Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 at 06:23
I post this incident from time-to-time in case anyone can relate to it. I've been back to that spot but (thankfully :) no recurrence.
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Last Sunday (7th March 2004) my partner and I
were camping on the south bank of the Murray
River in NW Victoria a few 10s of kilometres SE
of Robinvale. We stayed in the one spot for four
days and had a great time, my elder son and his
girlfriend were with us and camping about 2k
downstream, joining us for meals and much of the
day. Our
campsite was in a
state forest with low
to medium density bush and about 8k away from the
nearest habitation, a farmhouse. The forest was
_very_ dry with a lot of fallen branches and
leaves on the ground. It is the second time we
have camped in this forest the first time being
about six months ago. I have spent many, many
nights in the bush/deserts all across Australia
and the world (probably 50% of those nights by
myself) and am familiar with the night noises
and animals of such
places.
Sunday (by chance a very
bright full moon) was
our last night camping before returning to
Melbourne on the Monday. My partner retired to
bed around 10pm in our see-through mozzie screen
tent and promptly fell asleep; I followed about
30 minutes later and was asleep within five
minutes.
I think it was about 3.30am when I awoke from a
deep sleep - I was instantly wide awake and knew
what had awakened me, I was not surprised to find
my partner was also awake, she was sitting up in
bed and looking around at the forest. We were
both listening to the loud and unmistakable sound
of a heavy biped moving through the forest
towards our
camp and, at a guess, no more than
100m away. I listened and looked for a further 5
or 10 seconds using the
bright moonlight to try
and see the creature walking across the forest
floor on the dry twigs and leaves. I could see
nothing but I sure as hell could hear it. Two
feet, crunching the forest underfoot as they
moved. I pulled on my shorts, left the tent and
put on my shoes, the footsteps were still loudly
approaching but nothing was to be seen. I decided
to hide in the shadow of a large tree about 10m
away, as I moved towards the tree I made quite a
lot of noise on the dry leaves and by the time I
reached the shadow of the tree the sound of the
approaching footsteps had ceased. I waited for
about 3 minutes and neither saw or heard
anything. I moved the few metres across to the
camp, placed a chair in deep shadow and waited
silently for about 45 minutes. The only sounds
were those of the normal night noises of the
forest. I returned to bed and slept lightly for
the balance of the night, my partner had fallen
asleep before my return.
During the night my partner and I had not
exchanged a single word about the incident, we
both knew we sensed danger and took appropriate
measures to protect ourselves so there was no
influence or suggestion from one to the other yet
in the morning we were in 100% agreement about
what had happened and what our perception of the
noise was.
As an electronics design engineer I've not given
to making assumptions without having creditable
evidence and I offer none here; but I can think
of no creature which could tramp through a dry
forest and then, suddenly, disappear without
trace, surely an animal would either have fled
when it heard/smelled me and I would have heard
it's flight through the bush or it would have
frozen for a time and then cautiously moved away
and I would have heard it during my 45 minute
wait and with such a
bright moon that night I
probably would have seen it too.
I would return to this location to
camp but I
suspect I will never sleep there as soundly as
before.
I would be interested to hear of experiences
others may have had of a similar ilk.
Mike Harding
AnswerID:
283240
Follow Up By: Yowie73 - Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 at 11:41
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 at 11:41
This would certainly put the wind up me.
You comment on not hearing it leave. It's quite possible that it, whatever it was, waited longer than you before leaving.
How loud was the noise that woke you up? It seems odd that any animal/creature/person that has eluded capture for so long, would be clumbsy enough to make that much noise.
Having said that, I wouldn't be going back :)
FollowupID:
547898
Follow Up By: HowdyDoody - Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 at 13:11
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 at 13:11
An emu once scared the crap out of me in much the same manner down along the Vic Coast near Lake Tyers.
FollowupID:
547919