Texas Pete. Or, Rather, Dave.

Forgot to tell you about this. Few weeks back I came back to my room to find a Texan loading a 7 foot long harpoon gun.

I thought it best to make friends with him.

Actually Texas Dave turned out to be alright. He had been in the Outback for a month catching his own dinner with his harpoon.

Now. When you get into customs in Oz you realise how paranoid they are about allowing anything into the country that could destroy their delicate ecosystem. Things like soil, bats, Fanta, tulips, Nutella, weevils, Tracker bars or air.

When, after re-entering Oz after a brief trip to NZ, Texas Dave got to customs they said to him "What's in the box, mate?"

"A didgeridoo and a harpoon gun" responded Dave

"Oh my God! " said customs "Have you any idea how dangerous that is? A didgeridoo? It's made of wood for Christ's sake. "

"What about the harpoon gun" said Dave

" Never mind about that" said customs "Get that didgeridoo in quarantine. Now!"

And so Dave's didgeridoo was impounded, X-rayed and probed six ways from Sunday, and kept in storage at Sydney airport for three days at a cost, to Dave, of A$75.

When Dave left the hostel he annoyed me, however. He turned on the light at 4.30am and decided to start packing. Why he didn't do this before he went to bed is not obvious.

I wasn't going to say anything though in case he came over all Captain Ahab.