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With Mom and Dad saying farewell Monday morning, we couldn't have them go home without a Brush With Death of their own to
tell their friends about. Of course, brushes with death aren't the kind of thing you can foresee or predict, so in their
case, we had to fabricate our own.
The answer was found at Dollars & Sense, in the form of a rubber snake (that's him up above). 100km out of Katherine, while
Aimee created a diversion, I carefully laid 'Wheels' out front of their tent. Obviously they didn't know enough to check
the terrain before going to bed that night, but the next morning, feigning sleep, we overheard this whispered conversation...
Dad: Susan!
Mom: What?
Dad: It's a snake!
Mom: A what?
Dad: A snake!
Mom: Where?
Dad: Outside the tent!
Mom: What kind of snake?
Dad: Well, I don't know, what do I know about snakes?
Mom: I mean, is it poisonous?
Dad: I don't know. It's not moving though.
Mom: Is it dead?
Dad: Could be. I must've... maybe I stepped on it last night and killed it.
Mom: Throw a rock at it.
THUD
Dad: It twitched, but I think it's dead.
Mom: I read somewhere that snakes mate for life, and if there's a dead snake sometimes the mate is still around.
Dad: Where'd you read that?
Mom: Not sure. At the information centre, I think.
Dad: I'm going to fling it away.
Mom: Okay, careful... don't use that!
Dad: Why not? I'm flinging it.
Mom: You'll mess up their flagpole. Get a stick.
FLING
Dad: Pass me my cigarettes.
At this point, Aimee and I were giggling into our inflatable pillows. We snored for a few more minutes, then woke up to see
what was for breakfast. "Oh, Kevin, you should see what was outside of our tent this morning." I was pointed towards a
snake-like tangle, flung far from the tent. It wasn't until I picked up the rubber snake and bit into it that they discovered
the truth, which elicited Monday's Quote of the Day.
No wonder they left.
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Double 'O':
First Name: Owen
Car: Datsun
Colour: Blue
Last adventure: Kayaked the Missouri/ Mississippi river from Montana to New Orleans.
Time: Three months.
Almost died: Twice.
Life goal: To have his name never come up on a web search (which is why he wouldn't tell us his last name).
Hates: Ritz Crackers
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meet a secretive irishman
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A talkative and energetic fellow, Owen had heaps of questions about our biking adventure, and us about his kayaking adventure. Then we asked about the job industry in Ireland, and learned a little more about his occupation...
What was the last film you worked on? It was an American ABC documentary about the tabloid press of Prince William. Everyone on set knew it was rubbish. Prince Charles told us that none of us would ever receive an OBE if we kept on.
What was the last film you worked on, that I would have heard of? It was a piece of bloody shite called "Reign of Fire", something about dragons in the future being fought with helicopters. Before that I worked on the sequel to Leprechaun.
I think I saw that. Was the guy from Willow in that? Yeah, The Unlucky Little Leprechaun.
He was just running around saying "where's me gold, where's me gold"? No, that was the first Leprechaun movie.
And then he'd find the guy and kill him. Kill him? Hang on, this is a kids movie.
No killing? You mean the guy from Willow made two Leprechaun series, one a slasher, the other for kids? Warrick Davis must just get all the good little people parts.
Who's the first girl you ever kissed? I'm not going to give you an answer on that, so I'll just say "Britney Spears naked" to raise your hit count.
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these are the people in our neighbourhood...
David & Joy
These two happy travellers arrived at Monday's rest area less than an hour after my parents left. David was on
his way to Broome to take up his new career as the chef of the Town Beach Cafe. We'll be there for a feed! In a month!
(By the way, David's also the inventor of Go Keg. Cool!)
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Liz & Stuart
We spent nearly an hour out front of the Victoria River Roadhouse chatting away with Liz and Stuart. And wouldn't you know
it... they live in Horsham, right across the street from Primary 298. Wally was so happy to chat
with folks from his home town! He was so homesick! Now he's back to his perky self. Thanks you two!
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Kaf & Amber
Remember Paul with the baby wallaby from Week 7? Just as we left the rest area, a red car
pulled up and we yelled, "Getcha cameras out! He's got a baby wallaby!" Guess who was in that car? Why, Amber and Kaf. We
caught up to them over a month later at Timber Creek of all places.
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Edwina, Sarah, Hayden and the Gang
The funniest kids in Timber Creek. We shoulda charged them admission to ride our bikes (or at least left the odometer on...
We could have racked up an extra twenty kilometres pushing them around!)
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wally's amazin' facts!
The School of the Air isn't a place to get your pilot license. You won't learn to levitate, and it's not where they teach you to dodge cyclones. It's a radio school that services all rural schoolchildren in the Northern Territory and Western Australia! The children learn by listening to the radio each day and talking to their teachers through teleconferencing. What a way to learn Indonesian!
This Week's Amazin' Fact: Are those flies bothering you as much as they're bothering Kev and Aim? I let them in on a little secret: the lemon scented gum tree is a natural fly repellent! They just have to rub it all over themselves and they'll be fly-free for the whole day! Buzz off, mozzies!
Our Irish pal Owen told us a nasty yarn today about the Blarney Stone... You know, the one in Ireland that everyone kisses for luck. Do you know what the Blarney Stone was originally used for? You won't be happy about it!
Don't forget to look for Wally this week!
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| Distance this week: 354km | Distance since Day 1: 4383km |
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What is Bikeabout? Click here to find out!
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Day 80: Pizza Hut and nothin' but!
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56.6km
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42°
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6.0h
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8.5L
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Smooth
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Victoria River
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 shade is shade
"Where is this frickin' frackin' rest area?" says a hot and humid Aim. Kev, being on the rear bike and seeing everything after Aimee, soon added, "Where is this frickin' frackin' rest area?" Why we had travelled over 25 kilometres and had yet to find the rest area that we should have found about an hour ago was beyond us. Waaaaay beyond.
Perhaps now is a good time to talk about N.T. Math.
Nobody knows how far it is between things in the Northern Territory. The signs say one thing, the map says another... sometimes signs contradict each other, even the ones right next to each other. More times than we can count, we'd pass a sign that read something like:
Bung's Gully Rest Area: 30
Sneaky Creek Rest Area: 70
Bugroff: 220
Looks fine, right? We would eventually reach Bung's Gully, which could be anywhere from 23 to 37 from the posted sign, and get the next update:
Sneaky Creek Rest Area: 44
Bugroff: 207
Whassa? The first sign may have been wrong for the distance to Bung's Gully, but how did the distance between Sneaky Creek and Bugroff jump 13km? You'd think they make all the signs at the same place, and somebody would check the differences... But that's N.T. Math. Nobody knows.
We had just about reached the point of looking for a tall tree when we spotted this magical corrugated iron hut materializing out of the bush. It may or may not have been the intended rest area from the last sign, but who really knows in N.T. We flipped the off-road switch on our bikes (gear down and pedal harder) and ploughed our way to the relative (40 degree) coolness of permanent shade. Or perhaps not so permanent... who knows if it will be there for the next traveller?
"Sorry, babe. Ya snossed, ya lost."
- Kevin.
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Day 82: Happy campers
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47.7km
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42°
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5.5h
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15L
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Half uphill, half downhill
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Timber Creek
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 dome is home
It's not that didn't greatly appreciate the tent given to us by Andy From The Isle Of Mann, it's just that, well, it was starting to do us more harm than good. The pint-sized two-man (cough, one-and-a-half-man) tent was built for the British Isle weather, not Australia in the Wet. I'm sure it's great for containing the heat on a miserable, rainy camping weekend in the UK, but trapping heat is not our goal here in the Top End.
Now we've got a new tent. This improved model is covered in silver to reflect the sun and it's got enough room for us, our gear and probably even our bikes if necessary. It's so big, it feels like a palace in here! Maybe we'll have a party.
Don't fret, Andy. The new tent will be making it's way to New Zealand, where it will be much happier.
"Creeks with water scare me now."
- Aimee.
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keen:
(adj.) How you might describe a child building a moon rocket in the garage. Somewhere between brave and stupid.
On this trip, we've been called keen more times than you can count.
they're outta here
prize in every pack
put to the test
winds of change
can-car
