Mikka donned his complete rain forest camo ensemble – this guy means business. If he stood still in the forest you would be lucky to notice him as out of place there. Chewy and Pix traveled light – they did not intend to stay the night. We loaded up the trolleys with the gear and headed to our first obstacle. 100 meters down from the car parking area was a padlocked gate. Seeker and I and others had to unpack the trolley again to get past this one - the gear was way too heavy to lift it over this.
The terrain was nothing for a person without luggage, but dragging the fully laden trolley through foot high grass proved difficult. Rest stops were many as needed and at about 1/3 of the way to the campsite, the Pixi angel saw the struggle and helped out taking an extra bag with her.
On one of our rests, Pix gave an interesting account of yowie habits. As we were going to be on the top of the ridge, she said that it was the kids and female ones that stay in the valley below. What we were to expect tonight was the males, food scouts I guess, wandering up habitual paths to traverse across the ridge. It may be every couple of days they follow this pattern of behavior so be ready for nothing to happen.
After trudging through the long grass up a slight incline and meandering down again we came to the second gate. This one, with effort, was negotiated without unpacking. Down the hill a bit we decided to leave me with half of the gear and take the other half up the monster hill. March flys were prevelant and I enjoyed some relief after spraying myself with “OFF”. The little buggers bite hard.
I was left for some time at the bottom of the hill sitting in the chair, walkie talkie on hand in case I had a ‘visitor’. After picking a leach off my face, Mikka and Pix came down the hill to rescue me and the rest of the gear. Pix is a dynamo of energy – I could tell she had done this a bit. We did a few rest stops taking it in turns with the trolley as we made it up the hill and around the corner to the camp site. I was knackered. The help was soo much appreciated. I think this was at about 3:15pm. From then on I didn’t look at my watch too much, and looking back I think next time I will carry a note book to keep event timing in order.
You may be wondering why we took so much gear in the first place...in addition to usual over night necessities we had brought along a few thousand dollars of electronic gear in protective cases. High Definition Video Camera, Tube Night Vision Monocular, Bionic Ear, 12MP Digital SLR, Digital Night vision and MP4 recorder to plug it into, 2 trail cameras, super duper spotlight, steady cam, tripods etc, and enough batteries to run things all night if we had to. Most things tend to happen when people are unprepared for them so I figure taking everything you may need on every occasion. The time you leave something at home will inevitably be the time you regret it....back to the story...
Mikka came first in the tent race followed a close second by myself. Ok it wasn’t that close. My one man tent had 19 tent pegs to get through. The others watched like it was television from the fold up chairs that were very useful at this place. It would have been hard to sit on the ground without something constantly crawling over you and quite a no no too – this is funnel web country. I unpacked electronics to get them ready for night, while Mikka (aka firestarter) looked for suitable wood.
Mikka constructed a beautiful teepee type twig structure around paper and lit it. “Hooray!!” it was lit...and then?...it was out. Mikka got out the aerosol can and proceed to use it like a flame thrower to dry the wood and start the fire. No mozzies we going to get on these sticks again. It still proved to be difficult to light these damp twigs a few times and then Pix stepped in. After carefully placing a few scrunched up pieces of paper the flames started to take hold. Interesting to note – we didn’t have any mozzies about all night, not one.
Dean arrived with Lasso and after introductions and general conversation he set off for a scout around. At this point too, it was decided that Pix, Chewy, Dean and Lasso would stay the night. When walkabout was over Dean and Lasso then wandered back down the trail to get in the car and get some refreshments and food. Night was falling and Seeker put up his tent. I was hungry now and ate a roll. If anyone goes on an overnighter, I recommend going to Subway and getting 2 foot long subs with ham and Swiss cheese, tomato sauce and mayo. These freeze well, and after all the effort tasted divine. Mikka cooked up something for himself and Kerry (Hope I spelt it right). I had some bacon to cook but wanted to save it for a little later.
Mikka and Chewy put up Deans tent because it was going to be too dark by the time they got back. Seeker and I carefully placed the trail cams. These cameras are passive IR. When they are triggered a small array of IR lights glow red a little and if you are not looking at them you wont notice at all. We strapped them to trees inside their bear proof cases using a python cable lock. Nothing was going to take these things without taking the tree with them.
Dean arrived back with Lasso without food, so Pix and Chewy were going without dinner too. It was getting dark now, so I guess about 6:15pm. We all marveled at sound amplification ability and quality of the Bionic ear. Dean got out one of his toys. Now dark, there was a little action. Dogs were going off in the distance and I could hear some bipedal footsteps on the Bionic ear and Dean confirmed this with his heat sensor. It lit up five bars when directed exactly to where this I could hear this noise was coming from. I got out the Night Vision and attached it to the video camera. Whatever it was that made the noise must have been out of range. I didn’t get my IR Laser illuminator yet, so my range was limited significantly having to rely on the built IR.
Pix and I got some more wood. The stocks were low and we were going to need quite a bit more to last into the night. The good thing is we were surrounded by wood. We did not have to go too far for it.
Dean, Lasso, Seeker, and I think Mikka went walkabout again. I will let one of them elaborate on that later - I did not go up the track that way. As a light pitter patter of rain fell, I covered the sensitive equipment. It got a little harder so I put it in my tent and had a little rest.
The others got back and I got up. I think now about 8:30pm. There was still some distant footsteps about. I looked around but again out of range of the night vision. Dean used the heat sensor and concurred – 5 Bars where I could hear it again. Perhaps there were too many people in camp to make these shy creatures come close. One thing we did notice was the absence of possum sounds and other marsupials. They had been reduced in numbers by the yowies Pix said. An occurance noted throughout the valley.
Dean and Lasso hadn’t had too much sleep the preceding nights and turned in for a bit. We sat around the fire, intermittent conversation and jokes followed by mesmeric staring at the fire. The rain we had earlier had changed to clouds moving over the whole area. The dew drops didn’t stop and it was quite spooky and nice at the same time. There was just a light breeze perfect to hear anyone creeping up on us.
Mikka was kind enough to send a beer my and Chewy’s way. After consuming one I had a speech impediment, and then he gave me another! Chewy opened his mouth and showed the same disability had set in too.
After about an hour (over my beer buzz) as some were talking I heard some very loud crashing footsteps run up the hill in the distance. It had followed the direct line of the fire’s smoke up the hill. To me it sounded like it had come up the hill real quick following the smoke and gotten into sight of the fire and just stopped dead. Looking back, it would have easily been recorded on the bionic ear. We had not plugged mikka’s mini disk recorder into it because the other sounds lacked conviction. It wasn’t that it wasn’t bipedal footsteps we had heard earlier, it was like they were real spooky small children 100 meters away. Using hindsight, we will record all night with the bionic ear on the tripod to let the readers evaluate the noises too. This thing I had heard was running with no regard for shrubs and footing – just barreling through. It was so big it didn’t matter. I don’t know who else heard it. I was directly facing it and my attention was out there so others may have missed it being in on conversation.
Minutes later Seeker went to his tent to get his camera or something – his was furtherest away at the creepy end of camp....then crack crack crash. A tree sounded like it was pulled over about 30 feet away in his direction. I thought and chuckled to myself that Seeker must have shat himself being the one so close to it. Dean was up and out of his tent in a flash and went commando with a little headlight strapped to his head and heat sensor in hand into the bush after the noise maker with Lasso in tow with camera. Mikka (I think) headed down the track after them. I turned on the night vision to see if we could see anything. Forgive me for making it a little jerky. I wasn’t thinking of putting this up at the time. Next time I will use a tripod or steady-cam and have a laser IR illuminator which will enhance the video. I am having rendering difficulties and will have the video up shortly.
I think this happened around 12:30 – 12:45am. Dean came back and said he had heard growls.
Nothing eventful happened after that so we set the trail cams with a banana and cheese gifts between them and hung some bananas on a branch. I found it wonderful that after Pix had had no dinner, she kept the gift of 2 bananas for these majestic creatures. She must have a high regard for them to go hungry and leave them food I thought.
At about 2:30am I turned in for some sleep. The ground was a little hard, but I did sleep. Everyone else told me I did in the morning. Apparently I snore – imagine that! Lol I remember vaguely waking up during the night and hearing footsteps beside my tent. 3 of them and then nothing. It wasn’t one of us because nobody walks around without a light.
6:00am We packed up all the gear, the bananas and cheese gifts had not been touched so we left them for the hairy land owners, made sure the fire was out and got out of there. A little lighter on the way back and Pix was kind enough to help out again putting a pack on her back for the trip out.
I hope my memory banks have all this right for all those involved – I have tried to keep it accurate. Next time we will make more pics and videos for you all. It’s a learning experience and we would like you all to enjoy it.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Videos will be up in this thread the moment I get the best quality out of the rendering program – tonight or tomorrow.
I have to say my interest has certainly been sparked. I'd love to head out more and hopefully have some interesting experiences 
It sounds like you had an eye opening experience. 
Trev
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... if he hasn't ... it sounds like a great trade-off bargaining point for him to get more equipment to me!!!... 
I took that shot myself last night after a few of these 
so I'm probably not looking my best