Camping the Australian way

Just last weekend I was looking for a nice spot to camp for the night near Boolaroo in South Australia’s Southern Flinders Ranges, I selected a spot and parked the ute under the shade of several tall Eucalypt trees on the bank of a dry creek. (It’s Autumn here)

As always I made my camp with a mixture of small tarps, poles and ropes, with a comfortable folding chair and small gas cartridge stove. A quick and easy camp that can be set up and broken down in less than a half hour with my very comfortable bed just a mattress in the back of the Toyota.

After a nice dinner made on the tailgate of the ute and a couple of beers I ended up in bed for a well-earned sleep, laying there watching the stars I had no idea what terrors the morning would bring…

 * Part of Horrocks Gorge, one of the several passes through the Flinders Ranges.

I awoke about 6.30am as the sun peeked over the hills and with a very busy day planned I decided to get up and have breakfast. I picked up the stove and breakfast box from the ground under the rear of the car and started the billy to boil while I made my way to the cab to see what the time actually was. Standing there with the door open a movement caught my eye, a big Wolf Spider (over 3 inches across) made its way from inside the door jam, across the dashboard and hid behind the GPS.

For a minute I considered the possibilities of having my very own Wolf Spider security system and wondered how loud a ‘would be’ GPS thief would scream as it ran across his hand… but NO, I can’t rely on the spider staying put and searching the car every time I got in would become tiresome.

I gently moved it back toward the open door and made sure it made its way back to the ground where it scurried under the car. Hmm, one spider is pretty much normal for an Australian morning in the bush…

Back to the still heating water I noticed the gas flame was low and needed a new gas cartridge, I clicked open the lid on my breakfast box to be greeted by another medium sized Wolf Spider between the lid and inner, again I gently returned the spider to the ground then flipped open the gas cartridge holder on the stove. 

A huge Wolf Spider was spanned well over and across the canister and after a moments hesitation it took off toward my bedding. I had to move fast and the only tool I had at hand was my hand.. I put my hand in front of the spider making it turn and gently steering to go back to the gas stove. I lifted the stove back to the ground and rattled it gently to make the spider leave; it scurried away under the car.

That’s three now! Hmm, by now I was thinking I had camped in a bad spot.

Next to me on the ground was a spare blue tarp still folded as I’d left it.. Hmm, I wonder! I picked up the tarp and shook it gently, sure enough another large spider dropped out from between the folds and wandered away, I put my shoes on...

This all made me start thinking about the ‘thing’ that had crawled across my leg during the night… at the time I’d slapped at it quite hard wanting to make sure I killed whatever it was; after all there’s nothing you want to remove gently during the night…except maybe, Underwear!

After breakfast I packed the car paying particular attention to potential spider infestations and headed off to do what I’d planned for that day.

* Mount Remarkable to the left, looking North along the inland side of the Ranges.

Late the same evening I got home and started unpacking the ute, placing everything back in its place for next time. Some of it goes into my spare room in the house so all of that was double checked for spiders again.

Satisfied that I was potentially spider free I headed out to buy dinner, I had only made it a couple of blocks when a large Wolf Spider ran across my windscreen, in the darkness it took a few seconds to work out which side of the glass it was on… thankfully outside; but it was heading toward my open window.

I wound with a fury and managed to get the glass up before it got to me, a moment later it disappeared into the darkness. I kind of hoped it had fallen off but then felt guilty that it may have been killed.

With dinner safely bought and hermetically sealed in the car with me I made my way home wondering if the car would ever be truly mine again…

An hour later I had to go out again and this time a large spider had barred entry to the car itself and sat proudly right in the middle of the drivers door. (maybe the previous one?)  I chased it off onto the ground where it ran across the floor and into the stack of shovels, rakes and other garden implements stacked against the shed wall.

It’s just as well I’m not scared of Wolf Spiders….much!

ASIDE:

We’ve all seen pictures of ancient temples from across the world all covered in vines and trees and full of every kind of critter, even recently abandoned places like Chernobyl have been overtaken by Nature already but at least in other places Nature waits for places to be abandoned first…except in Australia.

Australian critters are prepared to move in while were still using it and either share or.. if necessary, kill us and take over!

.

Questions, questions!

Our nearest neighbors, the young family down the creek a little.




In the Northern Flinders Rangers and far away from the nearest town I went camping for a few days rest. I took an older friend with me, he’s 65 and new to camping.
I’ll tell you his story and ask for your opinion…

We arrived at this usually crowded spot to find we were one group among only 6 or so small groups sharing thousands of hectares.
We set up camp alongside a small almost dry creek 300 metres from a young family, with about the same distance to a retired couple with their two grand kids on the other side. Late on day two a couple of young twenty something women rode in on their bikes. (cycles, push bikes.. whatever you call them)
They rode around a bit and chose a spot halfway between the two old guys (us) and the grandparents. I assumed they chose this spot as there is safety in numbers and old people are less likely to be axe murderers…maybe!
As they set up their camp I noticed that Kev (my friend) placed his deck chair so he could see their camp…Hmm!
After some time Kev turned to me (remember he’s 65) and said “ That girl fancies me, every time I look over she’s checking me out”.
I thought he was making a joke….

I’d put money on it that she turned to her friend at this point and said “Every time I look over there that creepy old dude is watching me”

Eventually the girls came over and introduced themselves to ask for water for the next few days travel. We chatted for a while and I found the young teacher and her Jeweler friend were riding 900km up through the ranges on an ages old cattle trail. I lament that I am too old to do that sort of thing anymore though my wife and I rode our horses along part of that very trail 30 years ago. (before it became trendy)
While in our camp Kev made several cringe worthy comments about women which the other three of us ignored completely.
The girls left our camp with the water and enough firewood to keep them warm through the night. (wood I’d brought from home, as we must these days)
The next morning they returned the wood they didn’t use, topped up their water and left to continue their adventure.
I was so pissed and embarrassed by his behavior that I spend much of the next two days paying him out every time he opened his mouth.
SO...do you find Kevs behavior creepy? …or is he just a foolish old man who doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up!

A piece of 600 million year old sea bed, 300 metres up in the ranges.


.

Lets go camping

Pats 'stick' Scorpion


Smallish female Australian Sea Lion on the beach in front of camp.


A large female Orb Weaver right in the camp.


The small Bandy Bandy in our Billy. (hows that for clever naming of a species)




Yep, lets go camping in Australia folks, these pics are taken from just one four day camp near Port Gibbon in Southern South Australia.
Other countries have great scenery, great mountain views and forests and lakes...we may have all those things but we're too busy looking down to see what we're treading on...
Of course we all know that the biggest White Pointer Sharks live right here in our waters together with the quite deadly Blue Ringed Octopus and many, many other poisonous sea creatures. Everyone knows that most of the worlds most dangerous snakes come from right here, while I was looking up this small snake I found that of the 27 snakes found here 23 of them are poisonous...hell, that’s near enough 100% for me!
..and spiders? It’s getting too cold for the Red Back now we’re into Autumn, so they can only be found under bark, tin or other cover but now it’s the time for Orb Weavers and other hunting spiders like the Huntsman or Wolf Spider which can be seen pretty much everywhere. One of our campers used his hand to collect the odd little Orange and Black snake (Bandy Bandy) and was very sick the next day and for several days after…though he insists he did not get bitten another camper says it looked like he did.
While I was Googling to see if he was likely to die or not it occurred to me that we Australians are pretty blasé about the deadly critters we share the country with.
Indeed our barefoot kids and grandkids were running around camp and playing while one camper lay sick and I was busy looking up his symptoms on the laptop.
Next day my daughter was busy in the camp kitchen (housework follows you everywhere) and noticed a ‘stick’ stuck to her shoe. Upon further inspection she realized it was a Scorpion she must have annoyed… she now holds the record for the fastest removal of shoes. A day later she was showing me where that happened and we found another one… or the same one that came back. (does anyone know about the homing instincts of Scorpions?)
Each evening the huge Orb Weavers quickly spin a new web to catch as many insects as possible before it gets too cold for them and they have to retire to their hides. The one pictured used the light streaming through the cars window to hunt right in front of us each night. There's nothing freakier than walking through an Orb Weaver web in the dark… you know that spider is in there somewhere. I’ve been bitten by Orb Weavers many times now…it’s about the same as a bee sting.
Danger was not reserved just in the camp though, the sand hills are covered with Snake, Spider and Centipede tracks…BIG poisonous Centipede tracks.. and the beach is home to Australian Sea Lions. Not your cute and friendly Seal types, these Sea Lions grow huge (over a ton) and have teeth like giant Rottweilers. If you surprise them or if you happen to disturb them they chase you with every intention of either crushing you or biting you, I know this from experience as I got too close many years ago and was chased up a sand hill. (OK, so it was only a few metres but it was just as well I had brown underpants on that day) During the day they haul out and lay in the warm sea weed, near enough invisible as you walk by, should you happen to invade their personal space however…
So why do we take these dangers in our stride and ignore the possible threats to our lives?
Fucked if I know!



* No animals were hurt during this camp, however one or two of the campers may still die.


.

Fishing For Dummies

Typical of the many miles of foreshore around Pt Lincoln, nice eh?


The forest where we camped for several days, quiet and full of critters to check out...like the hand sized spider Kev found. (I'd have taken a pic but was laughing too much as Kev crapped himself)


Another bit of the forest, a natural arch.


Port Lincoln from the lookout, really beautiful in Autumn.





The plan was a good one, fishing, camping and Geocaching for a long weekend away with a friend. Now this bloke claimed to be well experienced in camping so naturally I didn’t tell him what to bring, I just told him where we were going, what the camping and fishing places were like and gave him a time and date…
So I get there to find the usual big pile of stuff to load into the car, I didn’t take much notice of what was there, I just crammed it all in. (as you do)
Once loaded up we hit the road with nearly 300km to our first stop at Port Lincoln. I guess we’d done nearly 80km when I realized I hadn’t seen any fishing rods in his stuff… I ask the question and it turned out he’d left all his fishing gear at home including several pounds of rapidly rotting bait on the kitchen table…
Not to worry though, he assures me that he has remembered absolutely everything else.
I commented that they were famous last words…

I've brought only two of my many rods, a few lures and tackle, about a thousand dollars worth all up, he has nothing, so a quick trip to a well stocked fishing shop and he has his brand new $5.00 hand reel with no tackle whatsoever. (Did I mention he’s tight as a fishes arse?)
We sought a few Geocaches and hit the grain loading jetty with all the other tryers.
I did well enough, Tommy Rough, Salmon and a few Leatherjackets came my way in the next two hours but then the Sea Lions turned up and that was the end of our fun. I released everything alive because we didn’t have storage for our catch. He caught next to nothing as his pre-rigged handline had huge hooks. (I ignored his plight)
We found a forest to camp in just before dark, it was only then he discovered he’d forgotten to take most of the food from the fridge before we left home. He had no bread, milk or most of his fresh food, just a few cans. He had no plates or cutlery, only one blanket and no airbed, pillow or warm clothes.
I know you're feeling sorry for him at this point, and thinking I must be a heartless bastard but this is our fourth camping trip and he’s just not learning. He nearly froze to death during the first trip because he only had one blanket then as well, and the one I gave him got rolled up so he could use it as a pillow…because he forgot that too. He woke in the morning covered in frost and unable to walk.
I'd given him camp supply lists…he lost them. Id suggested things he would need so he could add them to his list… he just didn’t.
He grumbled miserably the next day when he had to buy the food he’d left home then continued to winge all day about the cost…
I fished on and regretted not bringing my iPod to drown him out.
I didn’t have it all my way though…my pillow was harder than I would have liked…

During the entire trip he’d caught less than a half dozen fish…sad, suicidal fish!
I’m hoping he actually learned something this time because there's a big camp in a few weeks…another long weekend with 20 to 30 people this time, a big group of family and good friends.
There are two kinds of people in the world…quick learners and Kev..

I’m not complaining…I’m laughing!



.

Shh, dont tell anyone!

My nemesis for this weekend... (no killing the wildlife!)

My grand daughter Amie with just one of the many small crabs the kids caught and released. Hows this for lovely clear water?

This was our beach for the weekend with the stairs in fore ground.

Then I turned around and took a pic facing the other way, you can see the sand hills where we sand surfed, at the base of the sand hills is the seal colony and the rocky headland where the lads got their arms stretched.

Sand boarding anyone? This is the beginner slopes with hills twice this size further around

The lads on the headland known as Snapper Rocks

One of the Australian Sea Lions..not dead, just lazy!





What with half the eastern states of Australia under water I felt kinda bad about swaning off for a weekend away…for about half an hour.
There's this almost untouched area only 70 miles away you see… people drive past it every day without knowing that just down that dirt road is paradise by the sea. (Shh! Don’t tell)
Untouched beaches only broken here and there by the rocky headlands that provide great fishing and designate where my beach ends and yours begins. Just back from the cliff edge the camp sites hide under low trees for protection against summer sun.
Normally it would be too late in the season already and this area would be baking in unbelievable heat, but this year is different. Temps in the low 80’s (low 30’s C) and above average rain this year has left this area green and inviting even now.
So it was we set off with 4 kids, my daughter and her other half and another friend, two cars, a trailer, a mountain of camping gear and an assortment of alcohol. (medicinal purposes only of course)
Our chosen beach was at the bottom of a stair built down the low cliffs many years ago by someone called Mills, (so the sign says) our camp perhaps 150 yards from the cliff for child safety sake and everything within a mile or so of everywhere we wanted to see… I wont bore you with the details but our weekend consisted of much swimming in the warm water of our beach, fishing on the prominent headland a mile away, watching the sea lions on the beach where you can walk right up to them (if you have a fish for them) sand surfing on the huge dunes, hunting for and placing a few Geocaches… I think that about covers the main things.
I also had some rather wonderful 12 year old scotch left from a Christmas present (cant have it going off before it’s/I’m drunk can we?) and Pearls rather good first book in what I hope will be a series…(http://pearl-whyyoulittle.blogspot.com/) I read, I drank, I laughed, I staggered to the beach with fishing rod in hand, I spent a lot of time with the grand kids…wonderful!

There's almost nothing bad about this spot…almost! There are rather a lot of sharks here abouts, not that we actually saw any this time, and there are a lot of creepy crawlies. Last time we found a beautiful jet black 3inch Scorpion wondering about the camp and this time I found a really big Wolf Spider. They grow about twice the size of this one… but this one found the box for my camp stove and would not give it up for some reason. I though, ‘Ok, you can have it then’ and put the box and spider 20 feet away from my camp. It marched about on the box guarding it from me for 15 minutes then decided it wanted my camp too. It abandoned the box and marched directly back into camp…I was just thinking it might be a nice night to give up the camp and sleep out under the stars… But no, I’m the bigger of us so I got into bed and ignored the spider rampaging about the camp until it eventually gave up showing off and went home (where ever that was)
We’re going back in a couple of weeks…my son-in-law now knows about this hidden wonderland and cant wait to get back there. He caught some fish, but not the huge monsters that smashed up his gear and bent his best rod double…probably Snapper or Sharks, I’ll let you know!


.