Trip to the Brindabellas Sat 03 July 2010

[hairy lad]

On Saturday I decided to take a drive up around the Brindabella Mountains and check out any hints of activity as it has been very quiet around the Canberra area lately. I started at the Cotter camp ground which is where the young boys in case 181 in Paul Cropper and Tony Healy’s book The Yowie took place. The entire area has since been taken out by the Canberra bushfires and the Cotter Pub no longer exists. If there were yowies in the local area, it is a good bet that they were wiped out in the fires. Cotter Dam is also being enlarged, with a lot of blasting taking place and very noisy.
From there I headed up the mountain towards the village of Brindabella. Found some out of the way fire trails and followed them into some very very thick scrub. Did not find any evidence at all. Followed several creeks and checked the muddy banks for tracks, plenty of roo tracks but not much else.
Next I headed up towards Corin Dam because I wanted to check out the area around Mt Ginini which is the area that experienced bush walker and runner Don Hindle dissapeared in back in September 2007. Mr Hindle vanished without a trace in this area after setting out on a run. He had run the track before and new the area well. All the police ever found of him was his jumper. No body has ever been found.
Unfortunately, I was not able to get there as conditions deteriorated and the road was covered with ice and snow which made progress exciting to say the least and having no snow chains, I had to stop short of where I wanted to look.
Note to self. An XR6 is not the ideal vehicle for this. LOL.

[Dion]

An XR6 is not the ideal vehicle for this. LOL.

Hey there Hairy lad

Yeah I used to have a Holden Commodore Berlina VN (lowered) that I used to take along some pretty rough terrain (dirt roads and such) by the end of my yowie trips my car was filthy, I’m not sure what the suspension would have been like either afterwards.

Good to see you made an effort to get out there and do a bit of searching anyways.

[Dean Harrison]

Great to see more people making the effort Mike.

It certainly takes stress out of the equasion if you have a second vehicle that you don't need to pay much mind to in regards to weathering it over that type of terrain, however most don't have that luxury.

Thanks for your input.

DMH

[spiritguide]

Missing Bush walkers????? when you look at he big picture there are a lot that do go missing makes you think...Great Pics mate thanks for sharing

[hairy lad]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I actually do not like going out there on my own, as I feel that yowies can be opportunists when people are alone. However I have no choice in the matter, because as soon as I mention yowies, my Wife and Family burst into hysterical laughter and so do my workmates etc.

[Scott]

Hey Hairylad, I kinda know how you feel with that one,however I'm not met with howls of laughter but fear. Until recently had a jeep that I used to get to more sucluded places. Chased up a lot of spots in Tony's book. Wife had a nonplussed I'll just humor him kind of attitude. When we started to find tree bit marks and trees broken too high for a human to reach she did get the jitters.Last straw for her was finding the corpse of a wild dog half way up a gum tree. This was near Oberon where a journalist went missing not long ago. On the way back we got a flat tyre.She refused to get out of the jeep and was almost hesterical about being stuck in the deep forest in the dark.

[Dean Harrison]

They pride themselves on not being seen. It is the way they are raised and the secret to their survival.

They take few risks during the day, but under the cloak of darkness, obviously, they feel more comfortable in semi-human habitat. This is when they will take opportunities that they would not normally during the day, and behave with a lot more confidence.

Having said that, they do make mistakes and there have been occasions where they have acted with aggression during the day, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

Walking the tracks alone at night making a passive noise is obviously the best way to induce an encounter, however certainly not what I would do or recommend these days. I have unfortunately lost far too many testicles over the years due to certain encounters. Last years was enough for me.

DMH

[topender]

Well...after just finishing Mike's book, i'm not sure whether the Yowies are eating the joggers and bushwalkers or they are being turned into feline poop by a cougar / leopard / panther.
either way i think it is prudent to " not go into the woods today...beware of a big surprise..la da de da de da da