Shipping Reporter scoops Townsville media again
Our decrepit and exhausted waterfront scribe is recovering after watching through rusty binoculars , acquired at an Adelaide garage sale moons ago , disgustingly healthy contestants take part in the Adventurethon on Magnetic Island , which involved kayaking , running and cycling great distances . One keen kayaker , unfortunately , lost his prosthetic arm , specially greased for the race. There were top contestants from near and far , including one who had excelled in New Zealand . A dynamic team mainly consisted of veteran Darwin athletes, one having taken part in last year's international Dragon Boat championships in Italy.
He took off like a rocket in the ocean race, but said his snub-nosed canoe rode like a bathtub in the cho p and wind . Still , he propelled his bath forward and somewhere along the way encountered the man who lost his arm , which was attached to the oar .
A merry band of Darwinians dined out until late at Blue on Blue after all the exertion and the restaurant echoed to their laughter as they told of misadventures on land and sea in the Territory, West Australia and Asia . Encounters with crocodiles featured in the yarns . One involved going ashore from a yacht to an isolated beach in a small dingy with an outboard motor to set up an earth oven to cook a hunk of pork hangi fashion. Logs were heaped about the oven and the party came back from time to time to see how it was progressing.
A fair amount of drinking was done in the process. Convinced that the pork would be ready, the party once more came ashore in the dinghy which beached on a sandbank . Out of the blue , a large crocodile emerged from the sea and settled alongside the boat . It refused to budge. A member of the party, somewhat sozzled and impatient , grabbed a burning log from the fire, rushed at the croc and let fly with the flaming weapon, which missed the saurian and landed inside the dinghy, containing the fuel tank.
The yacht and dinghy owner, Mal Sciacca, fearing there would be an explosion, rushed down and on the side where he was not seen by the croc, splashed water on the log . The croc eventually swam away . Never did find out how the pork tasted .
