Yowiehunters Forum

Hey Buck, just seen your profile pic, looks interesting, just wondering if you would post it up.
I tried making it bigger but couldnt.lol

The profile pic is of a sapling roughly 5cm thick. I don’t know if I have the original anymore as it was several hardrives ago. It’s the first clear in ambiguous tree break I found on one of the many treks up into the blue mountains. There was no wind, kangaroo that could have twisted it and placed it over a path. It seemed clear to me what it was.

It was one of the best days as we found three sets of footprints of something avoiding us. Dean managed to snap off a shot of something black that was stalking me. I had no idea. The photo is zoomed in as far as it can go and details as usual are minimal as the camera was from the 2005 era and low res. What the second photo presented was that as Dean changed position, so did it. Even though he radioed me I saw nothing, smelled nothing and heard nothing.

Back to the profile picture. I was actually lost at that time when I took that photo. I got turned around in a gully Andrade gone up the wrong side. It’s that easy to do up there. If it weren’t for Dean smashing a bat against a tree, to give me tree mail, I’d still be in that gully.

I’ll see if I can track down that photo and post it.

Oh, I also found a Tiger Quoll skull when I tripped over a rock and fell under the ferns. Gary Opit identified it recently and was pleased to let us know that it hadn’t been seen in that area for an astonishingly long time.

So, that’s the reason I have it up there. It reminds me a of a great day, with great people having a great time searching for the Hairy Man. Very few days are like that one.

Cheers Buck

Buck didn’t get lost. He put himself is a position where he was strategically misplaced.


DMH

From the trip where I was temporarily misplaced - Weekend of the 14/15th June 2006

My profile pic as requested. Busted, twisted tree over a game trail.

Followed by three sets of prints from three different locations in the gully. The three sets were found by three different researchers moving through the gull

Tiger Quoll skull - I should have taken it with me.

Then two shots of something observing me from behind a trees.

Buck wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:00 am I was actually lost at that time when I took that photo . . .

Or as us bushwalkers choose to call it, "Temporary geographical embarrassment" . . .

Those first two shots are priceless

G’day Buck, I was just wondering if you guys did any follow up work on that area you saw something observing you?

Richard

Hi Richard,

Yes, myself and others went back the very next week. There was some buzz around that I may have found a skull of a Thylacine after I posted the photo. I just assumed it was a dog or fox perhaps. I regretfully didn't take it with me as I only have camera bag with a $5k Video unit in it. I was being a bit precious and didn't want it stinking up the bag.

The skull was left on a rock where I snapped the photo. I was lost at the time and despite retracing my steps using the 30 or so snaps I took along the way as reference points I never found it again.

As for the photos, Dean took them and from memory he was unavailable that weekend.

So there wasn't any follow up as far as I know, I may be wrong. There may have been later.

The curious thing for me was I was unaware of it at all. Dean repositioned himself for a better shot but so did the subject when he changed his vantage point.

In saying that, the are was considered a hotspot. Myself and others went out many times. We employed FLIR, Cotton traps, overnight camps, camera traps etc.

The local researchers and Dean have worked that area even more for the resident Yowie that lives down in those gullies. Lovingly nicknamed Fatfoot and presumably female, she was curious and playful.

And moreover... elusive.

Thanks for replying Buck, bad luck about losing that skull. Maybe one day Fatfoot will caught out