Katherine, August 1, 2004
The kangaroo lives in Australia alone. There are a lot and have a problem 'cause they tend to jump in suicide machines in the race. We in the 5000 km we have seen only two, and a wallaby, a kind of minicanguro. 5000 km, three pieces, about one in every 1600 km. A few.
Fabio and Alberto are a little 'disappointed, they expected something more.' I've seen enough in the past and I'm not complaining though to see a herd jumping against the sunset waning I would have liked.
It's six in the evening. In the evening you should not travel because 'breast' you're gonna get the kangaroos, but we started late and we're almost there we continue to Katherine.
We'll go slowly, about 80 per hour, and chat. I'm writing the report above, I actually finished and I look in some photos.
At one point, Fabio brakes suddenly, you hear a tire and then a scrriiiccccckkkk Stonfo! I see a kangaroo and fly. We caught a kangaroo!
We stopped the night in Australia, you smell of burnt rubber and an air of tragedy.
We go down, we see the broken headlight and brake. Of the kangaroo, or ex-kangaroo, no trace. Or rather, there is a trace ': his hair on the broken headlight.
We climb into the car and we reverse the search of the corpse. No corpse, went up and we slowed down enough, maybe it 'alive. Let the sides but nothing. We share. Poor beast. We begin to speculate on his end but a kangaroo with a broken leg do not think has a lot of possibilities'.
Ok, now, and 'clear' cause you do not have to travel at night.
We continue to Katherine while Fabio, the murderess of kangaroos, and 'struggling with his conscience. We do not help, indeed prevailed "cursed murderess", "do you stated in your face and you 'liked'," and plan to go within 'beaks it another ", etc. ...
We arrive in Katherine in the evening and we place it in the first hostel free, Coco's, 21 1st Street.
As you enter, and we understand that 'a good place. People look at us and greets us, there 'a good percentage of Japanese and Korean, on 30% of Britons and an excellent, 10%. Nothing against the British but it 'better to avoid those traveling in groups.
The Englishman who travels alone, and instead of 'good.
The morning we said Albert "soft foot" in the hospital, his wound and 'infected. We leave them with her new friends Aboriginal and passes the night under the knife. 24 hours and 2400 dollars later comes out and thank heavens that there is the convention that will pay medical Italy-Australia 'expenses.
He tells us of an Aboriginal sunrise and sunset greeted the sun with traditional songs and it only remains for me, who knows 'why', impressed.
I spend a couple of days trying to buy didgeridoos but it promises to be difficult. All shops in the center have some good didgeridoos, but are expensive and not particularly well understood by those who are facts.
Most in fact are made from white or cut and made of white painted by Aboriginal artists often not only Aboriginal people who know nothing and want to make some money. All will offer certificates of guarantee, but for me they are just pieces of paper, I want to be sure who did it is that if an Aboriginal and 'went to look in the middle of the bush (any place away from civilization' is called the bush except Montello, TV) and has painted knowing what he was doing .. a true artist. But the real artists are eclectic and produce little ... nothing like the assembly line it would take to meet the market demand. Then the wise guys make them produce at backpackers or people who had nothing to do with Aboriginal culture. Then and later end up in shops, chatting with some well established, in the hands of wealthy tourists, which pays out $ 400 for a piece of wood, drilled and painted by a Japanese backpacker.
I look for an Aboriginal person to buy them directly, but is not 'easy, true artists are all in the bush to get there and it takes a special permit, a four-wheel and above the time that I did not.
Then I find this cooperative of aboriginal, operated by Aboriginal people, funded by the state, which aims to give work to the Aborigines. Do not have a lot of things but what they have and 'genuine, represent artists from across the Katherine area, people living in the bush and that is never in civilization' ... maybe buy 'from them.
Meanwhile, on the front of Fabio / Alberto who already should have set off 'a few days there are news'. They too will be the "Walking with Spirits", an Aboriginal festival in the middle of the bush, to be held 'at the weekend.
We do not know very well what 'but I hope I can buy a didge artist while Fabio and Alberto do not want to miss the opportunity to enter Aboriginal land, an area where you usually need a work permit, except just this weekend.
Even the night before we start with two girls and two boys Austrian / German / English and Japanese two decades, Keiko, and that 'the third time she sees me and looks, always forgetting me already' known. I just can impress the women.
Now you know me but continues to fail our names, and Albert 'became Algentino, while Fabio the gill, but always says:
- "Fi Fo .. ... Fabio." As I only remember that begins with L.
At some point we reach the last intersection and we do not take the trouble to read well, where the sign (I only found out yesterday, once again) it said "only four-wheel".
Thus began 'a road of very fine powder that when you switch the machine up a column of five meters and just put one foot on the ground for no more breath.'
In the dark of the night 40-hour advance will be able to 'sound like much but it' a lot that way, so that every time we tell Albert to slow that there seems to be a rally. But you can not slow down 'or else we get bogged down.
At some point we reach a clearing and stopped. The moon and 'full, a few stars, trees and sounds of birds in the distance. Expect the Austro-Hungarian / German / English and when they decide to camp them 'the night.
Light a fire and cook pasta. In lontananaza the strange sound of a strange animal. Max, Bavaria, says that it is wild asses. We eat around the campfire, drink a little 'of wine (it was forbidden to bring to the meeting) and play the guitar. The real hippies of 2004. No talk of universal love and the will 'to change the world, but a good night under the stars in Australia, away from everyone and everything in perfect harmony, for a moment, without pretension.
Piss (Lunar beautiful shade of a eucalyptus) and love.
The next day we continue down the street and come to a stream covered with gratings. Let's go and split the exhaust muffler (the gossips suggesting that I said "Vai Vai there is no 'problem' but it 'just a legend of the desert). Then we come to a place and that no brochure, no tour operators in the world has ever had the honor of hosting.
This is a pond teeming with crocodiles (some three meters long), surrounded by high cliffs 20 meters at the bottom of the falls, and the beach 'with sand and there are various types of trees. Here tourists can not come, 'Aboriginal land, and we discover later, the place is not' even marked on the maps. I feel very privileged, more 'or less as if I was given the Gold Card of some golf clubs. But it 'this is better than golf.
Some say that since crocodiles are freshwater and are not dangerous, you can 'swim. There are people already 'in water. We are full of dust and do not resist, we throw ourselves. We begin to swim trying not to think that just before we saw the crocodiles from the shore. After a while, 'forget it' and there we even give us some jokes. I launch underwater and under attack by the Japanese launched a bestial howl. I'm a bastard I know, but from that moment on, he remembers my name.
Then he goes out and goes a bit 'around, you can relax on the beach and you look at the Aboriginal women who fish only with the wire and the hook.
When we decide to go in the water there 'no one who takes a bath. In return, the beach and 'filled with people arriving for the festival. I, Alberto and an Englishman we head towards the falls, on the other side of the pond, in broad strokes. I notice that Albert "Soft Foot 'and' fully recovered and I am quite a bit off, reaching the Englishman who was there for a while '.
At one point I heard a female voice crying out in alarm:
- "Get out!" (Outputs)
I say:
- "Why?" ('Cause?)
- "Cruising" (Alligator)
and add a male voice:
- "Get out!"
I look and I see that the type and 'dressed as a ranger and I start to worry.
Now, we knew that there were crocodiles, but we also knew that they were harmless. In addition, I have to admit, "I have said that they told him that" .. the second hand information. Bad thing to trust their lives.
Who 'that girl, and especially those' that rangers rangers or pseudo?
Hmmm ... I have to decide in a hurry, and maybe the Rangers' only a pseudo rangers and have just arrived and no one has informed them of the innocence of the crocodiles. But what if ...?
In my mind starts an activity 'fast brain that creates a series of assumptions:
- Among the many freshwater crocodiles, and 'a salt-water infiltration (bad eater) that come on television say up to 70 km inland, but maybe it did not have television and does not know.
- Among the many crocodiles and a harmless' the madman of the village and has a relationship with the problem and I do not know that men do not eat.
- Among the many crocodiles harmless the enzyme does not have a right and vomits every time he eats fish, frogs and hate can not wait to eat white meat.
- Crocodiles do not eat the aborigines, only white.
- Among the many harmless crocodiles and a 'short-sighted
- Crocodiles are not harmless, and English and 'was simply ill-informed.
the fifth hypothesis was already 'in half' way to the back, much more 'religious than half an hour before, and thank God I did jog the last few weeks. The breath but 'does not seem enough and close my eyes to swim better.
But I guess' the crocodile that is creeping closer to me. Better to open my eyes. I get tired of swimming freestyle and breaststroke start. Three strokes and I think "no, no frog! crocodiles eat frogs !!!", and allotment in freestyle.
Meanwhile, the bank does not come close, I look back and see Albert and English. I find myself thinking, "Chris has an injured foot that may bleed, maybe you eat them instead of me" and I reassure myself a little. '
The situation and 'already' tense but damn damn tourists and uninformed pseudo rangers start looking stretched his arm to indicate a point 10 meters of me, obviously indicating the crocodile.
Now I have more 'faith of Padre Pio and the doubling of stroke but the hands do not respond more', I have to stop to breathe. I stop, I guess that falls below the croc ready to attack. Taking up the coast and 'close, I can not do more', splash, splash .. touch the ground, I go out, I walk away from the shore and begin to breathe. Alberto and the English are still in the water but now I do not give more than 'nothing. I close my eyes. And 'over.
Then Albert and the English come and throw themselves around me and we remain in silence for a while '.
Fabio arrives and explain everything, laughing. After a while 'is thrown into the water and swim quiet on this side' and the '. mmm .. that courage.
(For the record: As a result we ask for good and the verdict and unamine '"you can' swim, no danger." Pseudo Cursed Rangers).
The festival 'strong, Aboriginal music, sing and dance while we look at them sitting on the sand in the mouth of the melon well and we offered some beautiful pictures.
Behind us are other Aborigines are probably looking crazy laughter of their children dance. Nice atmosphere, really.
We spend the night on the lake, near the fire, with the sound of the didgeridoo in the distance and the lake full of burning candles. We sleep by the fire, Alberto and I do not have the sleeping bag, two blankets, he and 'more' by the fire and when he turns to the side of the Alps and Apennines becomes blocked what little warmth I arrived. For him, however, and 'too hot.
In the middle of the night I wake up cold and I go to look for firewood around, half forest and carry me back to sleep.
Keiko arrives early in the morning, the Japanese name with microwaves, which greets us. Fabio wants to greet iperteconologica sleeping in his tent and called him:
- "For, Fi ... Fabio"
- "Ehh ...?" He says of the tent
- "To the mast go, gudbai" (I have to go, hello)
- "Okay, okay, wait."
Sprinz, striz, frishh .. starts a series of snaps and zippers that open and I look Alberto. Friz, Springer, slash ... continue. But what does it take? definitely not put us to open the vault of a Swiss bank (joke copyright © Alberto Marchetti "foot soft ') but eventually comes out and greets her.
Let us go back to sleep. We wake up in the sunlight, the embers are still hot, the crocodiles on the water. I want to photograph them and climb on the rocks.
On the way I make a '"imperial" and that practically' a stool in the middle of nature with clean sand and later (delayed) in water bath. One of the most mystical experiences' deep granted to human beings.
Alberto and Fabio will refuse to have it done for reasons of image, but I will sputtano and I can confirm that they did and were happy.
I climb on the rocks I see three crocodiles (but there 'who has counted up to thirty-one other time), photographer and turns down'.
I do the bathroom, go out and say:
- "I made pictures of Cruising"
Fabio laughs.
- "Why 'do you laugh?"
- "From just with this dance of crocodiles"
- "As you dance, you do not believe?"
He laughs again.
I take out my car and I'll show them to him. We believe. A drop of sweat falls from his left temple. No, he did not believe was true.
