Post by Grant/Dad
Friday was spent getting a roof rack and tray for the car and picking up the new rim and tires for the next lot of 4wding
We then headed off for Kakadu. We didn't leave Darwin till about 3 and decided to stop in Mary River national park, to see the wet lands and billabongs around there. Plus I'd been assured by a mate who'd live round there that there were the biggest crocks he'd ever seen - " hang on to your kids" was his sage advice.
So we arrived a little late at Point stuart wilderness park which sounded a bit posh. It had a bar and a pool, Yippee. It all went downhill from there.
I paid the bill and had a sneaky beer at the bar, while Cazz and the boys walked down to check out the camp site. I'd quizzed the young girl at the bar as to why it was so quiet, and she plausibly explained that the fishing wasn't that great as yet and things will pick up in the next couple of weeks. I arrived at the selected camp site a little amused to see the boys and Cazz running around waving their arms in the air. There were mozzies swarming everywhere. Not just a couple of mozzies but hundreds of the little biters in a grey blur all around any exposed part. We broke out the bushman deet based repellent - the stuff that has a warning about long term use causing damage to children and it makes your lips numb. This with a couple head nets allowed us to get the tents up.
We then ran for the pool with nice piece of butterfly pork to BBQ for dinner. Problem with the pool was it washed off the bug spray and as soon as you put your head above the water the mozzies started swarming and biting. The trick with mozzies is they dont fly that fast so if you run around like a loon, waving your arms everything is ok. Pretty funny to watch us running around the pool, swatting and splashing to keep the mozzies away.
Anyway bbq and off to bed. All three boys slept in the one tent (I'd bought a 3 man all gauze tent in darwin which tonight was going to act like one of those square fly nets you put over your food to keep the flies off, but tonight it was to keep the mozzies from their prey. The tent was also a bit cooler than the trailer tent, which was necessary given the temperature at night was still staying above 30.
Cazz and I slept in the trailer tent, staring at the roof, sweating and having trouble sleeping when about 1am Harry comes in screaming that he is being eaten alive. We calm him down and put him to sleep at the end of our bed. I figure that there must be some mozzies inside the boys tent and hoping it might be cooler I head off to kill me some bugs and hopefully get some sleep with Thomas and Charlie in the cooler tent.
The boys had pitched some 20 meters from our site. Oddly enough we were basically the only people camping at this place. As I approached their tent the sound of buzzing mozzies became disturbingly loud. The entire tent was covered in mozzies either siting on to gauze, buzzing around, or perched on the tent poles, trying to get in, fanatically surveying the delicious morsels in the tent.
I had to beat the gauze, run winder-shins around the tent and spray bug spray everywhere just to get in. Sitting in the middle of the tent (both boys still asleep!) slightly out of breath I turned on the torch to look for the mozzies that had got into the safe haven. There was about 5 blood filled mozzies. Remember I had to frantically spray the tent to get in, well I'd used it all up. Bugger! Trying to swat mozzies against a tent wall is like trying to nail water. So I resorted to mid air intercepts, I felt like karate kid with hands instead of chopsticks. Anyway I managed to wake up Thomas in the process. He was ok but a look at Charlie revealed about 20 bites on a small circle on his forehead, and similar number on top of his legs and arms, areas that hadn't had mozzie spray on earlier.
Curiously, Thomas was nude! I'd sort of lost my sense of humor by now and demanded to know where were his jocks and singlet (hot weather sleeping attire of the Turvey boys). He'd taken off his singlet and shoved it in the junction of the zippers on his side of the tent. This was pretty smart and probably reduced the mozzies inside, the problem was that the other boys hadn't done the same thing on the other side and the frantic little buggers had snuck through .
As for jocks, I knew that Cazz had taken some up for him and I demanded that he put them on, as I wasn't sleeping with a nude kid. Thomas was having none of it. The conversation at about 2 am by this stage wasnt very coherent, and somewhat tense. I was struggling to understand Thomas' resistance to putting on jocks and he was having trouble explaining his problem with anything but complete nudity.
"put them on"!
"But Dad your not listening"
"too right, I'm not sleeping with you in the buff!"
"I don't want to wear these Jocks"
"I want you to, it's a perfectly reasonable request"
Eventually I had a closer inspection of the disputed jocks and the problem became apparent. In the fracas of avoiding mozzies and getting everyone to bed, Cazz had given Thomas a pair of her bloomers. We had a bit of a laugh and I gave in, you can't expect a young man to wear his Mums jocks. We shoved Mums undies in the other zipper, Thomas slept nude promising to stay on his side, and I tried to sleep in the heat, with the sound of swarming mozzies complemented by the odours of a boys tent (ie musty, stinky feet and the faint sent of urine).
Cheers
Grant
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Location:Mary river national park
