Canoeing down the river to see a lake of lilies and some Pelicans. Camping in the forest amongst ants, spiders, and 4 foot long monitor lizards.
Distance: Bus, 60km, canoe, 10km
Total Distance: 12562km
We hammered along the beaches of Fraser Island for over an hour. This brought us back to the barge, over the to main land, down some roads, through more forest, and out to our campsite for tonight. The tents were already set up. The Discovery company, who we'd been with for Fraser Island, use this place as a sort of natural hotel. But with long drop toilets. And no shower.
The afternoon was spent canoeing up the river. We went through more of the landscape of eucalyptus trees, vines, and brush. At one point I spotted a confused looking wallaby staring at us. Other than that, and a few spiders, we didn't spot much wildlife.
Late lunch was served at a small clearing by a jetty. From here we went out on to the lake. A few acres of lilies stretched out before us, small lilac flowers in a variety of stages of opening. We did our best not to disrupt the plants, paddling steadily through a channel, green pads surrounding us.
At the far end was the pelican colony formed around a small island. We paddled across the lake. This took us down, passed a larger island, and we snook up behind the Pelicans. Quietly we moved as a group around them, looking as they sat relaxing on their small trees and rocks. They're big birds, but lean.
Once back in camp we treated ourselves to a eucalyptus, tea tree and tannin infused bath. AKA a swim in the river. It was lovely, warm, and the current near the shore only light. We paddled about chatting as dinner was prepared. Back at camp we made wraps and fracked open our drinks- beers and goons. A goon is Aussie for a bag of wine (there's a bag inside that box of wine you buy). With this combo we had a steady evening of stories and games.
Game one:
Round one- Name, Most hated housework, Reason
Eg
Ironing, it's tiring, pointless, and I get bored
Washing windows, once you've done the last one you have to go back and start again to keep them all clean
Washing dishes, im a perfectionist and I have to scrub out all the dirt
Laundry, I hate having to fold it all up
Vacuuming, I have 4 Persian cats and you can do it 4 times a day without any improvement
Round two- Name, "I hate sex because...", Reason from round one!
Game two
Modified Mafia/Werewolf, Aussie edition
Gangsters/werewolves- Dingoes
Protector- Paramedic - protects 1 per round
We made a new one- like Detective- Park Ranger - can sneakily wake during night to see Dingoes
There's better descriptions, but in short
Except special positions everyone's backpackers, who go "to sleep" at "night"
During the night the two Dingoes woke and picked a victim to die, then went back to sleep.
Next the Paramedic woke and picked a random person to protect
The Park Ranger could pretend to be asleep but see he Dingoes. However, if caught the Dingoes would, obviously, kill them next.
Come dawn the backpackers found out who was dead and protected. Dead was out. Everyone then discussed (argued) as to who the Dingoes were. We voted for someone and they were vigilante style killed, and we'd get to know what their position was. This did result in many more dead backpackers, but there were plenty to spare.
The ranger did have some insight but, again, declaring it could lead to Dingoes killing them. Also they could be lying about their status. ie a "ranger" might be a Dingo. They just had to argue really well for a change.
Then the cycle continued until the Dingoes or backpackers won.
After a few games we retreated to our insect-free tents. Just had to be careful in the night- might run into a real dingo on the way to the toilet! Or in my case a 4ft long cousin of the monitor lizard
No comments:
Post a Comment