FINLAND YOU HAVE DEFEATED ME

Growing up in a mixed race household (Anglo/Dutch) I got to experience some interesting foods at a young age, Did that lead to me becoming a chef? Nah I don't think so, I just had cooler shit in my fridge and pantry than most other kids. Like pickled Herrings (Roll Mops) and these wicked cruskits before cruskits were even heard of here. But most of all I had discovered licorice! Not that mamby pamby black sugary glob they put in licorice allsorts, nor that sickly sweet twisted licorice, I'm talking hard core double salt (Double Zout) Dutch licorice. Oh hell yes, my spine still tingles and my mouth instantly salivates at the mere thought of it.

Over the years my love for this salty delight has seen me cast aside (momentarilly) by lovers and friends and even cost me a tooth filling; one large double zout diamond too many on that day. I've also taken great joy in watching lovers, friends and acquaintances screw their faces up in disgust the instant they slipped a piece into their mouths. ... usually resulting in the aforementioned casting aside. But I will not succumb to those kinds of pressures, Dutch licorice and I will be together forever. That's if I can keep finding a source. It's getting harder and harder these days to find a single zout or a tame black cat let alone DZ coin (are you impressed by my knowledge of exotic lollies?).

SO! Imagine my surprise when I went for a wander around the food section of IKEA today, an area I have steadfastly refused to inspect over the years due to me being a food snob, and discovered packets of licorice! Huzzah!! Could this be my next source? Why did I not check that shelf years ago? The Netherlands is close to Denmark and the like, it all makes perfectly good sense. So I bought three packets, one from Denmark called Salt Sill with a cute fish on the packet....

they were pretty good, around 75% on the Dutch version

then it was onto the Turkish Peber from Finland, they looked harmless enough, small dark boiled lollies....but OMG is that chilli? Oh man no way gak gak, I couldn't do it...

So that left one more, the Djungelvral, again from Finland. Now clearly I can stomach a lot of salt or otherwise I would never have gotten through the amount of Dutch licorice that I have in my life, but this, this was unnatural. Ever driven past a salt lake? Imagine sitting down in the middle of one with a spoon and digging up a mouthful. As soon as it hit me I felt like throwing up. No human could stomach that, it's not natural, it defy's the order of things. And now I feel defeated, my days of boasting about there being no salty licorice on this planet that I couldn't eat are now over. I shall now wander amongst the rest of you mere mortals .... curse you Finland

I mean come on....look at the salt on those things!!

QUESTION EVERYTHING

THE RUM DIARY

One of my favourite books by my favourite author is finally a film and Johnny Depp gets to be Hunter S Thompson again. The world just became a better place. Looks like they've tweaked the words a bit but that's norm for movies right? Looks funny, looks smooth and this one is now definitely on my list....

VALLEY GIRLS AND DUDES

Overloading YeLPar with pics of the bush I know but if you could only be here with me you'd understand why I go a bit gaga with this stuff. I've said it before and I'll say it again "I'm so damn lucky to get to work in and visit these places. So much of the great stuff we find I am not able to share with you due to cultural reasons but trust me it's very cool. Still, there is the amazing countryside to overload your senses with instead....

Click here to see this pic in full size, you can really get a feel for where we were surveying and all of the caves along the ridge lines I had to check out.

the above shot was taken from inside a cave looking back towards the cave in the pic below which shows the view back to here...confused?

Looking down at the cave chamber below, which was also the exit

a rare burst of colour other than shades of brown or green

you do NOT want to be standing under those these when they fall

Kate standing on the edge looking at where we are heading next trip

DESERT, WATER, DUCKS AND BONES

As you do. Spent yesterday survey in some very dry and dusty parts so it was a nice surprise to come upon this massive water hole. So many ducks I lost count at 3251. Lots of other water birds as well but I'm no expert I just know a duck when I see one, so they're all ducks as far as I care.

calm ducks

not so calm ducks

once Kate spots an animal bone of any type she's in her element

such a nice spot

some embiggened pics here

THINGS YOU FIND IN THE DESERT

We passed from desert to oasis today, some of the oasis pics are already up on here, more tomorrow. For now just some of the desert finds....

bigger over here

UP THE WATERY DATE

Just did a small update over at YeLPanorama if you're even slightly interested that is....

AND THEN WE EAT

Righto, so there's been heaps of nice pics of cute animals on here this week but it is at this point that vegetarians and vegans need read no further. Cos sometimes those cute animals get BBQ'd. Some of our Indigenous crew caught a Bungarra and cooked it up for us....

Step 1: Obtain a dead goanna

Step 2: Prepare a fire pit

Step 3: Light fire and singe goanna's skin in the flames

Step 4: Scrape off the outer skin

Step 5: Skewer the legs so it doesn't curl up whilst cooking

Step 6: Place goanna onto hot coals and bury

Bungarra from Stu Rap on Vimeo.

Step 7: Start to remove the hot coals

Step 8: Remove the goanna from the fire pit

Step 9: Platter up

Step 10: Inspect

Step 11: Eat

tastes like pork, with a possible hint of fish in places

MARKY MARK AND THE FUNKY BUNCH

Posting this purely because this was a big topic of discussion today as those under the age of 25 who work with me have/had no idea that Mark Wahlberg was a rapper way before he moved into acting. Oh and that his brother Donnie was part of New Kids On The Block. Gah kids these days....

C'mon C'mon

WELL IT'S PRETTY MUCH ANIMAL WEEK AROUND THESE PARTS

Carrying on with this weeks theme. Completely over run with all kinds of animals and creatures today, including bush turkeys and wild horses, both of which I sadly failed to get snaps of. I did manage to get some of the Kangaroos mentioned in yesterdays post, although we only counted 20 this morning. But this was supplemented with a shy Emu and a not so shy lizard

This big bird was pretty elusive and hard to photograph....

this lil fella not so much, I think he was pretty confident with his camo and even turned to look at me as I snapped the pic

ROO COWS

Driving out to our survey area this morning we counted 46 kangaroos. Now that's a whole lot of hoppers, but we seem to have caught them all napping in the early morning dew. Not the best wake up, a couple of 4wd's speeding past you, but it stretched their muscles. As impressive as that many roos are it was the stand off with the cows that was the more intense of the animal encounters this day. It seemed that we were recording a bunch of artefacts in an area that stood between them and some mighty fine chewing grass. Eventually they just acted "like they just don't care" and started munching right alongside us.

FEELING FLAT

Not the most awesome start to the day, you walk up to your vehicle and both the right side tyres are flatsky. Luckily there's enough people in our crew that you don't have to get down and dirty first up .... good times. Oh and I had goanna for lunch today, more on that later.

THE HOOD # 133

Spotted on Beaufort st, unsure of the artist