Funny Stories in regard to camping!.

We laugh about it now but when you hear a lion roar you know you heard a LION ROAR !......but here in our outback?...read on

Back around the early '70's we were bush camped in our swags out of Fitzroy Crossing WA....sound asleep until woken by the most frightening sound imaginable

A Lion Roaring....yes you say.........well we were bolt upright in disbelief.....thinking a unreal dream had woken me.....but ....no my now wife got woken as well..........so no dream ...we sat upright in disbelief and trying to work out what the hell could make a sound that sounded like a Lion???

Nothing more eventuated and we drifted off into an uneasy sort of half sleep....knowing what we heard....knowing we could not of heard......

A little before dawn...again the Lion roar...no mistaking this time........break camp...not hastily...but sort of preparing a little more quickly than normal.....and walking in circles a little waiting for the great cat to come bounding out of the bush looking for some tucker (us?)......... still in disbelief but knowing damn well what we heard....

Memories of the Cordering Cougar ( well known in WA)...other big cat tales that came to mind......some with some credibility.....now starting to appear more credible to us at least there and then....lets face it the Kimberley is a big place and its conceivable they could be breeding and never seen or heard.......????..we became our own devils advocate...hearing believing and at the same time disbelieving.....does wonder for your fertile mind....we knew we heard a LION!...but we couldn't have heard a LION

The outcome????.....never been so glad to see a travelling circus come travelling past our camp on the main road early in the morning ............obviously camped further a few km's up the road !....so glad they turned our way and went past us....and not the other way...or I would be joining the many that swear big cats are out there.....

Yes they were the days when a real circus existed with real animals...before the libbers and the vocal minority got their way

I have a RTT for the nasties near the ground that may bit me while I sleep. (I usually sleep very soundly. ) I had not thought of the nasties that may tread on me.

I might have told this one before - stop me, if I have! [;-)

Best mate and I took off from Perth in July 1969 in a HK Holden ute to see half of Australia in a month.
We planned to go to the North of W.A. in a zig-zag fashion, across to Darwin, back down to Pt Augusta, and thence across the Long Paddock back to Perth.
Neither of us had been any more than about 300kms from Perth.

We set out North, reached Geraldton, had a look around, and then headed East through Mullewa, with Mt Magnet as our next major destination.
Mile after mile of featureless country went by and it got near dark and we still had a long way to go to even reach Yalgoo.
We had to find a spot to camp - quickly.

There were no such thing as truck bays, rest areas or campsites back then. You found your nice spot for the night, and settled in.
We had a big tent with a steel frame that was open one side, and two camp stretchers.

We found a neat little track in the dark that led away from the main road through heavy scrub and low mallees, and set up camp in a nice handy clear spot about 150M from the road. We cooked and ate tea, and rolled into bed.

Sometime during the night we were awoken by a deep rumbling sound. Rumble, Rumble, Rumble .. RUMBLE!
Puzzled, we both sat upright. The rumbling sound got louder, and LOUDER, and closer and CLOSER!!
Suddenly our campsite was lit up like daylight, from the rear of the tent!

We both flew out of bed, to the sound of CLICK-CLACK, CLICK-CLACK, CLICK-CLACK... RUUUMMBLE!! - RUUUMMMBLE!!! - as a diesel locomotive hauling a consist of freight trucks rumbled right past the back of our tent, less than 10M away!!

We had no idea there was any operational rail line there! The bush was fairly thick and it was pretty dark when we pulled up!

We stood speechless and watched in awe, as the freight train rumbled past us and disappeared into the night!

After that little shock, it took us a while to settle down again - but sleep did come eventually!
In the morning we were stunned to see how close we had pitched our tent to the rail line!
The episode certainly made us scrutinise every camp site very carefully thereafter, for hidden rail lines!!

Cheers, Ron.

We were woken very early one morning when asleep in our Kamper at Cable Beach CP by the very loud barking of what sounded like a very close, very large dog.
As we had endured an evening being upset by some unpleasant neighbours with a late night , smoky BBQ who carried on beyond what we considered a reasonable hour, I thought this was a case of adding insult to injury so I considered I should show proper umbrage and confront them, as surely they were the owners of this forbidden dog.
I've been know to slip on the minimum of apparel on such occasions and proceed to address such issues with the owners of such beasts or other forms of aggravation with proper indignation and righteousness.
On this occasion I was all prepared to accost the camper who dared to have a dog barking in a crowded CP, and looked out the side flap to see where this animal was. And there in a tree, at eye height, no more than a meter away, and looking at me daring I should do something, was a very large Barking Owl.
True story.
Merry Christmas to all.
Bob

I was on a bmw ride, camping up at geehi, this was an annual thing. I had met these 3 brothers, a few times before. They all had the old Paris Dakar beamers.. And they also had a Harley each at home, to go with the Harley's were the shaved heads and big beards.. All looked the part...
They told me a great story, the 3 of them, camped at eucumbene dam with another mate, who was a bit of a practical joker..
Middle of the day, the mate through a bottle of sun screen in between them, " anyone one want sun screen" no hats, they grabbed the bottle, and spent the next 3 days sharing it between them, smearing it on their heads, nice n thick...
After 3 days, all three of the brothers, had bright orange noggins... Their mate had emptied the sun screen, and filled it with tanning lotion... Would have been a site to see... I laughed so hard, three big biker looking dudes, with orange heads... Lol

I just love reading these yarns. They are the stuff that legends are made from.

Can I suggest Explore Oz should gather these up and put them in a book?

Would make great reading around the campfire.

frank

Merry Christmas to all

Axle,

Can't remember any of my own yarns at the moment, but have one of the Old Man's, from his bushwalking days, before WWII.

He, and others of similar ilk, used to frequent a beach called North Era, which is now part of the Royal National Park, south of Sydney.

A couple of girls had rigged their little japara tent, but had forgotten to close the flaps, when they went down to the beach for a swim. On their return, their tent had changed shape........it now sported a cow's rear end sticking out of the unclosed flaps. With some concern, they rushed towards the tent, and started yelling at the freeloading cow.

The old cow, getting a fright, lifted her head in alarm, and took off, but not backwards, but at full noise, with the tent draped over it's head and forequarters. Needless to say, they never got the tent back, and most of their gear, what wasn't already eaten, got a severe trampling.

Bob

In about 1976 I was driving my series 3 landrover south from the Kimberley after having worked up there for a year or so. We were heading to Perth for a bit of 'civilization'. Late in the afternoon we pulled off the main road near a river and a railway bridge, I think just north of Port Headland. We planned to leave early so we decided to sleep in the back which we rarely did because there was so little room.

In the middle of the night I heard some strange noises outside and looked out to see a group of feral pigs rooting around in the mud near the puddles which was all that was left in the river. I got out to shoo them off when I saw that a big old sow had a bunch of piglets and having seen what they can do when in protection mode, left them be.

About 10 minutes later it started to rain and got progressively heavier until it was a torrent. I decided to pull up the river back to the road while I could. We only just made it and parked on the hard road verge well up an incline. When sunrise arrived about 4 hours later the river was already flooding and the causeway was impassible. We crossed via the rail bridge and only just made it before the road was fully closed.

I am sure that if I had not been woken by the pigs we would have been delayed enough to get seriously stuck. Only time I have ever given thanks to a pig.

This is a mates story, he's not yet prepared to write it out on a public forum himself, because he's still embarrassed by it.
This bloke was camped out by himself in a Mallee area of the SE Wheatbelt of W.A.
He had had dinner and it was well past dark, but a pleasant night, as he wandered back and forth organising his settling down for the night.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dull golden glow appearing through the distant trees and scrub.
He stopped and stared at it for a few minutes, making no sense of it - and the hairs started to prickle on the back of his neck.
He'd listened to the stories from numerous locals, as they related how they'd seen strange lights in the sky, and been followed by them. The area was noted for UFO sightings.

He stood transfixed as the glow got brighter and brighter, and it seemed to be developing a curved shape, that was rising from below a distant ridge!
In a panic, he actually dashed and hid behind his vehicle, with thoughts of alien craft and abductions running rampant through his mind!
His heart was absolutely thumping. The rifle! Where was the rifle?? He was virtually sweating in terror, right about now.

Suddenly, his mind stopped racing as the golden glow got larger, and he suddenly snapped into the realisation of what it was!
It was the rising full moon!!

He reckoned he never felt so bloody foolish in all his life, as he stepped out from behind his vehicle and waited for his heart rate to drop back from about 150 beats a minute!

He was country born and bred, and a farmer as well - so it wasn't like he'd never seen a rising full moon before!
He said it was just the fact that he hadn't expected to see it - and once he'd become transfixed on the shape and the glow, not recognising it immediately - all recognition seemed to go out the window, as he became mesmerised like a cat seeing something it can't recognise.

He only told me about it because I'd related a couple of similar stories, and he opened up about it.
I don't think he'd ever told anyone else much, he was just too embarrassed to relate the story.

Cheers, Ron.

Hi all and Merry Christmas to all.....back in 95 when working at Tom Price a mate n l decided to head over the coast to Karratha on the 4 day break, we were in a 60 series with a trailer behind with one of them racks where the dingy was upside down about a meter high. As we were going across the access road about the halfway point we noticed dark clouds in the distance l said to George "mate that doesn't look good" nah we should be ok was his reply....so we continued to Karratha for supplies and then onto the mouth of the Fortascue River, we set up camp layed out the swags and cooking gear unloaded the dingy n yep you guessed it started to drizzle, not to be put off we set up a tarp for some shelter...just as we got set up we hear a lil Suzuki cruising thru the sandunes he pull up next to us n says " you blokes camping here huh ? " yep why ? Checked the tides have ya ? About midnight ya gonna be 300 mill under water..Bugger.....pack up camp move behind sandunes....end of day one......day two, heavier rain but were keen to catch something so load up the dingy n start out for a days fishing, we get about half a km from the shore n pfffft pfffft motor dies.....out come the hand lines thinking well might as well wet a line while were here...two hours n in the rain no fish.....getting slightly bleep off by now....out come the oars n row back into camp for repairs. Nope motors not gonna go this trip so with no motor no fish...and now steady rain we both decide that's it home we go.....we pack up and are on the road by 2.30 or 3 head into Karratha for some chicken treat n out on the access line by 4pm..now all this rain has made the access line a bit slippery in a few spots n as we are going over a cattle grid the trailer flicks out and hits it sideways busting off a wheel at the hub..by now it's about 8pm were stuck with a trailer halfway to Tom Price it's now raining pretty heavy so we both agree l will stay with the trailer with a good supply of liquid refreshments and lve got shelter by way of the upside down dingy....righto off George goes back into Tom Price to organise a car trailer n lm next to the rail line in the dry awaiting his return not much to do but have a few beers so one turns into 20 and l fall asleep on the camping gear covered by the upturned dingy....next thing l know lm awakened by a bloody loud and l mean LOUD blahttttt.....l immediately sit up WTF....bang l see stars n black out.....next l know lm being awaken by a rail access bloke " you ok mate ?" Hmmm yeah sortta...what happened? .....appently the train driver seeing me asleep on the trailer thought he would have some fun when he went past n blew the horn saw me sit up rather quick n lay back down again just as fast, fearing l might be hurt he radioed the rail camp to come out n do a check on me....blood nose and sore head we arrived back in Tom Price no fish busted trailer 4 am the day before work again....least we can laugh about it now : )

I was listening to the footy on the radio at Well 3A I think it was on the CSR.

I had a fire and all, and heard a few strange noises coming from the bush.
I swore I saw some eyes too (it was dark).

Anyway to cut a long story short soon a stampede of donkeys took place, right past my camp. The ground rumbled.

I kept down and close to the ute, in case they didn't see the ute as a threat.
Never seen anything like it, haven't since!!!

Cheers
Alan

so, many years ago we were off to go camping at fraser island all excited as we were taking a few girls with us.
now these girls had never been camping before so we fill the utes with all kinds of stuff,
we had a kitchen cupboard taken off the wall of the kitchen, toasters, electric jug, watering can, posters for the walls of the tent nice cane plate holders and more.
the tent we had was an old canvas army tent with no floor in it.
well we go to pick up the girls from their place and had to wait about an hour for them to finish ironing their clothes doing their hair and makeup ect, finally were off.
6 odd hours later we find ourselves an hour late for the tides and driving in the dark with it starting to rain.
so we make the decision to pull over set camp for the night and move up to where we wanted to be the next day.
as it was getting quite windy we set the tent up nice and firm with a wind break on one side. we managed to get that all done in good time and the drinks then started to flow, ops we forgot to pack drinking cups but in the trusty kitchen cupboard were some small 7oz paper cups crisis diverted.
as it was getting dark we needed some light oh bugger didn't pack anything for that either into the cupboard we go, found 6 candles you butey we all agree except its so dam windy be now that they would not stay lit back to the cupboard we go and find the toaster and electric jug, the toaster was one of those old twin door types which worked perfect as a twin candle holder with built in wind break and the old jug held one candle down inside with the lid ripped off. back to the drinking we go. now with a bit of light we start hanging up the posters to impress the girls at our great skills, when the centre pole pulled through the eyelet of the old canvas tent. omg what can we do to fix this we all think well back to that trusty old kitchen we go and all we have left is the old watering can. scored, im thinking of putting the can over the top of the pole as it was bigger than the hole in the roof, low and behold it works great and its back to the drinking. by this time we are all quite drunk when the pole with watering can on it rips through the roof ripping it from corner to corner, well this time the cupboard was well and truly bare, so we moved all our bedding and furniture around to the dry parts of the tent and continued drinking.
in the morning we all get out to inspect the tent as we still had another three nights in this tent to go. so having breakfast and cleaning up for the move up the beach i come across the tackle box and come up with the idea of straightening out some hooks and sewing the old tent back up. with three of us on the job we had it all repaired in about 1 hour, with that done we put it in the back of the ute moved up to our new campsite set it all up again had an awesome time with no other repairs needed
but omg we had a great time and a top story to tell

cheers
Ads

I remember our first foray up to North Queensland, we took the kayaks and went on a paddle around the Whitsundays. Took the young fella for his first serious paddle to one of the islands described in the yachties bible as "known to be home to a number of death adders" and already a bit jumpy at the prospect of crocs for company. We camped precariously close to the waters edge whilst keeping a close watch on tides and after a successful little fishing stint, settled down for the night with tent doors open and a fabulous view of other islands through the fly mesh. I was awoken in the night by a strange grunting that I was convinced was a croc having a stroll around the beach and merely a matter of time before we were supper. So I pressed my nose against the mesh for a look. Nothing. Grunt...grunt...it went on and eventually, I nervously and reluctantly decided to get some sleep. As I turned to straighten the bedding with eyes now adjusted to the night, there was the young un, sat up in bed gulping his bloody Gatorade, probably wondering what I was finding so riveting outside.

I was hitching to Sydney and my ride came in late to the outskirts of Newcastle. Drop me off anywhere I said - I had a hike tent and sleeping bag. I wandered across this grassy patch, dead dark, with a few house lights in the distance. Set up tent and went to sleep. Woke up with the sun with a busting bladder and hopped out quick smart for relief. I was in the middle of a bleddy oval with houses all round!