Nourlangie Safari Camp Episode 8 - 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, Allan flew to Darwin, leaving Pat and Flemming to deal with buffaloes and bogged cars.

Friday 17th January 1969

Things were going well from the early morning as we waited for important guests. There was cleaning and the old Holden was cleaned and fixed a little. We were really trying to make everything all right. And what happened?

They arrived and after having been here exactly one hour they took off again and most of the time they had stayed outside the camp. We had expected that they would be here all day, with lunch and so on, but they surprised us. It must have been an expensive hour for the Australian government to send five people in addition to flying, but that is the way it is when the Government pays.

Now I have got the afternoon off and I decided to go wild pig hunting but I had no luck with me, I did not even see one. My idea was to go up to the place where we shot the buffalo the other day as they usually stick to such a carcass.

Well, I will get one another day.

Saturday 18th January

Here I sit and write my diary and the rain is pouring down. There is lightning and thunder and everything is “sky and sea” but I do not care. I’m tired but very happy, damn happy and satisfied to have managed to get the Nissan back on the track today which in turn was abandoned.

Pat and I worked hard all day, the storm hanging over our heads. But the weather held and we got the Nissan and the Holden home safe and in one piece. It was a nice feeling to get it back on the track. Now I could leave it out of my mind and feel happy, not having the thoughts about having the Nissan stuck in the mud for the rest of the wet season.

We had taken the 303 rifle with us. If we had the time we would try to shoot a buffalo but it did not happen. Of course we saw a lot on the way home but we did not have time, we wanted to go home before dark and preferably before the storm came up.

When we got home Pat was close to stepping on a snake (a swamp tiger). She screamed, but she is forgiven because it is one of the most toxic.

If you get bitten you should try to get the blood to run by stabbing or cutting where it has bitten and otherwise you can only hope. The city has serum, here it is different. It was sadly missing when I arrived with the double-barreled gun.

Now that we know it is there, it is almost worse but now I will be on guard.

Sunday 19th January

After nearly two weeks in the mud the Nissan had to be fixed. I hope that Irving gives my bike a game with oil and water once in a while. Irving is my friend and he has borrowed my new bike while I am travelling. It took most of the day interrupted only by drinking breaks.

When it was finished in the afternoon we had sudden unexpected guests so they were picked up at the airfield in a clean and graceful carriage.

"After we had told her about the crocs, she did not talk about swimming"

One of the guests would like to have a swim in the billabong but after we had told her about the crocs, she did not talk about swimming at all. Instead we took her and a few others out on the billabong as it is really beautiful out here in the afternoon.

There was a beautiful young girl and it got me thinking a little of Alice (my girlfriend at home). It is really a long time since I’ve been out with a girl. I have to catch up with that later.

Fortunately the guests were here for not too long and they left with the plane before it got dark. It suited Pat and me just fine because we were pretty tired.

Pat knew the pilot and she had asked him to look at the lawn mower which was broken. He had found the error and would send the new part, a magnet (when and how I do not know).

In the next episode, Flemming gets his first "buff".

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