After a few stressful weeks for Ben at work dealing with the whole community complaining about the state of the roads, it's finally driveable again. We've been really lucky that the rain completely stopped. It had been raining daily, then one day it just decided to stop. And the dragonflies started to appear, which signals the start of the dry.
Ben brought in Dave from Gove to help with the monstrous project. Dave's probably the most Aussie guy I've ever seen. Unshaven, flanny and shorts only slightly longer than Stubbies. Huge beard and a long rat's tail. Looks like he's just got off the back of a Harley. Dave travels around the communities in the Northern Territory working on the community access roads, so was the perfect person for the job. What an amazing job he did. To single-handedly get the road from the disaster it was a few weeks ago, to driveable with only a couple of foot-deep puddles was an amazing feat.
Last weekend Ben and I went for a drive to check it out. I was quite excited, because it would be the first time in ten weeks that I've seen the water. It might seem strange, but I've always lived near the water, and although I'm not one to jump in whenever I can, I love it. I feel safer on the water than I do anywhere else. It reminds me of how relaxed I always am when I'm at the shack. Heading along the road, I was so surprised to see the difference in the land as we headed towards the water. Around Ramingining the bush all looks the same. And I mean exactly the same. There's green grass that's about a foot tall, some cycads that are a foot to a few feet tall, and then there are the gums and palms that are around three metres tall. And everything is green. The same bright shade of green.
The usual Ramingining greenery
But heading towards the water, all of a sudden it changed. We drove past a billabong with it's beautiful water lillies (and maybe a croc or two), and not far after that, the trees stopped. Although it wasn't farming land, it immediately changed to grass. And it was brown, not green like all of the land around Ramingining. And then we reached the water.
Sitting next to the barge landing under the shade of a tree were two locals who said they were waiting until later to catch some mud crabs. I went down for a bit of a sticky beak, and was lucky enough to see a huge one scurrying under a rock. I called out, and the locals ran down with sticks and bare feet, reading to jump in. It was hiding under a rock, so the guy used the sticks to scare the crab out. We had to leave him to it, but he told me that once it came out from its hiding place, he would just pick it up by the huge front claws. Bugger that for a joke.
How lucky was I, that Dave would be leaving the following day, and had a spare crab that he'd caught that I could have. I don't remember having crab before, but he told me it would be similar to crayfish - my favourite food in the world! He brought it around, and I managed to clean the whole thing by myself. Well, I didn't really have a choice, since Ben was dry retching even at the thought. It was worth it - it tasted amazing! Now it's heading into the dry season, I'll certainly be looking for someone to take me fishing...
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