The Adventures of Camping North East Arnhem Land Style
After stocking up on food for the cattle farm camping trip, we put our feet up on the beach and did some unsuccessful (or successful, depending on your point of view) croc‐spotting.
Then we hit the road in our four‐by‐four‐ers.
After bouncing around through pot‐holes and river floodways for a couple of hours, we made it to the camp. Garrathiya cattle farm.
Between us we shared out tent construction, firewood collection, sleeping bag allocation, kitchen set‐up. And toilet cleaning.
Funnily enough, not that many people jumped up to do the toilet cleaning.
But Rachel, Will, Rhys, Denita and I, um, rather begrudgingly volunteered for this gem of a job. This was a Big Job. Imagine five pigeons stuck in a toilet block for a week and you probably have a fairly good idea of the state of these dunnies. We double‐layered our latex gloves in preparation.
Some serious Domestos‐ing, hose‐jetting, nose‐holding‐while‐scrubbing sorted them out though. They were almost sparkling by the time we finished with them. Almost.
Whilst I don't especially want to remember the Big Job, the rest of the camping trip was very memorable (read: rather eventful).
The tents flooded after a downpour. One tent blew away. Shoes reached their last legs. We almost got bogged in a field. We nearly got charged by a buffalo. We reversed into a tree. Crows stole our macadamias. We got visited by green frogs, cane toads and huge crickets.
The best bit was that we all laughed the entire time.
(Photo above courtesy of Wendy in our group)
Despite the eventfulness, with blow‐up mattresses and some seriously good cooks in the group, we were at the glamping end of the camping‐to‐glamping spectrum.
We ate like Kings. Scrambled egg and bacon for breaky, all‐day slow cooked stew and risotto for dinners, marshmallows on the fire, and damper with butter and maple syrup.
The night sky was unreal.
It doesn't get more Australian than this.