I have been spending the night at all kinds of places, some of them free, some of them paid. In the desert, by the beach and underground. Last night I stayed at a place that was a former race track that is now a not for profit campground and local watering hole. There are also massive termite mounds everywhere as well. I have seen thousands of these while driving but none were as big as the ones at this race track, they were taller than me!
I sat at the bar and had a couple of beers with the local guys after they got off work. Their conversations were magnificent and I wish I would have recorded them to share, I was laughing so hard. One conversation went something like this:
Guy 1: We have already gotten over 100 millimeters of rain.
Guy 2: Already? It's only rained the two times.
Guy 1: I'm certain, I measured 105 millimeter on my rain gauge. I checked with Bill and he had 108 millimeters, he gets more rain west of town than where I live. Bill gets paid to report the rain you know.... I was thinking about doing that.
Guy 2: What do you do with all the excess water? Do you watch it all night long and empty it?
Guy 1: What are you talking about?
Guy 2: What do you do when your rain gauge overflows?
Guy 1: Mine never overflows.
Guy 2: Well you must have a bigger rain gauge than I do.
Guy 1: I doubt that, it's pretty small.
Guy 2: How much does your rain gauge hold?
Guy 1: I don't know, at least 200 millimeters.
Guy 2: I should have known... you being a millionaire and all, I'm just a poor guy with a 25 millimeter rain gauge.
(The reason for all of the rain talk is that this part of the country is dry for 9 months of the year and then it rains nonstop for 3 months and this is the first of the wet season.)
There was another conversation about cops and how one guy won't talk to the cops or go anywhere the cops are. He was going to a house party once and saw a cop car in the drive way and turned around and went back home. "There is a reason I live in The Territory and talking to cops isn't it".
Then the guys started talking to me and asking me questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Australia. When one of the guys found out I was American he said "I know an American guy, I was best man at his wedding". Then the Aussie guy called the American guy and handed me the phone. I spent 10 minutes talking to a very nice guy who is originally from Wyoming but has lived the last 26 years in Australia. His accent was so American sounding, I would have believed that he was still in Wyoming to this day.
Today I continued driving North and saw salt water crocodiles in the wild from a boat. The driver/guide/owner would hold out a long stick with buffalo meat on it and the crocodiles would come and snatch the meat from him.
These crocodiles were amazing, they would appear from nowhere and could go from floating on the surface horizontally to fully launching their bodies vertically out of the water in an instant.
They could also turn their jaws and clamp down in any direction nearly instantly. It was exciting but really really scary. If I were to be thrown into a body of water and was given the choice "Shark or Salt Water Crocodile", I would choose shark, because with them there is a chance, the crocs look like they would just straight bite your head off!
Check out the rest of today's pictures, including more crocodile snaps HERE
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