It feels good to mingle with this laid-back country folk, doesn’t it, Har? I like it a lot.

Choosing to move to the lagoon was a great decision! Seriously, I’m not being sarcastic. The place was fantastic and the birdlife was amazing! We set up our site by the lagoon and bedded in. We also saw some freshwater crocodiles while collecting firewood, so that’s another win.

Fresh, not salty like their bigger cousins.

The view over the lagoon was beautiful, and when signing in you are given a sheet of the different birdlife here. I decided to try birding again. I love a bit of nature, me, and can name some of the brighter, larger birds, but real birding has never really appealed. Sure, watching birds is fun, but trying to name them, especially the little ones, requires more patience than I possess. It’s the tiny differences between species that does me. We saw both Brolgas and Sarus Cranes here and the difference is a slightly redder neck… that was hard to see and they’re 1.5m tall. I decided I’d rather re-connect with the street and listened to a bit of grime!

Straight out of Normanton!

Later that evening I started an awesome fire to cook our veggies on, and got to use my welder’s gloves from Bunnings, they’re in Swedish colours and well worth $9 bucks… I can literally touch fire.

I am the god of hellfire and I bring you, FIRE

We watched the sunset, and ended the night eating burnt veggies; the fire was a little too hot. 

The sweet spot

This place is proper country, meaning there is wildlife everywhere; frogs congregate around the toilets. You have to make sure you close the toilet lid because no one wants to shit on a frog… except if the rumours are true, Miss Piggy.

Please don't pee on me

The next day we got about our business, which included lazing in our hammock, thanks Ric and Lorelle,

A little comfier than my office chair to nap in

and generally enjoying the 34˚C winter weather of NW QLD.

We bring the shade

We all know that everything comes at cost. I have mentioned the Grey Nomads in previous posts, and this is now the company we keep. We are the youngest people in the park by 15yrs and the only people still in a tent. In fact ~90% of the traffic we met coming here were pensioners towing their kids future happiness. The first day we arrived we were offered a great spot by the lagoon. After we had set up, we were informed this was a mistake, as every Tuesday they like to have a “shindig” (yep, the real term they used) by the communal campfire, and as this site is only 20 metres away they try and keep it free. We’d already set up, so told the caretaker not to worry and that we’d weather their OAP party, but probably not partake due to us being neither decrepit nor racist.

As 5:45pm approached the near-dead army started stumbling, camp chairs in hand, towards the communal campfire. The generator fired up (this place is off-grid), and the good-old country music started blaring at a rather reasonable level.

Sid later threatened to cut Trevor, as he kept flirting with his Baby Mama.

For the next 2hrs we listened from the safety of our site as a mixture of tunes, from UB40 to Cliff Richard and other numerous old-time country artists, filled the night with their warbling. Every so often they’d lower the volume and someone would stumble into the centre to tell an anecdote, read a poem or tell some pun-filled, but strangely non-racist, jokes. It was bizarrely fun to listen to, especially as an outsider and from the safety of the shadows.

By the end of the night, Becky and I were nodding our head along to the classics; including Tina Turner’s Simple the Best… maybe we are not as far behind them as I like to think, I mean there are a lot of immigrants and it is a problem ‘cos they just don’t understand our ways, see?

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we head towards Boodjamulla NP, stopping overnight at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse. After that we have Limmen NP in our sights.  All these areas are very low in coverage and don’t have much in the way of Internet, so the next blog entry might be a while. But don't stress, I'll be back!