WEDNESDAY 20 APRIL     PUNGALINA

Today we continued work on putting the camp to rights, as well as the usual chores.

I had done some food planning for guests expected next week – two men – and gave O my list of food to come on the mail plane. Mostly it was greengroceries from the supermarket, as I could get by with the general stocks that I brought in and which O also did. The order for items to come on the mail plane was due to reach the supermarket in Tennant Creek by Wednesdays.

I had all the bedding and towels washed by now and was able to make the beds up. Ten beds in all to do. I thought the tents looked pretty good, even if I did say so myself.

John found flares in the container that work by filling with insect repellent citronella oil – or kerosene – and then burning to deter mosquitoes . At night, these would add to the ambience of the place.

We were looking forward to seeing what the camp looked like at night, with lights working, flares on and the like.

O brought in a couple of loads of sand from the river and dumped them by the two entry points from the camp into the camp creek. These were where the water was sufficiently deep for people to sit in and cool off – almost thigh high on me, in parts. We had already sampled the creek method of cooling off!

Another job for John was to spread the sand out, to make two “beaches”. When there were guests, these would need daily raking.

After John had made the beaches, we gave them names – Water Monitor Beach and Red Claw Beach. The names suggested themselves because, sometimes in the mornings, John would find red claw yabby shells in those spots, left by the water monitors snacking on same. John thought he might try to make signs for these beaches.