Sorry about the lack of pictures, it is difficult to add pictures from a phone that was stolen and not yet backed up (We'll get to that blog).
After a
freaking long drive I was getting exhausted and trying to find a spot to camp
somewhere decent gets rarer and rarer. By decent I mean somewhere flat and
somewhere I can take calls of nature without other people watching. I am not
oppose to bush crouching, so long as nothing jumps up and takes a bite and
there aren’t any other people giving you a wave. We finally found somewhere off
the beaten track, but by this point it was pretty darn dark. The map said it
was near a River, and with my concern about the camouflaged sneaky crocs I had
to make sure where the river was in respect to where we should camp. With high
beams on I crept forwards in the car until I realised we were in the damn river
bed. Well, crap. Trying not to get bogged I revved the accelerator and turned
the car back. Phil was telling me not to panic, the thing was, I wasn’t
panicking. I revved the car and as I turned, due to the mud it was slip sliding
left and right until I made it to more solid ground. To put it in perspective,
the river bed had no water in it, just mud and a little stream further ahead.
Relieved
at not being bogged in the dead of night in the middle of nowhere with Crocs
for company we set up camp and made tea. This camp was more worrying than others
due to all the long grass. I could see people had clearly camped here before
but Crocs aren’t soft, they are actually known to hunt near places frequented
by people. With my paranoia at an all-time high I decided my withering head
torch could use a battery replacement, especially since Phil’s was heaps
brighter than mine, plus he doesn’t need to squat to take a leak. Darn the
torch was bright, who knew they were that good. Phil got a little jealous and
concerned about his inability to see the distance mine could reach but
unfortunately we’d ran out of batteries, luckily it was the last night in the
wilderness before we hit Brisbane.
After
tea we tried to do some crosswords but with one torch and the other person
unable to see properly it became pretty difficult, so we retired to the tent
for a sleep. Uh-oh… it’s pretty dark and I need to go. I opened the tent and
took a decent look around, no little eyes shining back at me which was
positive, but with all this grass who knew where they might be hiding.
Thankfully Phil wasn’t yet asleep, so my kind hearted boyfriend, who obviously
doesn’t want to see his girlfriend become Croc stew, was nominated for Croc
watch. He kept an eye out whilst I had a whizz, then kindly let me get in the
tent first (not that he had much choice given I ran and almost leapt up the
ladder to relative safety). My one ease on the croc situation is that they
can’t climb ladders!
Surprisingly
that night we had signal so I got onto Phil’s phone and started checking out
Queensland’s official website for Croc sightings. Phil had laughed at me and my
paranoia earlier (I reckon he just didn’t want to get out of bed to go on Croc
watch, who can blame him for that, it’s cold at night) because he didn’t
believe crocs came down this far. The website had actually informed me that the
Crocs had been spotted THIS YEAR, right where we were camping, even worse than
that it was just LAST MONTH. Ahhhh well pooh sticks. I didn’t know whether to
feel smug about being right, or terrified, it’s not often I wish I was wrong.
We
managed to make it to morning and watch the sun rise, it was a beautiful sight
and we could enjoy it from the safety of our tent. After breakfast Phil went on
a little explore, I kissed him and told him I loved him, you know, just in case
of Crocs. You don’t want the last thing you said to the love of your life to be
“pass me the tea towel please”, although shouting “I TOLD YOU SO” as he gets
yomped and I drive away would have been a decent second to “I love you”. Don’t
worry, Phil didn’t get eaten, instead he found a tshirt from the last person
who did get eaten, because of course Crocs remove unwanted parts of their food
and drape them on tree branches. (I can only speculate someone got eaten, they
probably camped there and got their tshirt wet, hung it out to dry and forgot
it, but the Croc story sounds better.)
Another
day of driving ahead; last one before we hit Brisbane. How long until I start
getting worried about meeting his friends? I hope it’s not uncomfortable and awkward…
Eeep.
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