Our beloved companion and fellow adventurer, our pet crocodile Volenti*, is missing. Lost somewhere in France between Perpignan and Paris.
Volenti has been with us since Christmas 2009. We rescued him from the gift shop at the Cairns crocodile park. He travelled back with us to Perth and helped us celebrate our leaving party where he cut a fine figure doing death rolls across the dance floor. Volenti was a patient companion on our 48 hour dash from Perth to Derby. He travelled with us all over the Kimberley, from Broome to Mount Barnett, from Eco Beach to Middle Lagoon, where he was a firm favourite with he locals.
We fed Volenti well on beef jerky. Or at least he spent four months chewing on the same piece of beef jerky after Easter 2010 when Cassy’s mischevious siblings “hid” some jerky in his mouth which we only found later that year.
Volenti leapt at the opportunity to join our world adventure and we packed him with us. He ate well at a Route 66 diner in the depths of Los Angeles. Volenti partied hard with us in Vancouver and discovered a whole new world with us in New York. He rested his crocodilian head in our architecturally designed apartment in the El Born district of Barcelona.
We greatly appreciated his warmth (for a cold blooded creature) in the tent on our camping and cycling adventures. Then when we arrived in Paris and opened our bags, his furry scales were missing. Volenti is gone.
I have a theory that Volenti may have seen a little of French culture and liked it. After spending so much time in the far north of Australia he might have jumped at the opportunity for a life of wine and cheese. We certainly did. I like to think of him now as wearing a pink polo neck T-Shirt hanging out with the hot crocodiles that do the modelling work for the Lacoste logo. We do miss him and if anyone does see a lost furry crocodile with an Australian accent hanging out in southern France – please rescue him for us.
Vale Volenti
* Volenti is a Latin legal word which means “voluntary assumption of risk.” If you know what danger you are getting yourself into you can’t blame anyone else for the outcome. We thought it was a great name for a crocodile.
