What puts the wind up a man camped solo in the bush?

You know when there's nobody else around, middle of the night, no wind, no rain, no other noises and you're in your tent? That freaks me out a bit.

We camped just 30m off a bush track a few years ago on the way to Innaminka, just off the Strezlecki Track near Yunningarrie Waterhole (I think). About 2am we were woken up by the roar of a roadtrain. It sounded like it was about to drive over the top of our tent. I went outside straight away and couldn't see anything - no lights, nothing.

Kim,

Years ago I always used to take an auto Shotgun with me.

I haven't done so for the last 15 or so years, but we had a worrying incident (nothing serious) that made me feel vulnerable a couple of years ago which has made me reconsider.

I really don't like the idea of carrying a firearm for protection, however the thought of joiining a Pistol Club to be able to own one legally is not far from my mind.

Sad that we may feel this way, but one can't be too prudent.

Jim.

Just last week we were camped on the Birdsville Track, where the Inside & Outside Tracks meet. I think about 10-20 k's or so from Clifton Hills. The silence at night was deafening. But just after we turned in for the night, in that dream-like state I'm in just before fully falling asleep, (as opposed to the dream-like state I'm in when I'm awake....... ) a noise had me awake with a start. Laying there, eyes wide open staring at the roof of the dome tent, I wondered what could have possibly woken me? Was it a feral animal come to sniff around our stuff?? And then, there it was again......





My 15 year old son.......... in the next tent................ snoring!


Cheers

Member Brian (Gold Coast)

When out hunting i always kept my pump action shotgun handy until little Johnny banned them.
One night getting into my tent my mate said what do want that for and i reminded him that they have not caught the Back packer murder, aka Ivan Milat to which there was no reply and things went very silent.

A funny thing that happened to me was we layed out our swags quite late and was woken by a felloow in the morning we had camped in the bottom of his yard and 50 metres from his house one of those very dark nights and and couldnt see a thing,
just rolled out the swags a went to sleep.
We all saw the funny side of it.

all the best
Eric

G'day Kim,

never been troubled in the bush, she is my good medicine....


EXCEPT FOR THE TIME WHEN....

early 80's after "Razorback" came out. I was bush with just one other and we heard the grunting and screeching, we ran, we climbed the first tree, it headed a different direction. Geez well we were passing bricks at the time okay don't laugh. I carry steel but not firearms.

I took the money from the gun buyback and bought a chainsaw. I have been trained in the safe use and handling of semiautomatic and fully automatic weapons I have no training with a chainsaw.

Margo is fine with me owning guns she is terrified of me with a chainsaw.

We carry a couple of pick axe handles beside the drivers and passenger seats in the truck.

I have used the pickaxe handles twice so far once to discuss a matter with a truckie off his face on speed or ice.

The other was outside Kalgoorlie WA.

An emu had been hit by a truck and was still alive on the side of the road. Traffic was pretty heavy but I could stop safely so pulled off the road.


The emu had both legs smashed but was still alive so I took the pick axe handle and clubbed it to death.

On returning to the truck Margo commented "That was surprising, no one stopped to help you"

My reply was " Well if you saw someone like me standing beside the road beating an emu to death with a club, WOULD YOU STOP ?"

I camped by the side of the Trans line 100km east of Kalgoorlie once. Thought it would be kinda cool to see some trains in the morning, didn't realise it was so busy!

Woke up in the middle of the night by a very bright light followed by a freight train coming by at at least 140km/h. I was only about 5m from the track. Got the heart going!!

G'day Kim. Have only had one heart starter in the bush; my first trip up to Oodnadatta. By myself, almost ready for bed when a car came looking down the track in front of me. I was ready to roll in 30 seconds...turned out to be a mob looking for a decent spot with firewood. I thought they'd seen the moonlight off the windscreen and were looking for me! Just fellow campers, that's all.
Suddenly the bush lost it's unfriendly feeling:)
You know I've often had to look over my shoulder in the city, but very rarely in the bush.
Perhaps it's because I don't camp within about 300km of so called civilization.
If I have to overnight in or near a town then a motel/cabin is the way to go. Just close the door and forget the world.
I can tell you that Windorah is a lot more attractive when you're not frozen solid from camping along the Coopers :)

SWIMBO and I ,with our 2yo boy, were free camping in France in 1975 in a Kombi.
Picture a pitch black night, and about 3am we were woken by the rattling of chain and a dull clunk and the Kombi rocking a little. CHIT!
Was not game to turn on the headlights and just sat there shaking till dawn when all was revealled.
We had camped in a bloody cow paddock and one old girl thought she would scratch her head on the front of the car. The rattling was from a bell on a chain around her neck.
That was the last time we free camped on that trip.
Lesson was " look for cow poop" before you camp!!

G'day Kim

I remember back in 2003 , the Missus and i were travelling around Aust, it was late in the afternoon and we had just pulled into Lake Indoon in W.A. We were the only people there and thought this place looks pretty good, might stop here a couple of days...well we were busy setting up the camper trailer when i heard this rather noisy vehicle approaching pretty quickly ...all of a sudden there was this 75series ute pulled up alongside of us with this strange looking fella just sitting there staring at us....well after a few mins i started feeling a bit uncomfortable, so i approached him and asked if anything was wrong....he didn't say a word , just put his stubby up to his mouth and then drove off...needless to say the missus and i had the worst sleep you could imagine that nite, so next morning packed up and got the hell outa there...lol...
a couple of years ago i was looking at an image of Brad Murdoch...not saying it was him , but bloody hell there was definitely a resemblance... made me feel sick just thinking about it......

Cheers......Borgy

Geez, remember pulling into a parking bay just over the NT border heading South on the Stuart, warm night, the missus inside the Troopy, me on the roof rack in me swag, been asleep for awhile.
Got woken up with eerie howling, swung the 'Big Jim' around only to see a heap of Dingoes about 100 metres away. Spent the rest of the night inside.
Another time heading towards Kal from Leanora just on dark, pulled into parking bay for a coffee and thought I could feel something looking at me, swung the torch around and there was a dingo about 20 feet away on top of a pile a gravel. Grabbed the .22, took a shot at it, missed, looked again, the bloody thing was back on the gravel!! Turfed the coffee and got going.
Used to drive Semi's yonks ago, you want to ask the Truckies about the Pilega (sp) and the yowies there.
Cheers,
Dennis

Landed in darwin aiport about 11pm and my connecting flight wasnt till 7am rolled out the swag in a corner of the air port.

Pushing out the ZZZZZs I fell a tap on the side and there was a secrurity guard standing over me I thought the worst.

All he said was stop snoring your keeping up the whole of the air port..

All the best
Eric

A friend has just returned from a climbing trip in yosemite national park USA. He's one of these fearless dudes who thinks nothing of hanging by your fingernails 1000 metres in the air.
Asked him if he'd had any worrying moments while there.

Funnily enough the only thing that scared him was one night sleeping in a swag under the stars ,only to be woken by a loud crashing and scraping sound. He was about to check it out when he realised it was a BEAR looking for a feed!

"Just closed my eyes and pretended it wasn't there" was his comment.Makes the wildlife,both native, and feral human in Australia pale to insignificance he reckons.

What people are not taking into consideration is that the Government hav shut down all the loony bins !
Which means they hav to go somewhere...

Nothing worse than sleeping in your swag and bloody shotguns going off nearby just when your nodding off...

When we were at Enoch Point/Big River a few months back a big bloke came wondering out of the bush,No-one else about with a gold pan in hand,my mate said where in the hell did he come from...Never think your alone in the bush,there's always someone watching somewhere...



Cheers

My young bloke was working on Nockatunga Station in SW Queensland Channel Country . Nockatunga is 8500 km2 so quite a large station .
My son and one other Jackaroo had left the main homestead about midnight and headed to an outstation to cull wild pigs that were swarming in to feed on the hay that had been spread for the stock horses . About 3am in the morning they were heading back to the main station when a light was seen up ahead , they first thought it was the head stock man coming out to check on them or possibly shooters poaching . The light approached them then dissapeared . It then appeared to their side keeping up to them ,( they were travelling about 80kms an hour ) but where the light was was thick scrub and ditches every where . The light would dissapear and reappear back in front of them and then across the the side of them . After five long minutes my son who had been driving said to the other Jackaroo , did you see that ! All the other bloke said was YEP ! . Next day they were telling other people at the station about the lights and found out they weren't the first to experience this phenomenon and they could just add themselves to the list of people that have witnessed MIN MIN lights . Often wonder if Mick's ( the other Jackaroo ) grip on the .223 tightened during those five minutes .

While asleep on a camp stretcher beside lake mackenzie on fraser in the seventies . My eyes were closed but i could smell this awful smell . Opened my eyes to see a dingoes noes an inch in front of my face . While camped in an abandoned mine . It took 5 hours to drive in as the road was washed away and probably 20 years since the last vehicle went down there . Got to sleep at night then woke up to close by gun fire . Guiness book record for packing a 4by .

two time come to mind

Last year we were heading to Coober Pedy and decided to stop at one of the road side areas. Our 1st night out of a van park. Had a nice chat around a fire with some fellow travellers then all went to bed. Little while later a car comes off the hwy and drives right between our campers. Four doors go, bang, bang, bang, bang. Footsteps crunch on the gravel... which sounds very loud in the still of the night. A very long minute or two later they jump back in the car and take off. Phew! Must have just needed a toilet stop.

Many years ago I was fishing with the then bro-in-law up near Dartmouth.Weather was terrible, rain and high winds. We had had a quick tea and dived into the tent. Thought the tent was going to disappear, with us in it, so couldn't get to sleep. Next thing we hear a whole lot of growling, grunting and snorting outside. Something was checking out the area for a snack but buggered if we were going to poke our noses out to see what it was. Just lay there and hoped it didn't want a yellow tent for dinner!

About 25 years ago a group of us where camped on the Pennefather River, Cape York.
Young and full of ideas, we decided to catch ourselves a Tiger Shark.

Our shark rig consisted of a snatch strap shackled to a tree, 30 metres of 10mm wire rope ended by 20 metres of 3mm stainless wire rope, a float and a hook big enough to anchor the Queen Mary! Our bait was a heap of fish frames from the lunch time catch.

We walked the rig across the sand flats at low tide as far out as the end of the wire would allow and wait.

About 3 in the morning my mates then girlfriend, now wife comes to wake me up. "We've caught a crocodile, we've caught a crocodile" was the cry. I'm a bugger to wake when I'm real tired.
I just mumbled something apparently about "get it off in the morning"

"No, no the crocodile is thrashing about you've got to get it off"

This went on for about 15 minutes or so apparently.

Eventually she coaxed me out of the swag and down to the beach. I've given the snatch strap a couple of tugs, sure enough there's something swimming about on the end and it's big.

I mumble something about sleep and bed then turn around. "No, no says the mates girlfriend, you've got to get it off"

So I starts hauling the rope in, pitch black, 3 in the morning, Pennefather River on Cape York, me armed to the teeth in a pair of underpants, a hooked crocodile and one frightened girl with a torch, get the picture? Should have been a movie!

I get this thing into about 2 feet of water and it goes ballistic! I'm now standing on a pitch black Cape York beach, armed to the eye teeth in my underpants, holding a piece of 10mm wire rope that's supposed to have a crocodile on the end of it. My torch and torch bearer have run so far they are found 3 days later in Rockhampton!

This is about the time I wake up and think about the what I'm going to do with the crocodile. I'm sure I can give it a mean elastic flick with my Jocks!

So, I finally coax the torch bearer back from Rocky and pull a little further. This bloody great round black mouth about the size of a garbage tin lid appears.

I exclaim, "it's a bloody great cod"

With that the hero's appear out of the darkness armed with a heap of camera's and torches to "see what they had caught" we take a sheite load of photo's and roll the cod back into the river.

Moral of the story?

With good mates there is no room in your life for enemies!

Geoff

Another 'good mate' story!

I was camped in an Army Training range and my co driver and I were fast asleep in swags about 2 meters apart under a tarp strung off the side of the vehicle.

Sound alseep I wake to the sound of a kuthump.....pause.......kathump..........soft but definately getting closer. Every image runs through the brain of what animal hops and stops like that.....seriously coulndt think of anything sensible so the imagination runs wild.

Now the swag im in is a zip up version so very niosey to get out of to take a peek so lay motionless hoping it would go away.....nope getting closer.......

Swear to god the animal is now beween my snoring mate and I.....then I feel it......

something outside the swag pressing gently on my arm through the canvas...getting heavier.....

I relax my arm and prepare for the hardest flick I can manage in the 3 inches of space inside the swag that I can to launch my new bed buddie away.

boom I lash out and feel the animal fly through the air away from me....and its then I remeber my mate is sound asleep 2m away in the direction I just flung this unknown creature.

I can picture it landing on him going absolutely ferral and then him waking up in shock and compounding the problem and a screaming flayling swag running of into the bush in hysterics but.....

nothing....not a sound

its then in my relief I can relax and then the giggles set in and Im a mess for about 30 minutes laughing my head off.

My mate never woke up and didint remeber a thing in the morning and I still dont know what the creature was!!!

But makes me smile thinking about it!

Sorry about that Kim.....
Are you saying I should have anounced myself?

Hahaha

Cheers