Note from Buenba Flat Camp Site 2 11th January, 2014 Increasingly I tend to visit and stay longer in the more remote spots I can find, with little human traffic, and where the wildlife that has no more fear of the odd human visitor than it has of its natural predators ... hawks, eagles, kookaburras and perhaps feral cats and dogs. This is less easy in the south-eastern states, but I have a feeling there are still a few spots in the back country. My camp is typically quite simple, often only a groundsheet and swag with a table and chair, often beside a creek or on a site with an elevated view over the country. If I am staying a week or so then I establish a working camp where I can process photographs, write and top up my batteries with solar panels and occasionally the generator. Then I can stay as long as my supplies last. Over the last couple of days the solar panels caused me a little grief. They were shorting out and a couple of fuses blew before I figured out what was wrong. (I carry spare fuses ... thanks to the good advice of Tony, my brother-in-law) As I have said in prior notes, it takes a couple of days for local wildlife to become accustomed to my arrival and, after five days, the insects, arachnids and small creatures start moving in to live with me. For this reason I zip up my swag during the day and roll it over to make it less obvious to small visitors. I eventually managed to evict a mouse that joined me for two months and a ride of several thousand kilometres. I have been here in this camp for nearly twenty four hours and will stay longer. I am camped close by to a small horseshoe bend in a narrow, running creek of very cold water and, although I can see the road, only two other cars have been past in that time. A pair of magpies and their youngster were the first to come down to my camp to peck around. The youngster calling to its parents the whole time, as they do, while it foraged around. In the late evening a kangaroo hopped past me from the creek behind me and followed the track out and then across the road to the open field. I'll look out for it again tomorrow. As always there are some local kookaburras who call at the first and last light of the day without fail. I think they have a nest in a hollow in a tree not far from me, but they may not have any eggs or chicks at this time as they don't visit it with any regularity. 12th January, 2014 So far this evening and today I have heard at least three trees fall and a branch dropped about fifty metres from me. Eucalypts regularly drop branches and fall over in high winds, especially after wet weather when the soil tends to loosen. They have shallow roots and one often sees fallen trees all over the place. There has been no rain or high wind but many of the trees around here are dead or damaged by bush fires so I think that many of those are unstable and could be dangerous. I have been looking up at the trees near me wondering of any of these might be due to fall or shed a branch. A male and female kangaroo, and their youngster, came into my camp the next evening. The male came up very close, less than ten metres away from me. For some reason he got up close to examine my camp fire which was still burning, although not strongly. That was a little weird. I would have thought they would have steered well clear of fire. He was also intrigued by my swag which he looked at for quite some time. He was only nervous when I moved around a bit, retreating a short distance and then he returned. He was making some noises at me, which I took to mean "Look here old chap, this is my bit of turf you know". He didn't press the point, and I haven't seen them since then. There are lots of Crimson Rosellas up here. Lovely birds with great red and blue feathers. I have a couple of their blue feathers in my hat now, which I found on the ground a little while back. It is now after 4pm and a short-wheel-based Landrover just went past heading east. A short while later it returned in the direction it came from. Of the two other vehicles which spent the night over on the other side of the road about 200 metres away, one left around 9am and the other, a small motor-home, is still there. Steve, its owner, visited with me for about an hour around 11am and we stood and yarned for a bit. Although he has quite a big vehicle he also likes to get away from the crowds and he related a couple of tricks he had seen used to encourage other campers to keep their distance. One was to leave a big diesel generator out in the open. These are very noisy so most folk will keep away, unless they also have a similar generator of course ;-). Another, which he assured me always works is to strip stark-naked and start washing your car. Not many people will hang around then ... except probably that mob I ran into near the Wombeyan Caves. Steve knows this Victorian high country quite well and talked about the various tracks and towns which is always handy. He told me that he used to ride a motorbike up on Davies Plain and described how slippery the fallen branches from gum trees get in the cold weather when the branches freeze, forcing the oil to the surface. Steve said that these were sure to bring you down if you rode carelessly across them. "Greasier than a butcher's prick!" was the precise phrase he used.
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