Yowiehunters Forum

Hi All.

Just thought I'd share an incident from last weekend.

Myself and a mate went to a place called Shady Camp, about a two hour drive from Darwin.

There's a barrage near the boat ramp which is quite popular for barra fishing but we planned on camping near a small creek which was about 20km before the fishing spot. We wanted to drop some pots in that night to try and catch some redclaw (yabbies).

Anyway, we set up camp late in the afternoon and then headed to the barrage to flick some lures. Just before dark we headed back to the campsite, baited our pots and dropped them in the creek. We made a fire, cooked up a feed, had a few beers then crashed out for the night.

In the morning I eventually woke up (I sleep like the dead) and my mate was already up.

He seemed a bit annoyed and confused.

He asked me if I had woken up through the night because someone on the other side of the creek had bashed a "big stick" against a tree. It was just a single strike and then he would drift off to sleep only to be woken again by another strike. He said this happened about 4-5 times throughout the night.

Just before dawn he also said he could hear what he thought was "a couple of blackfellas talking to each other" somewhere in the bush on the other side of the creek.

He was so sure that at first light he went down to the creek to try and spot them. There's no real reason for anyone to be on that side of the creek and he was concerned someone was scoping out our site. He even called out at one point to see if there was something they wanted.

For my part I didn't hear a thing but I could tell he was rattled. It was the first thing he talked about when I woke up.

My mate is a big, loud Albanian concreter who sounds like he's fresh off the boat from his mother country, even though he's lived in Australia for 40 years. He's not easily spooked but something had kept him up all night.

I let him tell his story (quite amusing to hear from someone with broken English anxiously talking about stick "whacking" and chattering Aborigines) and asked a few questions but he couldn't work out why anyone would be there or why they would behave that way.

I eventually told him his story matched very closely to other stories from people who had encountered Yowies. I just got this blank look from him while he tried to translate what I was saying. He had no concept of what a Yowie was and I had to mention "Bigfoot" before he caught on to what I was getting at. No surprise, he quickly dismissed it as crazy talk but then soon started asking me more about them. He was largely unconvinced but at the same time couldn't fully rationalise whatever had kept him up all night.

So, the reason I mention this episode is because about 6 weeks before we had camped at the exact same spot but with a third person.

On that trip when we all woke up the other two guys were talking about a very loud splash in the creek that had woken them both up. They said it sounded like a large rock falling in the water but eventually dismissed it as croc entering the water.

I remember having doubts about the croc theory for a couple of reasons. Firstly, unless they are suddenly spooked, crocs don't make that much noise when they enter a body of water and if they do it sort of sounds like a large belly-flop and a bit of thrashing. What they described sounded like a large single impact on the water. Not ruling out the croc explaination but it just didn't ring true.

The other reason I had my doubts was because we hadn't spotted a croc in the water that night, large or small. Crocs are generally easy to spot at night because their red reflective eyes give them away as soon as a torch hits them. When we drop yabby pots at night there is ALWAYS someone with a powerful torch constantly sweeping the water looking for eyes. That's their only job anytime anyone goes near the water. The Mary River system at Shady Camp has the highest croc population in the world and our yabby creek is a tributary of that system. Croc watching is taken seriously and we didn't see a thing.

Also, that same night I woke up (wide awake) at around 1 am. I don't know what woke me up because the other two guys were still asleep and I was camped about 20 metres from them and fairly close to the creek bank. As I lay there wondering why I was awake I started tuning into something moving very quietly on the opposite bank. I couldn't hear anything distinctive like footprints or anything but something trying to be quiet moving through the trees.

I listened for a while and had just about convinced myself it was dingo sliding through the grass when I heard a sound like a deep exhalation. Very unusual and hard to describe. It was almost like a noise a parent might make to demonstrate disapproval to a child if that make sense. Whatever it was wasn't a dingo, the exhalation was too big for a dog to make.

About the only thing I could maybe compare it to would be a buffalo breathing out through it's nose but that's not quite right either. It was just a singular, isolated exhalation that startled me because I had been listening so intently to whatever was moving through the foliage. Afterwards I could still hear something moving carefully and very quietly through the bush. It wasn't a dingo and there's no way a buffalo could be that stealthy in that type of vegetation. Whatever it was, I lay there wide awake for about two hours.

Another reason I mention these events is because of something that happened to myself and a friend about 15 years ago at the same site.

We had left Darwin to go yabbying for a few hours and then return home that night.

Yabbies are nocturnal feeders so we arrived just after dark. We had collected some firewood on the way out so the first thing we did was make a fire and then bait the pots.

We went and dropped our pots then headed back to the vehicle to sit near the fire and have a beer. We figured we'd do our first lift (checking the pots) in about 30 minutes to see if any yabbies were about. I reckon it couldn't have been any later than 9pm.

We talked and had a couple of beers before my mate checked his watch to see what time it was. This is when things got weird.

He looked at his watch and figured it was broken then asked me to check the time in the car. We were both pretty astonished to see that the time time was about 11:30pm. Somehow we had both lost track of time for about 2 hours or more.

At the time we both sort of laughed it off and joked about how we had just had one of those lost time episodes you sometimes hear about but the reality was that neither of us could account for time we believed we were there. We were still talking about on the drive home and the next morning.

I suppose what added weirdness to the whole event was that we experienced no loss of continuity either. We hadn't fallen asleep, we were still holding a cold beer and we could go through every step of arrival in sequence until the time we sat down near the fire. No matter how many times we went through it we simply could not account for the amount of time that had passed.

I've never experienced anything like that before or since and it is something I've never forgotten. The only reason I mention it here is because Chewy bought up loss of time in a previous post and I thought it may have some relevance. Maybe it means nothing but I feel it is worth relating. It's also worth noting that we didn't feel confused or felt that something had "happened". We just knew we hadn't been there that long. It was very strange.

My apologies for the long post. I don't know if anything I've mentioned has any relevance or connection to anything significant but it just seems like there have been a few weird things associated with that spot. I suppose it was my mate's recent experience that prompted me to relate them all. In any case, I felt it was worth sharing.

Anyway, that's about all I have to say about Shady Camp.

Cheers,

Iwanna

I thought it was not advisable to camp so close to a waterway where there is even the chance of crocodiles?

G’day I wanna, interesting post. Has that particular area had any other weird stories or sightings? Maybe the indigenous groups of the area have past knowledge of what’s around.
I wouldn’t be setting up camp so close to water with crocs around!

Richard

Hi mate.. Very interesting stuff. Brings back good memories because i lived in Humpty Doo 25 years ago and often fished at Shady Camp , sometimes by myself on that barrage with a half circle of crocks waiting just past the wash for you to fall in.
Had a very weird weather event coming back on the Shady Camp road , it was bright and sunny but we could see this grey wall across the road, it was rain and when the ute drove into it the road was washed out and it was like driving into hell with lightning ,then we came out the other side and it was sunny again. Sound normal but we stopped to look when we came out and the storm wasnt moving, it just stayed there and the line between wet and dry was like a straight line.
Anyway, sorry to ramble on in your post. Thanks for sharing it.

Hi iwanttobelieve,
Great story, sleeping twenty metres from the edge of the creek you're braver than me. Your loss to explain the two-hour time accountability is very interesting, smacks of the paranormal to me. I think more people will report these type of incidences knowing they are going to be taken seriously .

Hi All.

gregvalentine - You're generally right, it's not advisable, but I did have a thick screen of vegetation before the bank stepped down. Not too concerned about anything that can wiggle through that. It's also the dry season and cools off at night which slows down activity. Most incidents you're thinking about happen on beaches or flat, open mudbanks in the warmer wet season. Plus, I reckon if I screamed like a girl my mate would be down there with his shotty pretty quick. Anyway, I still have all my fingers and toes.

Wingnut - I haven't heard anything about that particular spot. It is a known campsite among locals but doesn't have a reputation or bad ju-ju as far as I know. Having said that, I'm sure the local Aboriginies would know of somewhere nearby that does. Now that I think of it, I've never met up with any blackfellas (apologies if anyone down south isn't used to this term, it's perfectly acceptable up here and it is usually preferred, with pride) at this spot which does seem strange.

I was lucky enough to get flown around to some of the most remote Arnhem Land communities during the wet season and regardless of what term the locals have for hairy men their belief in them is universal. Aborigines simply accept them as fact and a part of the bush. They understand there are places in the bush not meant for them and they will not go there. I don't know if Shady Camp falls into the category but I'll ask around next time I bump into someone from the area.

Sometimes it can be difficult getting the locals to open up because they just aren't used to Whitey having any concept of their beliefs, particularly in the remote areas. Quite often they are completely surprised when asked about hairy men but if they know you are genuine, and they will because blackfellas are extremely intuitive, they will generally be happy to share what they know and they appreciate the interest.

I was lucky enough to have a couple of beers with the local "witch doctor" (their term) from a community near Gove (Nhulunbuy) which was a fascinating experience. Unfortunately he spoke very little English (not so unusual up here) and was missing quite a few teeth due to his age which made it difficult to follow his stories in a noisy pub. What was apparent though was the respect I was shown by the rest of his mob, just because I was having a beer with him. Once they knew we were talking about hairy men and it was OK to do so, the stories didn't stop. I just wish I had recorded all the conversations (it wouldn't have been practical) because they tell their stories in such a beautiful way. Simple, genuine and without embellishment.

A removalist mate of mine was at the same table and the next day on a job he bought up the topic and told me about an experience he had when he was 16 and living at Tumut in NSW.

He was on foot on a property with his mate and a couple of dogs. I think they were trying to hunt roos with the dogs when they saw a big, dark upright figure running up a hill in front of them. He said the dogs took off after it and so did they, even though they had no idea what it was. "An upright gorilla, but not" was how he described it and reckoned it was over 7 feet tall and too wide to be a man. "It was just too big, too wide" was how he put it.

He said they were pretty fit country kids and used to chase roos on foot but he said they had no way of keeping up. It soon disappeared over the crest of the hill with the dogs still chasing. He said they lost track of the dogs and they didn't return until about 2 or 3 hours later. I mentioned to him at a later time that it was unusual to hear of dogs giving chase but he said they were proper work dogs, not really pets. He reckons because he and his mate started giving chase the dogs just followed the instinct of the "pack" and did not seem to be harmed or upset when they returned.

I actually had to get his full story over a few beers one night because when he first started sharing his experience he pretty much froze up when he was trying to describe what he had seen. Even though it had happened close to 20 years ago, it still had a profound effect on him. When I first tried to press him for details he just clammed up and said "No, man. Look at my arms". He held them out to show me and he was just covered in goose bumps. I don't know how anyone doing hard physical work and dripping with sweat in a tropical build-up with 35 degree heat and 90+ percent humidity can break out in a cold shiver but he did, right in front of me. It started giving me the shivers.

I suppose more than anything it is this aspect of witness testimony that I find so compelling. When you see someone physically shiver, when their voice quavers, when their hands shake, when their expressions reflect what they are relating, to me this is what makes a witness account so believable. He actually seemed relieved after he told me, like he'd gotten a big weight off his mind. I didn't ask but I got the impression I was maybe the first person he had discussed it with since childhood.

Austral - Hi mate, ramble on all you want. It's good to hear from someone from the Doo.

I've seen those "rain walls" before but I reckon it's a wet season thing. I think when the rain dumps it creates it's own little low pressure zone from the falling rain or something. I've been parked at traffic lights and seen cars on the other side getting dumped on while my car stayed dry. Sometimes you can see it come in, like a big rain curtain. Pretty cool to see it happen.

senseonfire - I must admit I was very hesitant to mention my loss of time experience because it just seems too "out there" and one of those eye-rolling tin-hat stories people tend to write off but in the end I figured it happened so it was worth sharing. Whether it has any relevance or a simple explanation behind it, I just don't know. If it wasn't for the fact I was with someone and we both had the same experience I probably would have just written it off a long time ago. In any case, I can't explain it and I don't know what it means.

Iwanna.

Hi Iwanttobelieve, you sure have more guts then me staying in croc country like that even with less croc activity at that time lol. I was born in cyclone tracey, and glad my parents left Darwin, im not to keen on crocs!
Anyhow i just wanted to say i think i may have read it in David Paulides missing 411 books about the small amount of people that were found said they lost all recollection of time. 1 man lost 7 hours and even woke not knowing how he even got where he was. So very interesting hearing you lost track of time too. I have never been in that situation and hope never to be. Thanks.

Cheers for the reply Iwanna, sounds like a interesting place. I’ll trust your experienced opinion on your campsite lol. I’d be too scared to camp there.

Richard