Dumbest/funniest thing you've done camping

Not really camping but pretty dumb none the less

[to set the scene I used to be horribly short sighted...could not see more than half a meter in front of me and even that was terribly blurry - I had laser surgery 12 months ago and now I have better than 20:20 vission]

I was on holiday with my brother in WA and we were in the Margaret River area...an decided to go surfing....

no# 1 mistake - to take my glasses off...and enter the surf!!!!!!!

no# 2 mistake - to think that I could somehow surf [even though it was a boogie board] I could hardly determine where the shore was let alone how to handle said board.

no# 3 mistake - to wear "flimsy" bathers in surf..

result

I got dumped on..infact...it was a monster - I didnt see it [how could I ..I was blind - litterally] I just heard my brother yell...." bleep Lyn it's a big one..."....and then...I rolled in the surf..I didn't know what was up or down...started to think "Jesus, where's that board gone, it cost me $100.00" and I kept rolling..then I thought...."geez....I'm running out of air here, I hope I suface soon"....and then ...I realised that I was losing my bathers....and then I thought.."now what do I do...do I try and retrieve them or concentrate on not drinking the water"...and then after what seemed like forever, the surf spat me up onto the beach with my cossie around my ankles, much to the delight of the local guys who were sitting 5 ft from where I washed up.

My brother who wittnessed the whole event was in stitches, and the whole beach applauded...!!!

Lyn [Mrs. Al]

PS now I can see I might go into the surf again, this time with heavy duty togs on!Laugh alot..life's too short not to....

Melissa
i have hundreds of funny or dumb stories,two that spring to mind go like this both are from my child hood
1) we were camped by a river somewhere in they back blocks of nsw all packed in the station wagon whensomebody spots what apears to be some body standing not to far from the car,so the old man bails out of the car with a machete to confront & drive off the would be peeping tom,only to find that he had bravely lept to his families defence agianst nothing more than a pair of my brothers jeans that had been hung up in a tree to dry( after he fell in the river) with the legs just the right distance from the ground to look as if they were ocupied,it should be noted this was 6 people sleeping in a holden station wagon so getting in & out was quite an ordeal.

2) the second story is along the same lines with the poor old man be the but of the story again although he must be given some leway in this story,again we we were in a remote truck bay in the back of nowhere i think it may have been queensland
not sure but what i do remembers was that there had been a murder in the arer & everbody was abit jumpy well we all went to bed this time it was in atransit van with roof top camper it was stinking so the old being full of bravado in front of us kids say buggerit if any body sticks their nose in the window i will just shove the gun under it ,sure enough inthe middle of the night a head apears in the window & true to word the old man with not quite so much bravado sticks the barrel of the gun under the the persons nose. idont know who got the biggest shock the cop who stuck his head in to do the welfair check or the old man but both needed a good strong coffee before going thier seperate ways

Dumbest thing i've done is the night before we headed off for Cameron Corner, I had the Engel plugged into the mains overnight prior to us leaving early the next morning.
Extension cord is plugged into the fridge, running back down the driveway, under the garage door and into the socket.
Wake up next morning 4:30am, successfully manage to break the towel rail in the bathroom (don't ask how), one porcelain end falls and smashes everywhere. Clean this up and prepare to move hilux out of driveway ready to go.
Too busy worried about waking up neighbours, I forget to unplug the mains lead. Drive out and hear this loud bang. Instantly realise it was the extension cord re-coiling after being stretched beyond its breaking point and slamming back into the garage door. So much for trying not to wake the neighbours.
Luckilly the cord had given way in the middle and the fridge was fine, as was the garage door and the socket, and more importantly, no one was fried and no fuse blown (bared wires miracullously didn't touch each other).

The rest of the trip was trouble free.

Amongst heaps of "clever" things we have done, one of the latest was when we were coming back from the west and decided to hoochie up off the main road. It was getting pretty late so instead of wacking up the tent decided to crash in the back of the wagon. Where we decided to go off the track was on a bend. So as we meandered in off the road thinking we were well and trully outta sight selected a great spot.
About 1 in the morning the Commanding officer woke me up screaming that something was about to "get "us. I looked out and seen these great massive lights heading at us. They seemed like they were about 10 feet away from us and the roar of a road train loaded to the hilt with cattle and stench whistled by us.
The next morning when we surveyed our camping spot revealed that I had meandered in that far I had nearly come out the other side of the bend and camped back on the track.

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving along the Oodnatta Track and took the Patrol to get a closer look at Lake Eyre South. I decided to take the car right onto the dried up Lake to take some photo's. At about 50m in, I soon found out it wasn't so dry and got stuck in up to my wheel hubs.

It took 5-6 attemps of "snatching" to get me out.

The very next day, following the same track, we saw this fantastic looking bridge (just before William Creek). I thought that parking the Patrol under the bridge would be a fantastic photo opportunity. Well it did. I got stuck right under the bridge. At least this time only the front wheels sunk in up to the wheel hubs.

I'm blamming it all on the purchase of a new digital camera. The new purchase has made me photo crazy.

LAst year my wife and I were camping well away from several other campers (approx 2 km) on the banks of the Fitzroy river just south of Derby. I had the wonderful experience of being spiked in the ankle by a catfish which required emergency surgery. Which left me pretty much immobile.
As you can imagine getting around on crutches in the bush and trying to maintain a camp etc was very dificult, especially as my foot was in agony for 10 days when ever it was lower than my head.

Here is the funny bit:

Trying to use the "bush toilet " armed with crutches, shovel and toilet roll. Hobbled at high speed for approx 10 minutes away from camp and found a fantastic fallen tree on a slight rise, which came complete with toilet roll holder, crutch rest, shovel hook and a handle(protruding branch) to hold onto. So far so good, I dug the hole in the right spot for me to use the handle, dropped the drawers stuck the injured foot straight out in front of me as I can"t put any weight on it , and proceeded to squat, not unlike a Cossack in slow motion, all while hanging onto the handle. Guess what? The bloody handle broke.
Here's me rolling down the bloody hill squeezing my cheeks together to avoid ending up in a real big mess, bandaged foot banging like blazes on the ground with every revolution and coming to rest against another fallen tree where I seem to have disturbed Mr wasp who decided to take revenge on my shoulder.

I jumped up so quick onto my good leg and tried to hop up hill (because thats where the damn crutches are appro 10 mts) while waving arms around like a toddler impersonating a helicopter I didn't notice the elderly couple approaching, apparently on their morning walk. And here is me with my shorts still around my ankle.

I still have nightmares about that day.

Melissa,
My wife and I went down South for a week away, one place we camped overnight was Lake Jasper, I drove into the area and spent a while looking for somewhere to set the camper trailer up, I usually try to start setting up around the 16:00 hr mark so I'm not setting up in the dark, anyway I coudn't find anywhere suitable enough, in the end i gave up and set up on the track, jamming the camper traier into the most awkward spot. Later on that night my wife and I went for a walk, less than 10meters away around another corner was a campsite all ready to go, plenty of space no problem at all. How good did I feel.Keep the shiny side up

although i can tell many many stories that fall into the dumbest or funniest and both categories it think i will tell just one.
this story goes over some 3 days.
was driving down the gibb river road to Kalumburu with my mate just as the sun was setting with the lights on when suddenly we only had the park lights working.
the dumb stuff starts now.
stopped the car and began inspecting the problem. kept looking even though the light was fading fast. after a while mate suggests we get going as better to drive with some light instead of none. that made sense.pity it wasnt suggested an hour before when we had some light to drive by. we finally get to a camp site after having to drive with my mate holding a spotlight out the passenger window.
get to kalumburu the next day and begin a comprehensive inspection of the lighting system. pull this and that and everything in between apart. no luck. we ask for help from another bloke who is mechanically minded. no luck.
dont stress as we figure we will sort it when we get to kunnunurra.
week later we leave for kunnunurra. it was only after we had to spend about 3 hours driving with the spotlight again that we figured we should have left kulumburu in the early morning to miss the sunset rather than in the early arvo as we did.oops.mind you another very very dumb/funny thing happened but that another story.
so anyway drive into kunnu with the spotty as headlights, dipping it next to the car as other vehicles approached.
the next day i find a auto electrician.
wait 5 minutes to be seen. then spend 5 minutes telling him my tales of woe. explained how everything was pulled apart, inspected,cleaned,sprayed,tested, reattached all to no avail.
we walked to the car, i opened the bonnet, he went to the battery and with the consumate skill and knowledge that comes with ability located the wire that runs the lights and proceeded to show me how nothing works when it has come out of the clamp that attaches it to the battery. no words were spoken.they didnt need to be.by simply holding up the wire enough was said.
the electrician kindly recrimped the wire to a new clamp.when i asked him how much he just gave me a "you are too pitiful to take money from" look and said "no charge. its on the house"
i drove off shaking my head having learnt a simple lesson. look for the simple things first.

Melissa.

Seems to me that along with all the great things we get to see and do when off the blacktop, we also have to put up with some ego crushing experiences.
My latest effort.
Arround lunch time (when on the move) I normally look for somewhere with a bit of shade.
On this particular day (outback Qld) shade was hard to come by.
I finally found a nice spot along a dry river bed. Within 1 minute the vehicle is down on its belly in the (soft) sand. Two hours latter back on our way, no lunch and a very quiet vehicle. "Ouch" an other dent in my ego.
The comments of a long time 4WD friend of mine haunt me "I you play in the sand, you WILL get bogged".
Not funny then, but does raise a smile now :-)

regards

Well since I started this thread I figured I better join in too! I think the dumbest thing was years ago in Vic. I was at the Boho Bounce 4WD gymkhana with some of the mob from the Goulburn Valley 4WD Club who were hosting the event. We'd gone up a couple of days early to set up the course etc and naturally in our spare time we were off 4Wdriving.

Anyway, on the Friday night everyone starts turning up at the camping area ready for the weekend events. Picture several hundred people and 4WD's. After dinner bright spark me suggests to a few others that we should do a bit of nightime offroading. Good idea...so we pile into several vehicles and tear off. I was riding shotgun with a mate and we were tailend charlie. Somehow (well really by ignoring basic convoy procedures) we lost sight of the others but that's ok, we knew where we were going. Well, we thought we did anyway. One track looks much like another in the dark. Naturally we took the wrong track and ended up stuck halfway up a long hillclimb which we never should have attempted in the first place. Its been raining on and off for days so there's thick, slick mud everywhere. Our only option was to back down and really I should have got out of the car to guide the driver in the dark but its raining again and its muddy so she'll be right mate! Well it wasn't, we fell into a set of ruts on a bend and ended up backing straight into a fallen log. Can't go forward, can't go back, no winch...we're stuck.

By now we're on the UHF to the others but it's hilly so the signal is dropping in and out as they're driving. Finally got the message through that we were stuck, yes they'll come rescue us but bloody hell, we don't know where we are! Anyway, they start looking for us and meanwhile back at the campground someone was listening in and the word spreads and before long, half the crowd has joined in the search.

They found us about an hour later and quickly had us out of our predicament but for the entire weekend after that, whenever I spoke to somebody it was "oh, so you were the one that got lost on Friday night". Talk about embarassing!

:o) MelissaPetrol 4.5L GU Patrol &
Camprite TL8 offroad camper

G'day,

Not 4WD or outback related, but if you want a good laugh at people doing stupid things, check this out...

http://www.abc.net.au/sydney/stories/s331999.htm

and

http://www.abc.net.au/sydney/simonmarnie/features/boofheads.htm

tryed to pull a dead tree out of the ground with a snatch strap!
but luckly i relised it was a bad idea when the tree started to crack so no damage was done

A long time ago at a dark and soggy campsite a mate tried to amp up the fire with a bottle of metho. The sickly little flame exploded into life and charged up the pour into the bottle, whereupon my mate did a merry dance, waving the bottle about in his panic and spreading burning liquid everywhere. He finally let go of the bottle, which landed in the entrance of an occupied three-man tent. Fortunately the occupants were awake, and one managed to kick the bottle out of the way before the nylon tent took off. In the meantime another mate, who goes by the nickname "Firechief" as a result, had raced off to his car and had the fire extinguisher out (we've never seen him move that fast, before or since). He was coating everything in sight with foam, all the time yelling 'stand back, outa the way, I've got it'. Eventually he focussed on the still burning bottle and pounced - drowning it in a 12 inch pile of foam. I think he only stopped because he'd emptied the extinguisher. Being 17 at the time we all thought it was a great joke, but like so many other things, it could've ended very badly for us if our Firechief hadn't been so quick.

Just a quick one and I like how I can say it wasnt me... My brother in law was working around Aust with his girlfriend out the back of a XF panel van on a very limited budget!

To save money they were just sleeping in the back when on the road. Unfortunately a stop at a dodgy roadhouse ended with Shane not feeling the best that night. So an emergency bail out and a dive into the scrub wearing nothing but some thongs ended with him releiving his bowls from the explosive dihorrea, no time to dig and no torch!

When they woke up there were quite a few comments from the GF about the smell, Shane had managed to coat most of his feet and the thongs in the process of relieving thimself and not thinking too well had climbed back into the van feeling much better.

Needless to say GF was less than happy with the cleaning reqiuired and even less impressed when she jumped into her thongs and found out they were the ones Shane wore during the night miss-adventure!!

Matt.