northdude wrote:Its definatley different over here. Im just a bush hunter fuk goung up into the alps and scaleing cliffs n s**t. Even the bush can be quite dangerous if you all of a sudden get heavy rain been in the bush when that has happened water rises real fast and streams etc start appearing from nowhere, got lost in an area I knew well in fog before as well
Mostly where I've hunted could never get seriously flooded. But in the Kimberley I would go out on foot into country that really does turn into a virtual ocean overnight during the wet season, you do need to be aware of the weather when you go bush. I don't think I've been actually "lost" in the bush, I have certainly been very confused about my location. Moving long distances under a top canopy or in the dark can definitely get me "all turned around", but as I'm on foot, I'm not going to be more than a few kilometers from the last place I did have my bearings.
Paul Harrell has an anecdote about hunting an area he was very familiar with. He knew a road went on until it met another road. But once when he was out hunting, in the dark or a storm I think, he headed in the direction of this road he knew about, and after a very long time he never found it, though he did manage to determine his own location eventually. He went back later and walked the road he "knew", and found that it turned just out of sight and went in an entirely different direction. Sometimes you have to over-ride what you believe you know with what you can actually see.
I avoid moving in the bush at night, but sometimes the situation demands relocating. But I am extremely careful to take very small steps and try to maintain my balance on one leg until I know my front foot is secure. I have fallen in wombat and rabbit holes that are hidden under grass, especially when going downhill. In the Kimberley, the floods that come through leave vertical walls in the dry waterways, with grass and bush growing over the edges, it's very easy to take a step and find yourself falling twenty-feet or more.