Day 131, Friday, 7 August 2009

Denise – Berrimah
Mark – Berrimah to Katherine and return

Today I took the opportunity to accept an invitation to attend the Defence Indigenous Development Program (DIDP) Open Day in Katherine and meet the parents of the young fellow I interviewed in Katherine and get their side of his journey. Norforce was flying the parents of all the DIDP recruits into Katherine for the Open Day so they could see where their boys are staying and get a feel for what they have been learning. It was a very interesting day with a mix of rural and army skills. Chris and I arrived in time to see the horse riding, fencing and quad bike demonstrations before driving over to Tindal to watch a demonstration of a Norforce patrol making contact with the ‘enemy’. Lots of coloured smoke and gunfire and a great opportunity for photos – pity all my good gear is at home in Canberra. I hope to write a draft of the story whilst I am in Katherine so as they say - watch this space. All this started by a chance meeting outside Woolies 7 days ago.

Denise stayed in Darwin and made preparations for our departure tomorrow – clothes washing, packing, diary writing etc.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

DIDP horsemanship demonstration

DIDP quad bike skills demonstration

DIDP fencing demonstration

"The enemy" - assemble their equipment - DIDP

"The enemy" in hiding - DIDP

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