Sunday, 24 to Tuesday 26 August 2014 46.8kms
Sunday we had a relaxing day of fishing and playing board games. Unfortunately no fish were caught. We saw water buffalo on the opposite bank just after sunset which was cool. We spotlighted for crocodile eyes that evening and saw 2.
Monday morning Nath went to check the trap and caught one cherabin overnight.
We had a fellow arrive in camp and start marking the big trees with a white X. Turns out they are mahogany trees planted back in the 60’s to provide shade for the camp sites, but now that they are old and huge, they start to drop dead branches and there is potential of someone getting hurt. Plus they drop seed pods and are easily seeded, so before us are at least 4 generations of mahogany trees. Parks and Wildlife have decided they want to make this area look like native Australian scrub and not a South African mahogany forest. So of course, guess what that means for us! Pack up camp and move on. Damn it!!!!
So after leaving camp and driving along a few tracks, having a difficult time turning around a couple of times, we found the Daly River again downstream from where we were. Before we could set up camp, we headed up the road to get some reception to re-direct the mail. After that was done, we headed back to make camp.
We have a nice spot under a huge mango tree complete with a mezzanine level for our chairs to sit, drink and watch the river from up high. Nath caught another cherabin in the trap while we bathed at the water’s edge in the afternoon.
The next day Hendrix practised on his didgeridoo while Elokin wrote stories to accompany the didj. The idea is to get them to busk in Darwin. They worked hard at it for hours which was fantastic. Hendrix has picked up his sounds really quickly.
In the afternoon we took a drive back to Oolloo Crossing to see what the loggers had done to our camp site. The place looked completely different. There were remnants of mahogany trees all over the place. They clearly had not finished cleaning up the area yet. All the shade that had made the place really inviting was gone. To be honest I really liked the South African Mahogany forest. It had a mystical feel that you would expect to see as the set of a kung-fu movie. I was left saddened by the whole thing. What was remaining on the ground before us was the useless bits to the big company so who knows what was going to happen to it. So much waste! They took the lengths of trunk they could use and threw the rest away.
Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.