The Trip - River, Jungle, Crocs, German Efficency

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Kununurra
May 14th 2007

Published: August 7th 2007

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elluco

Beginning of 52km trip

well actually 6km into, but my camera was buried in a waterproof barrel. Croc count is about 5 at this point!

Australasia » Australia » Western Australia » Kununurra By elluco
May 14th 2007

Beginning of 52km trip
well actually 6km into, but my camera was buried in a waterproof barrel.
Croc count is about 5 at this point!My canoe partner, is not the large breasted one, but the young guy. Not a problem, less paddling for me!
We set off in the canoe, these are canadian style canoes, so it requires an amount of cohesion and cooperation between paddlers to keep the canoe in a straight line.
Theres an initial exchange on the best way to keep going forward in a straight line. My buddy is the typical german, 'I know vat I'm doing and follow my orders'. I dont want to end up in the cooler and as it turns out hes right; but theres something annoying about being given orders from a spotty teenager, with an accent at 9am in the morning! This is going to be a long trip! Deep breaths!

What makes it even more annoying, is he hasnt seen a croc yet while in oz. Good news is theres loads of freshwater crocs that dont eat humans (apparently) on the river! Bad news

A bird

no idea what this is.. long beaked white ass stork????

is this guy is a reptile keeping freak, loves fishing and has even brought a cast net so he can catch one and he is insistant in chasing these little buggers from one side of the river to
A bird
no idea what this is..

long beaked white ass stork????the other. So our journey starts off zig zagging down the river with croc von hermet throwing his net at 1 footer crocs! Where do i get off? In 52kms time!

The rest of the day passes, without incident. Creeks, sandy outcrops to swim, loads of German Salamy sandwiches, few croc sightings. Sun burn! We make to camp 1! 22km done. I set off to find fire wood, von fish, designates himself as chief fish catcher.

I in the mean time crap myself foraging for wood in dense jungle, walking into spider webs, thinking i see snakes, leatherman knife in hand (thanks to my mate Damo) for defense. Fill the canoe with wood for the forthcoming feed.

Push the boat, out full of wood, attempt to jump in (as they do in the movies), slip, capsize the canoe, go face first into a river! Stylish. After

Nice flower

yep, in touch with my feminine side!

bailing the boat out, i paddle across the tranquil river, sun casting long shadows, red and blue sunset, not a bad place to be if i do say so myself.

Mosquito time! Theres no lecky and you bathe in the river. I smell, 2 days of pong to go!
Nice flower
yep, in touch with my feminine side!

One influence I did have last night was the ablility to talk the Germans into buying loads of food to Bar b q!

I light a fire, the girls cook pasta, von fish actually catches a few fish. I cook the BBQ meat, eat, drink beer n wine and we get to know each other. Not a bad bunch. The Germans are quite pleasant company, and make great efforts to speak English at all times. The older couple are good craic as well, quite eccentric actually. One is a lawyer, one an ex hippie and they own a macadamia nut factory in Perth! How mad is that. The night ends, while sleeping on a swag, under some serious stars, beside the camp fire, covered in mosquito spray at 8pm!

I swear I can hear something out there!