What have you lost and/or found when travelling?

Yes we've found a bit of stuff over the years, tent pegs, thermos full of hot coffee, tools, spare wheels etc.
The best find was a motorbike, toolbox with tools, gennie in a box, rear bumper and associated bracketry on the Gibb river road. Dragged it all off the road, made a note of the distance to the next creek and motored on. Pulled into a clearing around an hour or so later and there was a bus/motorhome pulled in as well. While the wife was making lunch I wandered over to have a look at it, sure enough signs of broken steel at the rear etc. The owner walks out of the scrub and we start talking as you do and I said to him how's it going etc and then steered the conversation towards gennies, motorbikes etc and he says I've got all mine on the rack at the back, come and have a look, should of seen his face when he walked around the back!!
Needless to say they took off up the road back the way they'd come very quickly.
We've left things sitting behind on rocks to dry too!!, no fun when you leave ALL your tentpegs behind when you go to put up the tent the next night ;-))

Last winter we found a really useful sleeping bag cover in the snow at Mt. Skene in VIC. I actually was planning to buy one and it did the trick nicely.Have lost a lilo on the Finke River road, motorbike pants on the Lake Leake Rd. in Tassie[not wearing at the time!!], suntan cream on the OOdnadatta Track, etc. boring stuff but great places! Haven't found that much. Most useless thing was an Adelaide Crows scarf on the highway near Horsham the day after they won the final about 10 years ago. Maybe hubby drives too fast. You can always stock up on shampoo and soap in beach caravan parks over summer. Cheers, Christine

We've found a double cast iron jaffle iron and a pair of binoculars!!! (just kidding)........;-))

The only thing of any consequence I've left behind was my Maverick's jack handle up in Barrington Tops in the mid 90's. I'd been using it's convenient hook to lift the camp oven on/off the fire and left it there when we packed up hastily in the rain the next morning.

On the found side.... I found an oldish, well-worne Dryz-a-bone hanging in the fork of a tree in the Victorian High Country in about 2000. I still have it and class it as "mine" now.

Found a nice gympie at a truck layby once near Kununurra about 10 years ago. Still use it for bashing in tent pegs, etc.
And the usual items of cutlery, but they never seem to match our own camping set :-)
Gerry

I found a Truckies tie down strap,the other day on the Strzelecki track, complete with short double hook end and hand winch with about 4 metres of strap.

Cheers Steve

MineLab metal detector !! Handed it in at Coober Pedy Police. After about 6 months it was delivered by the local police to home....No one had claimed it !!

Lost: small wooden wedges, by the dozen! I make them for the purpose of leveling my 3 way fridge then when it's time to pack I pick the fridge up and put it into the vehicle leaving the wedges on the ground! I'm gradually returned felled timber to the forests :)

Found: Nothing worth mentioning, a few tent pegs....

Mike Harding

To all you thieves....I want my tent pegs back...NOW !!!

Gday,
A mate and I found a Lady having a turd behind a tree on the Boggy Hole track years ago!
We turned the engine off and rolled up behind her.
Sort of gives a new meaning to the name Boggy Hole.

Cruel..I know, But you had to be there!

Glenn, Snapper and I went looking for wood.

Stopped at a spot where there was some wood and a car, but no occupants.

We waliked about 20 yards and found the couple who belonged to the car............doing the horizontal waltz.

We lost the kitchen out of our Aussie Swag camper on the way to Steep Point a few years back. Packing up at Hamelin Pool that morning, when one of those bar stewards who leave it till you are flat strap to get on the road came up to chat. "How's the Aussie Swag? How hard to pack up? etc etc"

Being polite, we stopped to chat - and when he had gone completely overlooked the latch pin that you must put in the slide out kitchen when travelling. Got almost out to the point - in those days it was not advisable to take a trailer all the way, so we were going to leave the trailer in a nice camp on the cliff top and do the 15 kms each way with just the car.

The fun started. Jan got out of the car to direct me into the spot we chose. "WHERE'S MY KITCHEN????". The kitchen had broken the door lock about 30 km before, and as we went along it had spread knives, forks, plates, cooking gear and salt & pepper shakers along the track then finally broke a weld and fell out.

That was the end of the trip to the point. We went back, found the kitchen 15 km down the road and the rest of the stuff along for the next 15 km all except one sharp knife. We then headed back to Hamelin with the kitchen tied back and in for a hard afternoon of cleaning, scrubbing and rigging up a temporary stove.

When we got to Geraldton a few days later we got it welded and fixed it up for about $80. Had to get one latch posted from Brisbane - but Aussie Swag sent it for free as they had the perfect story to tell customers to always check the latch pin!!

Not surprising then that people who have been in the same park for two or three days who come along to chat because they have the same caravan as we do get short shrift these days. I cannot understand why they wait till they see you packing up. We will chat - while we are packing.

But all in all , it was the hilarious highlight of our 14 month "big trip" and we finally got to Steep Point six years later - leaving the van at Hamelin and taking a tent. And it was worth waiting for.

That's our lost something story. LOL

Oh and we have found more tent pegs than we could ever use over the years! That's all.

Max

Found a nice looking mans watch at Claytons Bore on the Birdsville track. Had a look in the visiors book and saw the last entry in the book was that days date. Noted the surname and that they were from Adelaide, intended to check the phone book when we were passing through there in a few weeks time. Motored on up the track and about an hour later came across a vehicle towing a caravan. Across the back of the van were the first names of the couple towing the van and the uhf channel that they monitored. The first names matched the initials we had noted from the visitors book at Claytons Bore so I called them up and said giday Dave and asked him if he had the time, Dave came back and said he did, silence, I then asked him if he could tell me the time and he says.... "Ive......lost me watch. We stopped, had a natter and handed his wife's last Christmas pressie back to him.

Found a cheque from the ATO for $3000 near Tenterfield. Went to hand it in at the police but it was closed. So I looked up the name in the phone book, found an address and posted it. Put my business card in with it but never heard anything.

If I could have cashed it I would've.

If anyone finds a pair of reading glasses in the Kulkyne, a blue polar fleece cardigan at Deibel Hills, a blue bum bag with a digital camera and a set of nissan keys between Broome and Cape Leveque, 14 bars of soap, 4 bottles of shampoo and two towels at various locations around Australia, could you ring the bloke I was travelling with last year! Thanks.

Mick.

I thought I'd lost my water filler cap but I had a look on the gas bottle where I usually sit it when filling the tank and there it was... it had stayed there all day!

Left a nice looking watch in a caravan park shower block in Portorgutta in July. Actually got caught by Member Lucy asking about it at the office. The office said a watch had been handed in, and asked me to describe it. I said Chinese branded Rolex and they didn't believe me until I said it had a broken winder and the said, yes, that was it, but couldn't believe it was Chinese

Hi Moose - We found a table once - or bits of deal along the road on the way to Exmouth which we recognised was once table. We were tenting, and a second table would have been nice; one for cooking and one for dining, so we went back and collected the bits. Being slats, mostly unbroken, it could be re-assembled quite easily.

We then drove up the scenic Charles Knife road and on the way down the hill, stopped at a good vantage point for photos (pre digi-cameras so was conservative about wasting film back then).

As we stopped, a dusty old Cruiser heading up the track stopped on the other side. As my husband went to the south side view, i lined up the view on the other side of the road. The man looked to the south, and the lady to the north. Then they noticed their table had gone from their roof rack.

"We've lost our table" he said "No you haven't" my husband replied, and the conversation sort of repeated itself.

Meanwhile on the other side of the track the lady said similar, adding "it was my mother's table - we've had it for years' "no you haven't lost it" i said "yes we have" etc.

They had been travelling through the station tracks and had only been on the bitumen (something they tried to avoid) for a few kilometres. They could not believe their luck that we had found it and collected all the pieces.

Now we have a bigger table! I hope they are still doing the back tracks with mother's trusty old dusty table.

Motherhen

I found an SLR Ricoh Camera with a Pelicase waterproof case. Brand new also had a flash and a zoom. Had it valued at $600 at the time lol. The initials were B.H.P. Brian Henry ?????

Moose,

The things that I have found,
Tent pegs
Maps
Long handle shovel
A spare tyre and bracket from under a 80 Series
A few people that were lost
But the most important thing that I have found is my way home after each trip.

Wayne

tap connectors at every caravan park

Found a large roll of new fencing wire in the middle of the road out the back of Cobar. Found a 35mm camera at the base of Big Red. Had the film developed to see if I could identify anything to contact someone but no such luck.