make a fuss. Grandad said "I told you you can't swim stupid!" The rest of us were standing there with our eyeballs hanging out with me trying to imagine myself or Bob calling one of our grandkids "stupid" in such a loving way. What a pair!!! We had such a laugh and still talk about the colourful people we've met (yeah, that goes for you too Chris!!!)
We got to the courtyard for Happy Hour awhile later and we began to chat with the owner. By the way, at no other campground was there this type of get-together. I asked Ed how long he had owned the camp and he told us that it was only 6 months. He said that he, his father and brothers had built a lodge on the way in to Kakadu and he'd been in this kind of business for some time. I asked why he came to Tennant Creek (which is no oil painting, let me tell you). Turns out he was the advisor to the Treasurer of Afghanistan for 14 months, assisting the country in getting set up with the World Bank, made buckets of money and returned to Australia to buy properties in Tennant Creek. He and his sons are renovating the houses in and decided the best place to keep an eye on things was from the campground. Such an interesting guy with a terrific story. Apparently Tennant Creek is beginning to boom and he wanted to be in ahead of the rush. Since it is really the mid-point from Katherine to Alice Springs and there isn't much there, we think he's got it right.
We meet such interesting people. By the way our dear children; it seems that many Australian parents leave home when their kids turn 21. We have met bazillions (THAT word again!) of people to sell everything or rent out their properties and travel around the country forever! When they feel a bit bored, they work at a camp or for a mine or whatever!! So (STEVE) our kids can be thankful that we plan to return home!!!
March 1: Great drive across to Townsville on the east coast with a couple of stops (Mt Isa and Hughenden) that were pretty uneventful except for the excellent swimming pools; one olympic size that we got to appreciate for the cool water (a novelty here) and the absence of other bodies.
The highway cuts through savanah (sp?) that is lush and green. The further we drove into Queensland, the larger the stations became with huge herds of brahma's.
Now, you know all about the bugs and slithery things here however how many of you know about the Cane toad??? Something else for us to watch out for!!! We have to have a swivel neck and eyes on stalks to deal with this country.
Well, apparently someone very bright came up with the idea in 1935 to introduce 100 Central American Cane toads to Queensland to eat a beetle that devoured sugar cane. It bred like crazy and has pretty much taken over. It is toxic to all (humans and animals) and eats native frogs and lizards. Recently, a dead croc was examined to determine what had killed it and they found a toad in it's throat, having killed it before it got beyond the throat. These things are huge! We haven't seen one personally as yet but apparently they are everywhere at night and if you turn on your lights, you'll definitely see them. Another good reason to go to bed by 7:30! We had read in a brochure that they'd found a frog that could eat the young cane toads without ill effects and we thought "Oh no! They're introducing something else that will take over!" however we just discovered that this frog is native and it is expected the two species will soon confront each other in the wild in natures remake of "Alien Versus Predator".
Mar 3: Bob's Aussie 60th birthday!!! We arrived in Townsville, a beautiful tropical town of 120,000 on the east coast. I took Bob out for dinner at an amazing restaurant overlooking the Coral Sea. Perfect food and environment! No Cane toads....a bonus!
Mar 4: Decided to veg here for a bit and stay another night before we head to Cairns. Celebrated Bob's Canadian birthday by going to the Sunday market downtown; had brunch on a balcony overlooking the pedestrian mall (excellent food) then toured a fabulous coral acquarium.
Oh yeah! Can't swim here except within the stinger enclosures! These jelly fish are called Sea Wasps here and can actually kill you. They tell you that if you get stung, you should douse the sting with vinegar then call the ambulance.
We'll upload photo's another time; this place isn't equipped.
Congratulations to Tara and Tom for recognizing Tara's step-father in the "Who is This" contest. Unfortunately, my sister didn't recognize her husband so I don't exactly know what that means.
A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our son-in-law Peter on March 4th (in Canada). We love you and wish you all good things.
Love to everyone and thanks for reading my stuff!!
xoxo
Sharon
No comments:
Post a Comment