Nourlangie Safari Camp, Episode 10 – Flemming Jensen

Nourlangie Safari Camp, here is 9SLK is anybody listening? (My radio code) The Diaries of Flemming Jensen, 1968-1969

In the previous episode our author, Flemming Jensen from Copenhagen, shot his first buffalo.

Thursday 23rd January 1969

I made a herb garden for Pat today so she could grow her own culinary herbs like tomatoes, cucumbers and the like. I had to make a fence for the dogs so they would not ruin everything.

My spare time is spent reading and thinking. I’ve been thinking that if I get money from my stay here, let us say around one hundred and fifty I will travel around Australia and most likely not come back here but choose to go over to New Zealand and later Japan. I also may ask my parents to send the rest of my saved money down here. Then I do not have to work until I get home.

Yes, I have many plans and ideas at the moment on how to get on.

Friday 24th January

The grass grows and grows and our lawnmower is broken so we must beat it with a scythe. It is not very much fun to walk around in the high grass when you cannot see where you put your step. Perhaps you step on a snake! It is especially in the evenings I do not like.

I spend most of the day repairing the airfield as the rain has washed a lot of gravel away and made a lot of holes. The airfield should be alright because it’s our lifeline here in the rainy season.

There was a telegram from Allan today and he said he might come Wednesday and that he would leave the next day. We will probably have to shoot a buffalo before he comes as the dogs are eating us out of the house. I think all the time that they might have worms.

We are also running out of fish so I must see if I can catch one or perhaps several barramundis. They taste fantastic.

Saturday 25th January

If you can talk about that some are “red” and some are “white” Pat had to belong to those who are red-hot “white”. Raised on a large farm of wealthy parents and has never lacked for anything and so on. I am not a communist although I believe that communism can be beneficial in certain countries. But being a modern human such as where I come from I see no need for communism. I could only be in the strongest protest when Pat said that the US was the only country which was governed democratically. This was the beginning of a heated discussion and I think my time has come to refrain from discussing it with Pat. She is really getting excited and I do not feel good about it.

By evening time I went out for a few hours on the lake and came home empty handed. I am not very lucky with my fishing. I did have some photos from the billabong but I’d better keep a little again for there are hundreds of beautiful pictures.

Before I started the water pump we ran out of water, meaning that the water tank was empty and there was no pressure on the pipes. Last time it took three days before we got water. I hope we are luckier this time.

Sunday 26th January

Today was the holiday. “Remember the holy day and keep it holy” but unfortunately there are one hundred and eighty eight miles to a church so today there is no church attendance!

The drama continues in the next episode, with more wild buffalo hunting, deadly snakes, heroic pilots and missing Socks.

Reproduced with permission: Kakadu National Park Cultural Heritage & Biodiversity Management Unit.