What's your best/worst camping tale?!

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What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by alby » 03 Jan 2017, 10:40 am

Rang in the new year at Copeton Dam with a few good friends. New years day, 2017, about 3pm it all hit the fan when our camp was hit by a mini bloody tornado. 3 gazebos strapped together sailed off and did quite a majestic aerobatic display before ingraciously dumping themselves 40ft away in twisted pile of bent and broken metal.

Tents were flattened but still there thankfully. A bit of emergency work and duct tape and tie downs salvaged 2 of the gazebos into some semblance of shelter. Later at tea time it was discovered that the dishwashing liquid had somehow made its way into one of the food crates and covered everything in its frangipani freshness.

My 6 year old declared it the worst day of the year! Couldn't argue with that lol. Nothing for it but to Crack a stubbie and wonder at the joys of camping :allegedly: .
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by SteamedHam » 03 Jan 2017, 12:01 pm

Went camping in Wombat SF (lol) with two mates who had the masterstroke idea of setting up their 6-man tent in the middle of a walking track, so we had about half a dozen couples and a bloody Scout group walk through our camp. They didn't bring any toilet paper (used mine, if they were civilised enough) Didn't bring any of their own soap/hand sanitiser, fire lighters, WATER. One of them got the s**ts from the diet of VB and baked beans and s**t his pants (burnt them on the fire) Then of course the rain started and didn't stop the entire trip.

I learnt a lot about my friends that trip.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Supaduke » 03 Jan 2017, 12:39 pm

Couple of incidents

First one I learnt how easy it was to get lost in the bush. Set up camp in the Grampians. Went off to collect some firewood. Head down , bum up collecting wood for about 20 mins. I then looked around and realised I had not been paying attention to which direction I had been going. Had wandered off any tracks and was surrounded by trees. Tramped aimlessly through the bush for another 20 mins before I found a road. Then took me another 30-40 mins to get back to the campsite.

Second one we were camping up on the river near Cobram. I woke up in the morning and needed to ....relieve myself ;)

Wandered off into what I thought was a secluded area with a shovel and squatted down to do the business. Half way through the job a couple out for a morning walk appeared out of the bush and busted me. Being fully committed at this point all I could do was squat there and say "good morning". They gave me a grin and said good morning back as they continued on.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by SendIt » 03 Jan 2017, 1:12 pm

Any trip where preparation talks included the phrase "doesn't look like it will rain"
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by superdave » 03 Jan 2017, 2:24 pm

Well it didn't happen to me, and may be an urban legend...

Guy sneaks up to a campervan/motorhome type setup at night, and proceeds to siphon their diesel tank into a can. So far so good.

When he puts the hose into the tank and takes the first suck to get the siphon going, he finds to his horror that he has a mouthful of sewage instead of diesel. The owner (I assume) found a pile of vomit on the ground by the hose the next morning.

Poetic justice.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by juststarting » 03 Jan 2017, 2:30 pm

superdave wrote:Well it didn't happen to me, and may be an urban legend....


Didn't happen to you = didn't happen. Also heard this one before, across 2 countries with a handful for variants.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by superdave » 03 Jan 2017, 3:00 pm

Fair enough.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by albat » 03 Jan 2017, 6:43 pm

Was on a two week trip with the kids camping on fraser island qld tewnty years ago set up camp young kids already raiding the coolers for food after a big day setting up we all dozed off early in the heat and took an early night next morning got up early to rustling noise outside tent only to find a half dozen dingos chowing down on all my meat and perishables for the next two weeks kids didnt shut em right the night before old bloke on next site was just walking over to warn me about the mongrels as i was cursing and swearing had to get a ferry back to mainland and go shopping again rangers had a big cull and fenced the sites after a kid got attacked and killed some years later
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Gwion » 03 Jan 2017, 10:16 pm

Late last trout season a couple of blokes and i head up to the lakes. Two hour walk in. Bit of a detour to check out the state of an old hut. Then the rain started.

Caught a nice trout and then we thought we'd set camp, have lunch and wait for the rain to pass.
And wait.....
And wait.....

At one stage the tent vestibule started filling with water so we made a drain..... It kept filling. About 4pm we thought we could make a dash back to save a cold, wet night. All the tracks were creeks. There were a few jokes about having a cast on top of the plateau but they soon petered out. We considered dropping our packs to make better time. Light failed. We were trying to remember the track but it was all water. I put a foot in the wrong place and went over my knee in water, jarring my knee back at the same time. I let out a few expletives and we again considered dropping our packs (one of the other blokes had recently turned 60, the other was his son). We kept going because none of us liked the idea of walking back to get our packs or having them grow legs before we could return. There is a creek crossing not all that far from the car park but the creek was a river and we just had to guess where to cross. We got back to the vehicle cold, wet, injured and bloody tired. 5 hours of walking for one bloody fish. Good fish, but!

I was limping for three days.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Boatman » 25 Jan 2017, 9:47 am

SteamedHam wrote:Went camping in Wombat SF (lol) with two mates who had the masterstroke idea of setting up their 6-man tent in the middle of a walking track


There's always one :lol:

Nothing too bad here, just annoying.

Turned up at our spot, 5 seconds before we pulled up it started PISSING DOWN and we spent the first 2 hours of the trip huddled in the cars :thumbsdown:

Came good though and ended up an alright trip.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by RealNick » 31 Jan 2017, 9:43 am

I went camping last weekend for the first time in a while. Forgot about going in summer.

*^*&^ blow flies I tell you! For the hours from lunch to when it went dark they were like a plague. Spent the whole time swatting and spraying instead of relaxing.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Rgo » 31 Jan 2017, 2:18 pm

Setting up the camper trailer, stinking hot, the missus disappeared without saying anything to find access to the creek for the dog to go for a swim. about an hour later heard someone calling out, she gone a.. over h .. on the boat ramp. Quick trip to the hospital only a sprain insisted on coming back camping. Couldn't walk next morning a massive storm came through soaked everything could only just get out on the black soil. Another trip to the hospital 3 bones broken in her foot, 12 months later still can't walk properly.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by YoungBuck » 31 Jan 2017, 7:45 pm

One of these happened to me just last bloody weekend. Decided (stupidly, I know better but somehow escaped my better judgement) to head off for a fish and a bit of camping on the Friday morning of the Australia day long weekend..... Headed to Eildon as Ive never been there only to find it's pre-allocated camp sites and pre-book with $ per night. Stuff that I thought, so set off to find a camp site somewhere with my brother on the phone looking up maps of places to go as he was going to join me. Well every spot I found either had 'camping prohibited' or if there was camping there was no room for another swag!
Ended up driving home later that evening clocking up nearly 600km without even unpacking the car... :evil: As mentioned above, silly heading out late into a long weekend expecting to get a camp site. Wont be making that mistake again any time soon.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by pete1 » 31 Jan 2017, 10:13 pm

Few years ago went camping in NSW, mate doped in 150 pound braided line and a big ass hook. We all thought he was being funny, tied it to a tree and about 5 minute latter crack the line snapped, so we all panicking to put another hook on with a big ass yabbie. Something big snapped it again, gave up after that as what ever it was must of been huge. We caught a few murray cod that weekend one 1.13 metres others from 0.5 - 0.7 metres, this fish must of being 2 metres long, i would love to take one look at it.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by brett1868 » 31 Jan 2017, 10:20 pm

I went on a 10 day road trip in the late 80's with a mate, on the first leg Sydney to Broken Hill a full 1L bottle of G.I Lime cordial leaked in the fridge and marinated all the meat. For the next 3 nights were eating green steak, sausages and chops but the most surprising bit was just how good they tasted. Who'd have imagined that meat soaked in cordial would taste so good.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Gwion » 01 Feb 2017, 7:28 am

On the other side of the coin, had a pretty good camping trip up near the mouth of the Daintree a year or so ago. Was in a hired camper but still counts. The wife and I didn't fight (both stubborn opinionated types in case you hadn't noticed) and we didn't get eaten by crocs while fishing around the mouth of the river, so, pretty bloody good all tolled! :lol:
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Ed9362 » 01 Feb 2017, 12:37 pm

I took the mrs camping once.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by bigfellascott » 01 Feb 2017, 6:37 pm

One I remember well is a trip away with the boys over on Ausvarmint - we camped on a property down south and set up near a tail end of a dam, anyway all was well until late afternoon when the heavens opened up and what can only be called a severe storm cell parked it's ass right on top of us and let rip for about 6-8hrs straight.

We were camping near a dry creek bed which ran into the dam and it wasn't long before that sucker was flowin like mad, it was up about a 3/4m in a hour or so and rising fast we made for a restless night to say the least but that wasn't as bad as the Niagara Falls we had flowing off the back of the mountain we were camped down the bottom of which decided it needed to flow straight through the middle of our tent :lol: I spend the night bailing the thing out as it had about 6" of water in it none stop, the air bed was saturated as were we (not a stitch of dry clothes anywhere, the daughter bailed out and into the car to sleep, we spent the night bailing and tying down the tent to secure it from the severe winds that decided to join the part along with the torrential rain and awesome thunder and lightning show.

She was one wild night that won't be for gotten in a hurry and we were glad to see the sun out the next day which had everything and everyone dry soon and we were back into having shooting fun.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by chacho » 03 Feb 2017, 10:41 am

42 degree day.

Tent with no ventilation / mesh.

Was like being steamed in a plastic bag.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Oldbloke » 14 Jun 2017, 4:48 pm

I just had a bad one yesterday & today. Headed off to chase some fallow.

Slept in so running late.
Developed diarrhea on the way. So had the s**ts most of the day.
Got an email that I didnt get the job I was after.(again)
Was setting up camp and used the compass in my near new mobile to find east.
Two hours later cant find the mobile. Must have spent 4 hrs searching.($400 mobile now lost. No coverage in the area so no chance of going back and calling my own #, was on silent anyway. Always do this when hunting except when in camp)
Already had a touch of conjunctivitis when I left and by second day getting bad.
And of course no deer.

Will get hit by a bus tomorrow.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Gwion » 14 Jun 2017, 7:09 pm

That sucks, OB. Go to bed and stay there for 2 days!!!
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by YoungBuck » 15 Jun 2017, 10:53 am

Bad luck OB, some days just go to sh*t. I find most of my bad days start when I am running late for something, you end up getting off on the wrong foot and ends up being one this after the other.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by bigpete » 15 Jun 2017, 7:57 pm

Took my wife camping with my dad. Enough said
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Supaduke » 16 Jun 2017, 9:37 pm

bigpete wrote:Took my wife camping with my dad. Enough said


That sent a shiver down my spine followed by a slideshow of horror scenarios lol
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Bigjobss » 28 Jun 2017, 7:57 pm

My old man getting drunk around the campfire and crawling around in the dark only to find his handgun fell out of the holster and down a wombat hole, that was a fun 2 hours of searching in the dark on a cold night I will never forget.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by bigfellascott » 29 Jun 2017, 4:02 pm

I went Glamping in -8 weather the other weekend, everything froze but I was lovely and toasty in my Big Daddy Deluxe Swag with the electric blanket on to warm it up before I got in, then I just switched it off as I was too warm :lol:

Gotta love "Glamping".
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Hugh » 11 Nov 2017, 10:12 am

brett1868 wrote:I went on a 10 day road trip in the late 80's with a mate, on the first leg Sydney to Broken Hill a full 1L bottle of G.I Lime cordial leaked in the fridge and marinated all the meat. For the next 3 nights were eating green steak, sausages and chops but the most surprising bit was just how good they tasted. Who'd have imagined that meat soaked in cordial would taste so good.

You should try meat in Coke :thumbsup:
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by YoungBuck » 19 Dec 2017, 5:13 pm

Oldbloke wrote:Two hours later cant find the mobile. Must have spent 4 hrs searching.($400 mobile now lost. No coverage in the area so no chance of going back and calling my own #, was on silent anyway. Always do this when hunting except when in camp)

Quite the late post on this, have a think about purchasing a Tile for your phone in the event that happens again (https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/products/mate).
Normally you use your phone to find the item your tile is attached to, but it also works the other way around - if you can get within bluetooth range of your phone, you can make it ring even if its on silent.
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Re: What's your best/worst camping tale?!

Post by Hoot » 19 Dec 2017, 5:48 pm

My worst was easily camping in Lithgow, it wasn't a holiday and just an overnight stop in winter and I thought a makeshift bed in the back of the ute in the caravan park would get me through. I don't think I could have been any colder if I went camping on Mars, f*** me swinging I must have only made it through the night thanks to jackhammer shivering!

It's forever cemented Lithgow in my mind, and not in a positive way!
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