Bush oddities...

[puredingo]

Exploring a creek on the weekend and after quiet a bit of bashing I came across a lovely water hole, next to this was, up on a cleared bank, a nice and neat self contained humpy. Nothing too unusual about that but what was interesting was that hanging on the wall in pride of place, in a frame and under glass was the Dunphy sketch map of the gangerang range.
I hadn't seen the map before and only heard about from reading about it on here, very entertaining it was, complete with disclaimers, Walkers advice, naming details and other sorts of information...Too cool I thought!

[Lindsay]

You have come across someones bush retreat. If someone goes to the trouble of setting up a nice humpy to get away from it all no doubt they make good use of the map.

[puredingo]

That's what makes this find so weird Lindsay. This little humpy was a long way from the Kanangra region....maybe the relocation was a forced one and they like to reminisce???

[johnw]

Dingo, your post sent me scurrying for my own copy of the Gangerang map. If you like old maps (and find them useful) the Dunphy ones are gems.
They are still available. From memory I bought mine in one of the Sydney CBD outdoor shops in Kent Street, probably Paddy Pallin, for about $7. I discovered that the Colong Foundation has it for $10 incl. postage, and other maps from about $7-50 each:
https://www.colongwilderness.org.au/store/classic-bushwalking-maps-myles-dunphy
https://www.colongwilderness.org.au/map-gallery
These look really interesting, I might start investing in a few.

[Xplora]

From time to time people escape reality and I have heard stories of hermits in many areas surrounded by bushland. People would complain about clothing taken or maybe the fridge raided but nothing else taken. It is quite possible you were being watched the whole time. I found a humpy once myself but it did not have artwork hanging. There was also a note I read once in the book at Selby Alley hut on the Barrington Tops where someone saw a man hiding behind trees watching him but he would not approach. Interesting find. Did you take a pic?

[Lophophaps]

On a day walk near Seymour in liht scrub my party came across several pot plants, the sort that you smoke. All neatly arranged, nice fence to keep out small animals, water containers. It would be indiscreet to comment about samples. South of there in slightly heavier scrub, several hundred metres from the nearest track, I found the top of the arm that older parking meters had, red "expired".

We were towards the top quad at Thredbo, mabe a kilometre away, well off the normal ski routes, assuming there is such a thing. I knew of a flat rock to catch the sun. As we rounded the corner the crunchy snow gave our presence away, and we caught but a glimpse as the lady getting an all over tan as she rolled onto her front. We said hullo and offered to apply sunscreen to her back. Lunch was interesting.

[puredingo]

Yes Xplora I did take a few pics and as soon as i can wrangle one of the more tech savvy patrons of the house into transferring them onto here i will.

And yes, there is always that eerie feeling when your snooping around a place like that that there is always a set of eyes trained on you especially since I had to cross the creek to get to it and ended up having a mishap giving myself no chance of a surprise attack. Reading the map I half expected to eventually feel the cold steel of a 12 guage lowly press against the back of my neck and...."on your knees boy, yous gunna do sum prayin..."

[Xplora]

Reading the map I half expected to eventually feel the cold steel of a 12 guage lowly press against the back of my neck and...."on your knees boy, yous gunna do sum prayin..."

Now you could have talked your way out of it by saying 'are you a fan of Myles Dunphy as well?' I also know that in Yengo NP off the Putty road a bit more than 20 years ago there was a huge plantation in the bush complete with flying fox to access. These guys were well set up and when they were they they had M16 rifles. I have also come across people do their crop runs in the Wollemi. Chatted politely to them for a while and they were very nervous. These things happen when you get off the main tracks and they make for a good tale but you need to be careful. There are many reasons people live off the grid and some would worry about discovery. There is a story around my area about a bloke who thought he had killed his wife so he took off and hid in scrub for years thinking he would be done for murder. She survived. He's dead now.

[Lindsay]

Reading the map I half expected to eventually feel the cold steel of a 12 guage lowly press against the back of my neck and...."on your knees boy, yous gunna do sum prayin..."

Now you could have talked your way out of it by saying 'are you a fan of Myles Dunphy as well?' I also know that in Yengo NP off the Putty road a bit more than 20 years ago there was a huge plantation in the bush complete with flying fox to access. These guys were well set up and when they were they they had M16 rifles. I have also come across people do their crop runs in the Wollemi. Chatted politely to them for a while and they were very nervous. These things happen when you get off the main tracks and they make for a good tale but you need to be careful. There are many reasons people live off the grid and some would worry about discovery. There is a story around my area about a bloke who thought he had killed his wife so he took off and hid in scrub for years thinking he would be done for murder. She survived. He's dead now.

There has been speculation from the US that some missing walkers may have run afoul of criminals guarding their plantations. The US Forest Service and police have have issued warnings of the danger. http://napavalleyregister.com/news/loca ... f887a.html I hope it never reaches this point here.