Leaving Humpty Doo for Koolpin Gorge plus a bit of Bush Surgery

After a week on the road travelling from Sydney to Darwin, Sandra’s sister Johann and her partner Stretch finally arrived in Humpty Doo to join us for the next leg of our trek through Western Australia. However, before setting off, they needed some time to relax, buy supplies and fine-tune equipment. We had yet another trip in Lawrie’s beast of a boat although once again the fish were in hiding with the only catch being one small and amazingly ugly fish consisting mainly of mouth and teeth with a miniscule body – it looked like a monk fish and was duly thrown back.

Like us, Johann and Stretch have bought an inflatable dingy but, being second hand, it came with its own set of slow punctures. The first of these was found by blowing up the boat, putting it into Gill’s spa pool, filling it with as many people as possible then looking for bubbles! The second hole was eventually found after using similar methodology but in excruciatingly public circumstances. The boat was launched at Berry Springs, an attractive and very popular swimming hole near Humpty Doo. After launching, Sandra and Johann paddled bullishly through crowds of swimmers and disappeared around a corner. After twenty minutes, concerned about their non-reappearance, I stripped off and, with a steady breaststroke, set off to investigate. Eventually they hoved into sight making for the shore with a boat which was considerable less buoyant than at the launch.

Looking for bodies to fill the boat was easy as, once they grasped the purpose of the exercise, the crowd rallied round and all there was left to do was to select suitably equipped members of the public to add ballast. This was a difficult task as there were no shortage of volunteers and it was left to me to decide that the task should go to shapely girls wearing bikinis – although Sandra and Johann also helped. With the hole found and repaired we were set for the off.

After a farewell photo call in Humpty Doo we set off for Kakadu via the Grove Hill Hotel – an historic corrugated iron pub which had seen no development (or I suspect cleaning) in the last 50 years or so. Our destination was a place called Koolpin that could only be visited if you had a permit which we had managed to get before we left Humpty Doo. After a 250k drive on sealed roads and a pleasant and interesting 40k drive on a 4WD track we arrived at the campsite, found a shady spot and set up camp for the night.

Koolpin has a very attractive pool very near to the campsite – unfortunately this pool also had a new 5m croc trap which told its own story plus we met a park ranger who said a croc had been in the area a few days earlier – so, no swimming. However further upstream there were more pools which we reckoned would be croc free so off we went for what was a very strenuous walk over some difficult terrain with no footpath or signs to follow – real wilderness stuff. The higher up we got the better the view, the scenery was stunning and each pool we reached was more alluring than the last. Eventually, hot and sweaty, we could resist no more and stripped off for a swim in water that was clear, cool and refreshing and followed this with a picnic.

If the above sounds too idyllic to be true, if the truth be told, it was – for me at least - it really wasn’t one of my better days! Due to my dismal medical condition my legs are not as good as they once were for mountain goat type rock-hopping and, towards the end of the upward journey, I managed to fall, not once but twice, when my knees refused to respond to the messages my brain was sending them. However the real problems started on the descent when, trying to avoid a loose rock pointed out by Sandra, I over concentrated on the rock and failed to notice the broken branch lurking at about ear height. This resulted in another fall and blood gushing from my ear – and not a lot of sympathy from Sandra who was muttering things like “Drama Queen!”

On return to camp I did receive a modicum of sympathy when, after cleaning away the blood, she informed me that my earlobe had almost parted company from my ear. Duct tape, as Gerry and Susan found on their road trip in the States, is invaluable on a journey such as ours and has already been used on countless occasions to patch-up our car, our tent and many of our other essentials – however holding an ear in place is probably a first!

After closer examination by Nurse Sandra, she announced that duct tape would not do the job and the ear needed to be stitched. With the nearest medical facility many miles away over dirt track roads and the Flying Doctor Service unlikely to be called out for a minor ear repair, even if there was somewhere to land, there was nothing for it – she got out her needles and thread and sewed my ear back on herself! It was not fun for me but I felt that Sandra was enjoying herself. Unfortunately she did not have dissolving thread so she will probably have another ball when she removes her handiwork in a few days.

PS Could any medically trained reader please advise me how many days should stitches be left in an ear?