Min Min Light's and scary stuff Outback

[Jacko]

In another thread Locutius mentioned the famed Australian Min Min light's and I thought a link that gives a little background may inform our friends from around the world what he was referring to . I would be interested to here your stories of similar lights and imagination/ grog fueled scares you have had out bush .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Min_light

The Aussie bush , like most remote places can make ones imagination run wild with the deafening silence that overtakes your senses being shattered by the scream of a Western Quoll [ makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end ] howls of a pack of Dingo's on the prowl , gutteral calls of a male Koala in mating season , mysterious splashing in the creek your camped beside , add firelight and a half a cask of Port - scary stuff .

In 2007 2 mates and I were camped out Blackbutt way safely tucked up in our swags , 3 parts cut form several bottles of Brown Brothers Merlot which goes great with snags and peanut paste sanga's we where awoken by the sound of padded feet circling camp , shadows flashing just outside the range of our fire light - put us all on wide eyed alert . Next morning we all felt a little silly as from the tracks and a little calling card sprayed on the sheet of roofing iron we were using as a windbreak for our fire proved it was a pack of wild dogs .

I did have one real scare that very well could have killed me - 15 years old sneaking through some saltbush bowhunting pigs way out west I stood on an Inland Tiapan , no 1 deadliest snake in the world , it struck me . We where several hours walk from the vehicle - I thought I had 20 minutes to live.

Luckily oh so luckily the Taipans fangs had not punctered my skin , one fang had penetrated my army fatigue trousers and hit my mid calf length heavy canvas boots 1 inch down from the top and left a small line of venom , the other failed to penatrate the trouser leg and a droplet or 2 of venom on the outside .

regards Jacko

[bsrecurve]

have been pretty lucky myself, without any really close calls.
although last weekend i did see 2 satellites almost hit each other (well it looked that way at least), of course they were probably many many km's apart.
have certainly heard a lot of different strange sounds at night, and a bit of grog certainly kicks the old imagination along a fair bit.

i do like to make a habit of having "the gentle persuader" close at hand and keep some BB's or SSG's in my pockets, in case a snake or other problematic critter decides to harras me.

[Jacko]

Other than the previous story and a few run in's with Eastern Brown snakes [very aggressive and no 3 on the top 10 deadliest list] only a few other times have I feared for my safety out hunting .

In Sept 95 I was off on my own hunting behind the 50 mile hut . It's called the 50 mile hut as it's literally 50 miles from the main homestead . This property has the Bulloo river flowing through it and is way outback of Adavale along the way to Quillpie , it was 52 miles long down the western boundary and 30 odd miles along the southern boundary with some of the 5000 mile long Dingo fence forming much of it's boundary , can't remember the square miles it covered .

10 minutes from dark and still a fair way from camp I felt ill at ease , like I was being watched , I turned around and 15 yards away was a large wild dog Dingo cross and he was not happy and in an attacking stance , I'm sure he was about to pounce on my back . Thinking quickly I charged at the large dog yelling and loosed an arrow , I missed with the shot and run the 15 minutes back to camp . The dog stayed with me 20 yards to my right the whole way back . 200 yards from camp he faded into the scrub , my heart rate took a while to settle down - and not from running several Kilometres back to camp.

Here's a picture of the 50 mile hut with one of my old hunting mates clowning around

[ironglow]

  Whew! You guys have some nasty stuff to deal with in the outback! Seems like it may take some of the fun out of hunting and outdoor pursuits.
  I have heard you have a snake called the "Bushmaster" which is inclined to stalk a man in the manner of Africa's Black or Green Mamba. Any truth to that?

[Jacko]

Nah Ironglow - Bushmasters are a crappy brand of Binoculars Downunder - there is very few convertibles in Australia's cause the Koala's get drunk on the gum leaves and fall out of the tree's . They have nasty tempers and if they land in your car will tear it and you up - just kidding 

We have very little to worry about in our scrub predatory critter wise compared to our US brothers - Grizzly's , Cougars , Wolves etc . Some of our feral animals can spoil your day but you gotta be unlucky or stupid to get hurt usually . Our climate is the big killer . Just trying to get a few posts happening !

The snake that hit me is the most toxic in the world but they are not as dangerous/aggresive as our Coastal Taipan or the Eastern Brown snake these are very aggresive animals , they will bite if you stir them up so best to look where your goin in their habitat . They bite repeatedly and you had better get medical help or you won't live long . These are the the most commonly encountered snakes where I hunt around Queensland but further south the many sub species of Tiger snake are known for their agro .

I see on teli the Africans going on about the Black Mamba's but our Eastern Brown and Coastal Tiapans are cut from the same cloth ,are big , fast and have many times more toxic venom than other snakes anywhere in the world as tucker is hard to come by and they need to anchor it fast .

Any strange lights like our Min Min in the Northern hemisphere ? I would love to see the Northern lights but science can explain them - must be beatifull , really fascinating to see .

regards Jacko

[Chappers]

A mate i work with told me about when he was driving up in northern Queensland and he has a light follow him about ten meters from the road for a few k’s  then just moved back into the scrub. He was going 110km/hr and it was matching his speed. Thats about the only weird thing i have what has happen in the bush apart from the same bloke run-in with a featherfoot.

Good choice of drop jacko,i tend to like the white wines like their crouchen riesling buy the way i have just made a group on facebook for people that hunt in Central Queensland (called CQ Hunting, Australia)

[ironglow]

  I have heard folks tell about fireballs dancing around the hillsides. My Dad told me of the time he watched such a pheonomenon. I guess those can be explained as something called " St Elmo's Fire". (you can google it)
  I have heard one person tell me about fire following him down the road in his car. I wasn't sure whether he was "expanding" on a story..or if it happened when he was driving home from a bar..      ...Hey! Maybe he was onto something?

  When I spoke of "nasty stuff" in the outback, I wasn't referring to things like grizzlies and wolves as much as them little poisonous buggers like taipan and how many other poisonous little critters.
   But on second thought, we have our share too  Black Widow and Brown recluse spiders as well as numerous snakes, rattlers, Moccassins & copperheads.
   Guess it depends on where one lives...in central & south America they even have a "poison dart" frog" which the natives use to make their darts deadly.
  Somewhere in our own western states there is a toad that secretes something from its head that is just toxic enough to give confirmed druggies a "boost", if they lick it's head.
   Makes one wonder just how it happened that the someone first started licking toad's heads ?

[bsrecurve]

i have heard some very intriging stories about yowies and min mins, but about the scariest thing that ever happened to me was the day after me and my mate james got onto the piss, and decided to put over half a jar of minced garlic into our stew that night.....

the next day was a real uphill battle since there wasn't much wind at the time. we both agreed that we'd reached the pinnacle of bad smells the human body could possibly produce.

[ironglow]

  Maybe you could have sent James up-wind and had him flush some game out to your gun !

[bsrecurve]

Ha! - not a bad idea, but i bet if we had've done that there'd be no need for a gun - just go into the bush and find them passed out more likely.......

[Jacko]

A bright spark back in the 30's decided we needed Cane Toads introduced to eat the introduced cane beetles , trouble was the beetles live up the top of the Sugercane and toads on the ground . So cane toads are a menace that has spread through the land and we have more than a few drugo's that don't mind licking the poison flands on the Cane Toads back aswell to get stoned as well ironglow - Yuk ! There was a news report last year of a captive chimpanzee in a zoo up north that was catching the Cane Toads , climbing to the highest perch in his enclosure and licking them . The Zoo staff where having a tough time every morning trying to get the toads from this Chimp - I wonder how they went breaking his habit ?

ironglow I had not even considered the insects and spiders that can make you awefully sick or kill you . Interestingly our Redback Spider is in the same family , almost identical to your Black Widow , I'm alergic to Redback venom - found this out as a young fella when one bit me and I had a anaphylactic reaction .

You also reminded me of how in easter 2007 9pm I was attending a Boar's jaw we where boiling so as to extract the tusks , walked out of the shadows under the light moths where swarming around and one flew into my left ear wiggled right in there and lodged itself to my ear drum - in between the tears of laughter rolling down my mates face we did everything you are not meant to do to get it out . In the end we went to the district nurse who lived 10 Km away on the neighbooring property , she could not help as it was now firmly glued to my ear drum thankfully drowned in the olive oil we stupidly poured in there - don't ask me why .

Not wanting to spoil the hunt as it was a 240 Km round trip to the nearest hospital I held out for 4 more days - I had an infection by this time and was in some pain but did not ruin the trip . St George Hospital could not help so 8 hours later at my local hospital I arrived - another 5 hour wait and it was finally syringed out .

[locutius]

I'm alergic to Redback venom - found this out as a young fella when one bit me and I had a anaphylactic reaction .

Yes, and the Redback died ! Poor little bugger never stood a chance once it had a taste of Jacko.

[kombi1976]

Good choice of drop jacko,i tend to like the white wines like their crouchen riesling

We were introduced to crouchen riesling by some friends.......but they call it "crouching and wrestling".
Recently we've started on Brown Brother Cienna, a sparkling red that is only 5% and you can drink tons of it before getting even half done.
The guys are right about the climate.
The brown snake is the most dangerous thing out there for us apart from that.
Even the babies are venomous.
A number of them turn up around my friend's farm house and since they're a protected species they mysteriously die on road next to it. 

[Jacko]

I went down to the Hunter Valley for a 3 day Traditional Archery shoot at the Hunter Valley Traditional Archers club for the Queens birthday long weekend . Every year we go down there a couple of mates and I do a day trip to the boutique wineries . Talk about scary , me pouring out of the car after visiting a dozen or more wineries and sampling every drop on their lists . Pretty safe bet this is how the legend of the Yowie was born .

I bought home a bottle of Kelman Vineyard Moscato for my wife . I normally do not drink the sweet wines but this was superb . And to put more hairs on my chest a bottle of Golden Grape Estate Dragons Breath Chilli Schnapps - Butter Scotch Schnapps with a hint of Rosemay and Chilli - definatly not for the faint of heart .

regards Jacko

[kombi1976]

Moscato is VERY easy to drink....dangerously so.
That schnapps however sounds deadly.
It seems the contents of the local bottles might be the scariest stuff in Oz!

[ironglow]

  I'm a guy that never touches the stuff, but I have made some interesting observations.
  Back when I was a young soldier serving in Germany, I made a case study of the GIs coming back from the local gasthauses after spending half or more of their monthly pay in one evening. My observation was;

 1) If they came back friendly and jolly..they were drinking that German Beer.
 
 2) If they came back in a mean mood and wanted to fight..they had been drinking Cognac.

 3) If they didn't make it back...they were probably drinking Steinhager.

  Not scientific..but clearly observable..

[Jacko]

One last story from me - a few years back we where camped on a friend of a friends 3000 acre property near Samford which is a semi rural area on the outskirts of Brisbane for a weekend of stump shooting with our bows and a boys weekend , one fella had his 8 and 10 year old sons with him . We arrived saturday morning with a stiff easterly breeze and set up camp , just before dark the wind changed and a foul stench filled our noses . That night we sat around the camp fire and heard a pack of wild dogs howling . We entertained ourselves howling up these dogs and before long had dogs domestic and wild all through the valley howling back to us .

Next morning we found the source of the foul stench - a cow's carcass 80 yards from camp in the bottom of a gully , been dead about a week . We continued on our way as it was no use relocating camp due to the lay of the land - we had got somewhat used to the stench by then .

Sunday morning I was answering a morning call of nature in a patch of Lantana some distance from camp and heard some soft pad noises approaching me , the worst imitation of a dog yelp I'd ever heard and some more pad noises . I thought it was my mates clowning around so I meowed like a cat  . No more than 3 metres away from me I heard skidding pad noises and some yelps and growls . Here I am with my strides down around my ankles with 4 wild dogs nearby , the wind in my favour , no bow and only a shovel for protection  I let the dogs know I was there and they bolted . We worked out from the tracks they had come down from the North face of the valley and where on their way to feed on the carcass at the west end of the gully .

That afternoon we where all stump shooting up the Mountain when we became aware the dogs where tracking us and actually trying to seperate out the boys , we backed into a scrubby hollow which was surounded on 3 sides by a very steep sided gully and waited for them . We sat the boys down behind us and sat there bows and arrows ready to shoot any dog that showed itself . The dogs where circling trying to find a way to the boys but could not get near them due to the dence scrub and near vertical banks of the gully .

The dogs stayed in the scrub never offering a shot so we did not get an opportunity to drop any of them . After about 20 minutes they melted into the scrub and we walked back to camp sticking to the really open pasture and kept the boys in the middle of us . We regularly stopped and searched for the dogs but never saw them again .

regards Jacko

[kombi1976]

THAT is freaky. 
Seen Dog Soldiers?
Reminds me of that movie. 

[Jacko]

I have seen Dog Soldiers once on late night commercial television years ago and loved it . Im like my primitive archery and associated crafts and I spent the whole movie impressed with how historically accurate the bows , arrows and other assorted items where in that movie compared to the usual hollywood fare . I looked for the video but never found one and over time forgot about seaching . Thanks for reminding me Kombi I'll look for a DVD .

regards Jacko

[kombi1976]

Are we talking about the same movie?
The Dog Soldiers I'm thinking of is about a bunch of British soldiers who try to fight off a family of werewolves in the Scottish highlands.
I can't recall any bows or the like, just lots of tension and a lot of fire fights.

[Jacko]

Good on me !!!!!!!!!!!! - I was thinking of "Last of the Dogmen" , will have to look up Dog Soldiers so I actually know what I'm talking about 

regards Jacko

[Foggy]

I think he ment Last of the Dogman