There are crocodiles in Florida too. Off in the quays...I understand they're rare...but kayak campers still encounter them. They're not as big as the African/Australian versions...but far nastier than their gator equivalents...
I was walking my dog along a river bed in a reserve and some bloke already there starts up a conversation, asking about the breed of my dog (big boy Akita). He shared that he had pitbulls for tracking wild pigs. Innocently I asked, "So you hunt with a rifle?". He says, "Nah, the dogs distract them up the front and I creep up behind them and slit their throats". I said, "Boy, is that the time already. Gee, must go. Bye". I was out of there faster than greased lightning.
Yeah we have crocs in the everglades. Its still rare though. I've seen plenty of gators naturally in the wild not sure If I seen a croc ever. I grew up bass fishing in the glades. I never go deep into it though. I always stay in safety of other people and park rangers etc. Gators here are very curious and predatory . They are attracted to human activity and tourist feeding them doesn't help. Its a big problem with people fishing the gators always try to chase the fish in. Ive been on a wooden dock before and someone teased a gator with his mudfish and teh gator smacked his head on the wooden dock, the entire dock shook with everyone on it. Some people had to catch their balance. There was young kids on the dock too with multiple gators surronding it. They will try to eat you for sure if you fall in the water.
One changing thing with the bush is the people who visit, at least within a days comfortable drive or so from a capital city. A former colleague shared with me an experience when I was working with him a couple of years ago. His property is as I said, about a days drive from Sydney. A large property for a hobby farm. He was out in the fields doing some wiring work, it was just a normal day. Hearing occassional gunfire he knew something was up. He came across a ute on one of his tracks, the back was full of bags of rifles with no cover over them. Very openly displayed. 2 fellows of Lebanese heritage in the ute, very hostile to him. They refused to stop shooting on his land and were dismissive of his request to leave the property. With big smiles they said things like "And what are you going to do if we don't leave" and "Don't interfeer". My friend was alone, just his tools and basic knife he didn't have any arms. It was about 25 mins walk back to his house/phone and Police would be well over an hour away if he needed them. He managed to leave them and then had to worry about his and his neighbours cattle being shot up. Those guys were just out shooting whatever they felt like. No consideration for the landowners or fields of fire when they shot up fence posts or whatever. And they left gates open all over a few properties. My friend didn't want to report it.
Just as well it's most likely garbage. More holes than a shot up fencepost in this described scenario. On a more positive note, there are far fewer instances of Big City people going out into the countryside and randomly shooting around everybodys' properties since our laws were adjusted.
Taipan got a powerline worker here in Qld last week http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...pan-in-central-queensland-20121107-28yhz.html
My step dad and mum headed out bush in the middle of summer, as he had to do some geophysical surveys. They told no one were they were going, took very little water and the 4WD got bogged down in sand. No mobile reception and no farmsteads near by. After 3 hours of digging, they managed to get unstuck. after the event they acknowledged how stupid they were. Just the other day several young blokes out in WA or SA i think died when their car broke down and they tried to walk to get help.
I believe your story Anglo and have heard similar. It's a shame people here are not allowed to protect their land/property from scumbags like the above mentioned. Try carrying on like a primitive savage in a place like Texas and see where you end up.
Why I call crap on this. 1. Farmer has no transport. No ute, no ATV, tractor?..."25mins walk back to house/phone." He must be pretty fit to lug all the fencing gear that far to start with. Maybe plausible if the farmer was Cliff Young. 2. Hears occasional gunfire. Knows something is up. Then sees vehicle and approaches it, sans arms. 3. Sees bags of rifles in back of ute, then sees fellows of Lebanese heritage inside ute. Once again why would you approach, then see a pile of firearms, then engage them in hostile conversation and risk being shot, rather than just buggering off back home and getting your own weapon or calling cops. For that matter, why not help yourself to one of theirs? There's a uteload there and the trespassers are sitting inside it, not out shooting. 4. Police were over an hour away. Same as where I live, and thats a major regional City. Farmer could ring cops. It sounds like the shooters hung around long enough driving around everyones properties and causing random mayhem. If it was a remote area their will likely be only a couple of main roads in and out of the area. Cops would know what to look for as the farmer would have the rego and the make and color of the vehicle. Surely he would have had time to do this while he was being ridiculed by the trespassers and told to bugger off. 5. Farmer is too far away from home to go for help/backup. So what did he do after being asked "what are you gunna do about it? Go back to mending his fences while they took potshots at his fenceposts? 6. Farmer then had to worry about neighbors cattle being shot up. What does he do? Go home and ring neighbor? Ring cops? Ghostbusters? 7. Left gates open all over a few properties. What are all the other farmers in the gunfire hearing district doing? When there are strange vehicles or people entering private properties in remote areas it is very quickly picked up on by locals. Same goes for random shooting of assets and livestock. Was every farmer in the district too far away from a phone to ring cops or each other? Leave a farm gate open and you will be frowned upon. Leave many gates open all over properties and you will be approached and challenged by someone, quite possibly an angry, armed farmer. 8. "My friend didnt want to report it." Why not? Same applies to every other affected property owner in the area? Apart from that its not a bad yarn. Rural properties do get trespassed on by rude and uncaring people doing the wrong thing. They are more likely to be shot themselves than to be calling them.
If anyone got from my post that I meant he was putting up a new fenceline or similar, sorry no not what I meant. Just doing the rounds with a backpack, a roll of wire, pliers, hammer, combi tool etc. Walking his land and patching a few fences along the way and noting where proper work was required.
Fair enough you don't believe it. 1. I've spent plenty of times an hours walk away from a vehicle, lugging all kinds of gear through the bush in 5 degrees to 40+ degrees. One particular piece of land I was on we followed the owners' wishes to not use vehicles on the track past a particular point. He wanted an uncultivated section of land with a track through it to actually reclaim the track. It's their land not mine. But we still needed to work at the end of the track didn't we? So we walked, equipment and all. 2. What do you want me to say. Everyone reacts to that differently. 3. In the interests of keeping my post short I have implied he saw the rifles first then the people. Well if you read it again, I hope you can understand that he saw the people first, then the rifles. I said 2 men in the ute, Yes. I didn't say they stayed in the ute for the conversation. Helping yourself to one of their rifles...would you escalate things like that? 4. How many roads connect to a given property on the far side of the Great Dividing Range in NSW? I'm not talking about the Kimberleys here with one dirt road through the desert. One or two roads going north/south? Another east/west between the two. Disused crown land and stock roads. You can travel both ways on them can't you. Towards the nearest coppers or away from them and thats if they end up on the same road as the intruders as they leave. Plus every adjoining farm has a few gates to those roads. There are numerous ways into and out of everywhere. 5. Some people have remarkable verbal skills and can talk down almost any situation. I'm not going to reveal his background on the internet. 6. and 8. Of course he called the neighbours. We didn't discuss it much further beyond that but I imagine they all needed to buggerise around putting locks on gates that never needed them before, and making sure everyone who used the tracks was informed of the change. They would have all had to make surplus keys etc. But back to what he did tell me, he didn't want to involve the Police. 7. A. I don't know what they were doing. B. Another mate in another part of the state goes shooting on his land all the time. His neighbours will be used to it. I'm used to it when I visit. His mother is used to it when she goes for a break from the city. It's the bush, people shoot. In this example we're discussing, he isn't used to neighbours shooting very often, and a lot of them had large properties. Who knows if they even heard anything - thats probably why the intruders were there. They thought they'd be undisturbed. If you think this is all BS, great. Believe it if you want, or not.
Im glad no damage was done nor any need for expensive repairs. If any of these farmers with blown away fences or dead livestock needed to make an insurance claim for damages, the first thing that would be required is a police report. It might be an hour away from the cops in one direction, two the next, three another. Trespassers with ute load of guns had to leave the area in some direction. They would stick out like dogs balls in an area like this. What type of vehicle were they in? Your colleague can pick them as Lebanese in a flash, surely he was bright enough to notice what they were driving, both to tell his neighbors or cops. Balderdash!
Im going out the bush detecting with a Stacker from Melb today. Never met him before, for all I know he's a terrorist or serial killer. Might turn up with a bootload of weapons? How much "heat" does everyone suggest I pack, just in case?
Armed with a few coldies should cover your ass I reckon. I wouldn't mind hooking up with one of you pro prospectors to show me how to find gold one day, reckon I'm a few months away from being ready to go for a scrounge round the scrub. Might go and have a look in winter, any reason to avoid a Tassie winter is a good 1.
