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> From: REID Colin <>
> To:
> Subject: Goomburra - revisited Part 2
> Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 08:01:30 +1000
>
> ..............continued..............
>
> As soon as it was dark I headed into the forest and finding a suitable
> spot
> set up my equipment, turned off the torch and waited. Now, I have to
> share
> with you the amount of control it takes for me to do this!! Many years
> ago,
> in another life, 3 friends and myself had an extremely scary
> experience that
> has never been fully explained and I have had a problem, since that
> night,
> with trees and darkness. I am also cursed with a vivid imagination and
> can
> be quite 'sensitive' to atmosphere. As soon as I enter the woods at
> night I
> have to, almost physically, clamp down mentally and focus on the task
> at
> hand - otherwise I'd run screaming back to the light! So, sitting in
> the
> dark, back against a large tree (that way, you see, no-one can sneak up
> behind me!) I listened to the hair raising screams of Sooty Owls, then
> the
> gurgling, bill snapping Frogmouths and waited in anticipation of a
> reply
> from the wild....nothing. Move on to another location.
> I was at my fourth 'spot' and was about to call it a night - there had
> been
> a possible responsive gurgle near the river, but nothing had
> eventuated.
> Once again I had my back to a big wide tree that an orc couldn't get
> its'
> arms around, even if there were orcs in Goomburra, which I was fairly
> sure
> there weren't. It was dark, black, solid, impenetrable, couldn't see
> my hand
> in front of my face kind of stuff, black as the insides of a cat's
> guts,
> dark as the tomb.... You know what I mean? No moon, nothing reflective
> in
> the deep, dark, forest...The only light was a few miserable stars
> visible
> between the tall, dark, over hanging tree tops and what good was that
> light?? A billion miles away and created even before the dinosaurs.....
> I had switched off the CD and was sitting silently listening for a
> response....when in the darkness on the track I could hear a jogger!! A
> JOGGER??? In the middle of the night??? In the DARK with NO LIGHT????
> HOW
> could THAT be??
> The hair stood up on my neck, I went cold inside, my heart missed
> several
> beats and, control lost, my mind went wild...it's an
> ANCIENT TREE LOGGER.....WITH AN AXE... DRIBBLING......LONG DIRTY
> HAIR.....COME TO GET SOMEONE... AND IT'S ME!!! I'LL BE BURIED ALIVE AND
> EATEN BIT BY BIT. OH MY GOD, WHAT CAN I DO??? My legs were useless, I
> couldn't run, the JOGGER WAS RUNNING PAST - WHAT...............??????
> I turned on the torch and the jogger, or, as it is more commonly
> known, the
> bandicoot, stopped dead in his tracks and blinked at me like a little
> old
> man caught urinating in public.
> I swear he was brown before I switched on the light, but he was grey
> when I
> saw him!! I was so relieved I nearly relieved myself.....
> Exiting into the camp ground, my tent in sight, other campers round
> their
> fires I felt proud - I had conquered my fear again....but it had been a
> close thing this time.
> Sunday dawned a little more promising and I headed up the North Branch
> Trail
> (7 Kms 3.5 hrs) This proved to be a relatively easy walk along
> Dalrymple
> Creek. BELLBIRDS again, WHITE THROATED TREECREEPERS and 1 RED-THROATED
> (great views), GOLDEN WHISTLERS, SCRUB WRENS, lots of LEWIN'S
> HONEYEATERS,
> CRIMSON ROSELLAS and KING PARROTS, SATIN BOWERBIRDS and 1 SPOTTED
> PARDALOTE.
>
> Got back to camp, packed up the wet tent and headed home. I was
> planning on
> returning to Brisbane via Killarney, I had been advised it was a
> lovely road
> with 'lots of birds'... It was and there were - I saw my first. SE Qld,
> Common Bronzewing - and managed to hit it with my car into the bargain
> (it's
> still alive, missing feathers but otherwise quite well). I also got
> 'lost'
> and ended up in NSW in Woodenbong, but that's another story.....
>
>
>
>> Colin Reid
>
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