I just returned from some technology free holiday time and my, my, my... what a week it was here on the forum.
Oh well... this is me ignoring all of that c**p.
I spent a week down a Batemans Bay and whilst this was a week spent with my boys fishing and mountain biking I did manage to look into a few things 'yowie' whilst down there.
I spent a very nice, but strenuous, morning mountain biking along the forestry trails between Batemans Bay and Mogo (an area where yowie sightings have occurred in the 70s/80s). There's more scattered houses and farms there now but I was still in amongst some fairly dense bushland.
I also took my 4WD down a couple of very narrow side-tracks which dead-ended after a while.
On both these occasions I saw literally dozens of tree-breaks and leaning sticks. A number of these were directly beside the tracks but a number of them were also 10m or more off to the side of the tracks. I also saw what could be interpreted as a nest about 15m off the side of one track where it came to and end. Grass was flattened and, curiously, greener in the depression that was bolstered on on side by a log.
I didn't at any stage have that 'being watched' feeling or see or hear anythingsuspicious. Except for the mosquitoes. Never been swarmed like it before. Couldn't get my feet into the toe clips and get moving fast enough. Even then they were clinging on and draining me...
Admittedly, I was MTB'ing in the mid-morning and 4WD'ing in the afternoon so I wasn't expecting anything; although if you read about the B'Bay/Mogo encounters you'll see that a fair proportion of them occurred during light hours.
I also resisted the temptation to tie bacon strips to myself (as suggested by Topender). Mosquitoes were bad enough without adding flies to to the mix.
My brother-in-law was down at the same time and I took the opportunity to ask him about Jerangle as his family owns a sheep farm there (between Bredbo and the coast). He said he'd never heard of a yowie sighting in that area. I've been to the farm a few times and there is some very wild and secluded bushland up there. Given that my b-in-law is a mad trout angler, if anyone has had a yowie encounter up there it would be him. He has trapsed many, many miles of very rugged bush along the creek systems of this area.
He said they lose a number of lambs each year to dingoes and I'll trust his explanation as he goes out there and cleans them up.
All that said, I had a terrific week. Pity the forum went so sour... I thought everyone was starting to pull in the same direction; however, we've seen:
- More banning
- More skeptic bashing
... those little buggers are the vampires of the bush alongside ticks!... I hate them!!... hmmmmm... with all those tree breaks and leaning sticks that you saw... do you honestly think that kids etc would be reponsible for them???... you wouldn't be... erm ... um... slowly changing from being a sceptic to being a believer would you 
???... 
... um... yeah!!!... that's me done... cheers... Stickyfingers. 
... cheers... Stickyfingers. 
stealing picnic baskets from hapless picknickers and campers??? 
... (teehee)... cheers... Stickyfingers.