In the middle of nowhere

Friday, September 28, 2018

Sorry, but the crocodile theme accompanies us and now the blog at every step!

During a cozy bath in the Barnett River, Gianna even overcame herself and took her first real bath in a river 😃. The nervous glances across the water surface were not to be avoided, but no dangerous animal was seen..

Completely relaxed at this beautiful place on earth, the little Australian girl swam a little further away and her mother immediately jumped after her, pulled her back and said: Don't go too far away, there are crocodiles there!🐊

Before I could turn around, Gianna had already half run out of the water and was now smiling mischievously from the shore..😂

We visit quite actively many canyons, enjoy life without internet, and have to reluctantly submit to nature. I find this quite exciting about camping here because with the many animals we experience many curious situations.

On our last hike, we started quite early (5:30 wake-up call) to avoid the midday heat. The atmosphere in the morning is always very beautiful when the whole country wakes up and the squawking of the parrots starts. Then the sun slowly rises and there is a sense of urgency to dismantle the rooftop tent or do activities like sports, cooking, or something similarly strict. It's already quite hot at around 7 o'clock, I can't say exactly how much, but I would say around 27 degrees (during the day we will reach temperatures close to 40 degrees).

Anyway, our hike was supposed to start with a river crossing, unfortunately without a boat..

After a little detour, the whole path became very rocky and who knows how many snakes live there 😮! But we only saw one dead snake. While we were walking so concentrated, a kangaroo mom suddenly hopped past us with her baby!

Not everything in Australia wants to kill us 🙂.

These animals grow up to 25cm!!! And are very ugly! Fortunately, we don't have them in Switzerland.

If you think it can't be that exciting, just looking at canyons and camping on the roof, then I can prove you wrong and show you some points..

Well, Gianna actually finds all the canyons very boring, but she doesn't let me go alone because she's afraid something might happen to me 😜! Nice, isn't it!

With such a fearless friend, almost nothing can happen to me and I feel very protected.

Point 1: Finally, after long 14 days in Australia, Gianna has pushed her fear of all the insects and creatures back a little and maybe even partially overcome it. And then we were peacefully having lunch at the campsite when a picture-book cowboy suddenly arrived.

Blue jeans, white shirt, cowboy hat, pilot glasses, white mustache, and high cowboy boots. Oh wait, no snake-skin boots, as we later found out.

Well, we should be a bit careful tonight, he discovered snake tracks at the cattle gate (50m from our car).

Naturally, I was very interested and asked to see it (unfortunately, Gianna joined too!).

From the sand mounds of the tracks, you can see that it must be a larger snake, in this case a King Brown Snake! 🐍 

You only have 3 hours after it bites you..

If an Inland Taipan catches you, you only have 30 minutes, and with a Box Jellyfish it's 2-3 minutes...😯!

And within seconds, the positive image of Australia that took days to build up was destroyed 😱! Every step Gianna took was carefully considered once again and our whole life revolved 100% around this one snake that must be out there somewhere..

But what you have to add about snake bites: statistically, one person dies from a snake bite in Australia per year.

Even with a bite from a highly poisonous snake, it doesn't automatically mean it's over, because firstly, almost all snakes have antivenom, and many of the bites are so-called dry bites. Meaning, the snake bites, but doesn't inject any venom, because it actually needs it for hunting mice 🐁 and not for careless tourists..

Point 2:

While walking to the shower, a male kangaroo crossed my path. I can now tell you that the kangaroo testicles offered in the markets must be real!! 

Point 3:

The toilets are a bit of a thing here. Mostly unisex and also mostly unispecies!

Point 4:

While swimming in Bell Gorge, I saw a lizard swimming in front of me, about half a meter long🙂!

Point 5:

We always feel a little uncomfortable when we walk along narrow paths and there is a rustling noise on both sides of us! Fortunately, it's usually just little lizards or sometimes a big lizard.

Point 6:

If you're interested in blowflies and horseflies or maybe even want to become an insect researcher, this is the right place. I still have no idea why a pesky swarm of flies keeps covering my face! It's disgustingly annoying..

Before you go to the toilet tonight, always flush it first, as it may look like this afterwards 😉!