Day 12
Friday, November 7th, 2008
“Pants off for the finale”
After another very sweaty morning, we wake up hungover and pack the C.O.P. ready to hit the road once more. After a greasy Pine Creek breakfast from the servo, Wongy decides he needs to get a spare tyre. Unfortunately in Pine Creek there isn’t many tyre retailers, in fact there are none, so he approaches a local aboriginal who is sitting next to his commodore, he asks if he can buy his spare off him, apparently the price of a spare in Pine Creek is “buy me a thirty pack of beer bloke”, after all it is ten in the morning. But due to the very strict prohibition laws, Wongy declines. Instead he gives him thirty dollars and we collect the spare and take off.
We arrive at Jabiru, in the heart of Kakadu national park, at about one. It is so humid and hot, possibly forty three here. We take a dip in the pool and get ready to watch the show. One of the Fox fm crew inform the three stooges that they will be providing the entertainment here tonight. The show starts and most of the caravaners are in their underwear cos its pants off Friday. It is as usual a hilarious show in which Hamish puts on his gorilla suit and runs to the front of the park, in the searing heat this nearly kills him. But the real treat was the Camel sighting competition. Hamish had a bet with Andy that he would see at least 50 feral camels by the end of the trip, if he didn’t find camels he could substitute a camel sighting for a song with the word camel in it. He did just that and found 19 songs with camel in them, plus the thirty one he saw, as a result Andy had to ride naked around the caravan park, with a camel hump on his back on the roof of the E.U.’s mighty Apollo van. Scuzzi also manages to get on the show and thank our venues for the time off, and the caravan hire place which scores us a massive hire discount.
After some more pool time and some drinks and dinner the boys set up for the nights sort of farewell party. Unfortunately a few of the local red necks, who have been hanging around all day, are getting drunker and more obnoxious. One in particular by the name of “Clint” will not leave us alone. He has possibly the worst mullet in history, has no top on and is semi scrawny and covered in tattoos, his poison is beam cans and he has about three in his hands. The manager of the resort bar has a go at Scuzzi after the boys moved the pool table, it is a nightmare of a set up and the humidity is ridiculous. Everntually we set up and start to play. The place is a buzz and Olly, Scuzzi and Wongy tear a new arse in Jabiru. Hamish and Andy and the rest of the caravaners drink, sing and dance like a bunch of crazy kids, no doubt the highlight of the party is Herman the Germans conga line, which I believe at one stage had about forty links in it. Last drinks are called and the party winds up. A few of the local girls are hanging around trying to get the boys in the band to come back to a party with them. A few of the local drillers ‘Clint” aren’t too thrilled about this traveling circus coming through their town, and starts trying to have a crack at Scuzzi. “Come on tough guy, me and you, have a shot at the title”, Scuzzi is hot and is rushing to pack up and politely declines the offer. The shirtless stooge eventually wanders off into the night.
We all gather to have a bit of a ceremony at Hamish and Andy’s caravan, they give prizes and awards to all the carapanions, and we all take photos and sign things for each other. We party long into the night, Vaughney and Smyze (the token Aussie on the EU bus) convince some local girls that they are dingo whisperers. Bridget the local bird call expert joins us and tells us that one of the gates on the pool doesn’t lock, so a group of us sneak into the pool. Wongy and Olly lay out under the stars, while Scuzzi turns in for the night. It is almost too hot to sleep but eventually we all manage to. All in all, a damn good night. Scuzzi signing off