Things that make you creep etc - Bushwalking ie

[taswegian]

I've followed a few threads lately that have led to comments from those things that people have difficulty with in the natural side of life.
You know - snakes, spiders, leaches, etc.
Now I am NOT knocking or putting down anyone who has difficulty with such things. If that’s a real issue to them then its real - no bones about it.

I have never been scared of the above but I do very much respect snakes and more so spiders that can creep up unbeknown. Leaches - well they’re just a pest best avoided.
I had one encounter with a pair of snakes (you could see their love for each other in their eyes) at Derby and I must say it was my closest encounter with the slithery creatures. Being long legged bloke I don't normally have to climb on logs even big ones. Just step up on them. And this I did to meet this doting pair on the other side waving kisses to each other at an uncomfortable distance. I wasn't about to argue with them though, so backtracked pretty rapidly.
Our honeymoon memories are, for me brilliant sunsets at Lake Pitt in central highlands. For my lovely wife - a dozen little snakes living under the groundsheet where dear new husband had just pitched the tent!!
She never went bushwalking with me here (Tasy) again. But we did sleep in the odd place in National Parks in NSW and Q'land.
I remember pitching tent at Carnarvon Gorge (NSW) and watching a lace monitor go in one end and out the other - under the ground sheet ie. That excited her!!

The thing I really do not like here in Tasy is stinging nettle. Wandering in shorts it is easy to miss that blessed stuff until its felt. My young daughter found this out on numerous occasions until she got to recognise it herself.

But then there is our dearly loved Tasmanian Devil. I remember one trip to The Walls when we were accosted by this tiny little tacker who screamed out into the road in front of my ute and stopped and just stood there roaring at us. It looked quite hilarious though.
But on another trip we had a midnight interloper drag my pack outside, chew through the side and remove the food bags and crunch everything he could. I still have the containers with teeth marks and my pack with its repaired side (insurance coffed up). Thankfully he didn't take my boots far. I always tied them to the poles and so its boots and all or nothing, if you get my drift.
The noise they make in the night can be quite offputing too, until you get to know what's making it.

I had snakes in mind in this post and I would hope those who have a real issue with these (and other creepy crawlies) can come to that place where they can respect them but also recognise them as not being a threat. Obviously I am not suggesting throwing all caution to the wind.
If we here can help others overcome their fear of such creatures then thats a benefit that will be life changing for those that are currently limited in their outings in our fantastic great outdoors.

[Chief]

For me its snakes.
Don't get me wrong they are beautiful creatures as long as we keep our distance from each other.
I have had some bad experiences with them when i was a teenager spending my summers swimming in the Nepean river.
My only fear walking in the bush is that i won't see them until i'm steppnig on them.

[Drifting]

No brown snakes, no taipans. All is good.

[Bluegum Mic]

Mines not so much a fear but a general dislike. Snakes, spiders, leeches, monitors don't bother me in the slightest but I hate walking through spider webs (which as you can imagine is at times every couple of meters). The eight legged inhabitants don't phase me at all but I hate the feeling of the web stuck to me. Obviously it's not something to turn me off my beloved bushwalking but certainly can give me the heeby geebies at times.

[corvus]

Mines not so much a fear but a general dislike. Snakes, spiders, leeches, monitors don't bother me in the slightest but I hate walking through spider webs (which as you can imagine is at times every couple of meters). The eight legged inhabitants don't phase me at all but I hate the feeling of the web stuck to me. Obviously it's not something to turn me off my beloved bushwalking but certainly can give me the heeby geebies at times.

Yes the disadvantage of being in front on the track are spiders webs on the face
c

[taswegian]

found these when viewing some old pictures and thought of the several posts on spiders.
What can happen when you stay too long in the one place. I know its not the bush but defenitely Tasmania.

I can't say I have encountered them that thick up high.

[gayet]

But aren't they beautiful!!
I have a healthy respect for snakes, I do find them interesting though, spiders are fine so long as they don't drop onto my face. Leeches - the thought gives me the creeps but then I have been very lucky and never been a victim . Yet...... Things that go snarl in the night - I think I prefer to be able to see it rather than just hear it, but if the noise is far enough away - not on the other side of the tent wall, all will be OK.

<aybe I haven't experienced enough yet

[anne3]

I didn't feel creepy exactly...more like ready to have a heart attack....getting up in the night for pee.... I was greeted by the honk of a large samba stag about 5 meters from my tent.....took ages for my pulse to calm down !!!

[Snowzone]

I recently had a creepy moment at JB Hut camp site at Dinner Plain. Just as the fog was beginning to roll in right on dusk I was having one last stroll around before settling in with a good book for the night.
I happened to look across into a patch of trees and thought 'gee that looks like a person over there' . Well I was thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me in the low light until said object moved. Oh yes it definately was a two legged variety creep that had been standing in the fork of a tree watching me and when they realised they had been spotted ran off into the woods.
As I was on my own for the night, which normally does not worry me, it left me rather unsettled.
I would much rather deal with snakes or multiple legged creepy crawly's.

[gaz0303]

+1 2 legged creepies

The nudist following us in Tamborine NP, QLD.

Pig hunters in SF of northern nsw. Don't camp in them as meeting dangerous dogs and their stereotype owners late at night gives me the creeps.

[pazzar]

Wombats - walking or driving at night these things creep me a bit. I was stared down and charged by one on the arm river track at about 11pm on night. Beady eyes freaked me for the rest of the walk!

[north-north-west]

Spiders without warning freak me out. And I hate getting spiderweb across the face, though I'm getting used to it. Snakes don't bother me - they can startle me, but that's just the sudden movement thing.
Never been afraid of sharks underwater, either, though I've never seen a Pointer (yet).

Crocs, on the other hand, scare me. More than anything else. I recall a walk I did near the East Alligator, up in Kakadu; approaching a creek and a biiig old saltie pushed off from the far side and headed straight towards me - and the creek bank between us was just a gentle slope in that one section.
I was 20 feet up the nearest tree (which was a good 50 metres away) before he even got halfway across the creek. Never suspected I was capable of levitation . . .

[taswegian]

being a country bloke I'm used to things that go off in the night.
I just love the sound of Plovers when resting in my bag at night.
BUT those Native Hens can make one hell of a din and a group of them having a corroboree at 3am is not a welcome sound to be woken to from a deep sleep.

I also don't entirely like the screeches and howls the Devils make when cahorting about. They don't frighten me just not an easy sound to go to sleep to.

When starting this I had not thought of the creeps that make up thankfully a very small minority but nevertheless are just that - Creeps!!

Yep - agree NNWest- crocs would be on my list that I would avoid at all costs.

[Sam-H]

Spiders without warning freak me out. And I hate getting spiderweb across the face, though I'm getting used to it. Snakes don't bother me - they can startle me, but that's just the sudden movement thing.
Never been afraid of sharks underwater, either, though I've never seen a Pointer (yet).

Crocs, on the other hand, scare me. More than anything else. I recall a walk I did near the East Alligator, up in Kakadu; approaching a creek and a biiig old saltie pushed off from the far side and headed straight towards me - and the creek bank between us was just a gentle slope in that one section.
I was 20 feet up the nearest tree (which was a good 50 metres away) before he even got halfway across the creek. Never suspected I was capable of levitation . . .

Ah east alligator. We were camping on the beach there (Fairly sure it was east alligator) Dad and i took a roof top tinny out and saw 3 salties with in 50m of the sure. Radio'd back to mum who immediately locked herself in the 4 runner and stayed there for the next 4 hours. On the way out there. We got a flat tyre. Mum was afraid of wild pigs so before the exhaust jack had lifted the car entirely off the ground, she had the tyre changed, must of been about 45 seconds.

[corvus]

When we had a pack of wild dogs roaming in the Pelion Plains/Arm River area a couple of years back, on a solo walk I did not get much sleep when I heard them howling at the moon one night (dont think a walking pole and Swiss Army Knife would have afforded much protection )
corvus

[Sam-H]

[Boring useless stuff that makes no sense]

[ULWalkingPhil]

People are what makes me creep at times. But if I had to pick otherwise, camping alone at the top of the border ranges when I heard a barking owl, do one of those screams that sound like a female screaming for there life right next to my tent.

[DebFar]

I recently had a creepy moment at JB Hut camp site at Dinner Plain. Just as the fog was beginning to roll in right on dusk I was having one last stroll around before settling in with a good book for the night.
I happened to look across into a patch of trees and thought 'gee that looks like a person over there' . Well I was thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me in the low light until said object moved. Oh yes it definately was a two legged variety creep that had been standing in the fork of a tree watching me and when they realised they had been spotted ran off into the woods.
As I was on my own for the night, which normally does not worry me, it left me rather unsettled.
I would much rather deal with snakes or multiple legged creepy crawly's.

this gave me the creeps just reading it.....brrrrrr, rather have any animal/pest out there than a 'thinking' human watching and coming back maybe later, id be unsettled too. Snakes, spiders i can get over, but hate the times i look like a flaming looney waving my arms like an idjit because i have trekked right into an orbs web, them things are strong.. Now Leeches...yukk, seen and had a few in my time, can't stand the litter 'suckers', i do a bit of kayking as well so rivers and the bush are just ideal for them at times. Still if your out there enjoying life you just gotta put up with it.

[Pteropus]

People are what makes me creep at times. But if I had to pick otherwise, camping alone at the top of the border ranges when I heard a barking owl, do one of those screams that sound like a female screaming for there life right next to my tent.

Talking of the Border Ranges and creepy things in the bush that scream, if you read Bernard O’Reilly’s book Green Mountains, he mentions an unidentified banshee-like scream one night, on the track down into the valley to Kerry...and this was a man who spent his life in the bush and could identify most animals (he was particularly very keen on birds). Also I seem to remember that he mentions how his sister was bringing a guest up the track to the guest house and there was some light or something following them that freaked the traveller out and he threatened to bolt off, which i think O’Reilly mentioned would be the worst thing to do because he would have gone straight over the cliff! I dont have my copy of Green Mountains handy at the moment though so cant remember the exact details...

For me, as someone who does a bit of work with animals I think that its mainly humans doing creepy things in the Australian bush that anyone needs to be most wary of. I am cautious with certain animals, such as snakes or feral pigs, but almost all wild animals fear us much more than we fear them, and as long as you dont startle them, they dont want any conflict...I have never had to worry about crocs, but if I was up north i would not want to camp low by a waterhole...

[stepbystep]

There was a Vietnam vet who lived in the bush near my home in the Darling Ranges as a kid - dressed and looked filthy, long dreadlocks etc.
He used to grow dope out there and lived under a tarp. Would jump out from scrub and scare the life out of us as we rode our bikes or walked along the fire trails, still remember the sound of him chasing and then laughing at us.

Years later I worked in the service station on the edge of the bush and he would come in for his dole check and buy a couple of bits'n'bobs, would always abuse the staff.

I do wonder what happened to him and if he's still out there, would have an amazing story to tell.....

[SteveJ]

I had a visitor around my tent whilst camping in the far south east of NSW one night, it freaked me out at the time, evidence the next morning pointed to a solo Dingo. I have since been lucky enough to spot the SE Dingoes on several occasions and have had a few other 'visits'. They are truely lovely animals and I no longer get the creeps if they visit at night.

Steve