So, you want to visit a National Park and travel, unconvinced, 22kms away from civilisation along a bumpy corrugated road. It’s getting towards late afternoon so darkness isn’t too far away when you turn up, relieved, at a declared car park not too far from your destination. Breathing a sigh of relief, you start to unpack and collect firewood but ominously there’s noone else around. Not a problem – a nice quiet evening will await.
As you prepare the fire for a evening huddled around it and think about dinner, panic strikes!
Stan’s back door, gateway to gas bottle, matches, fridge and food as well as the crockery and cutlery needed for basic dinner operations, fails. A catastrophic engineering failure confronted us - how would we react? Episodes of Ray Mears and Bear Grylls came flooding back and visions of hunting a kangaroo through the bush to eat its tail came to light..
Fortunately, my Scouting background and their motto, ‘Be Prepared’ worked miracles. Spare matches were packed elsewhere as were tins of food inside the van. The fire was lit and just in reach was the large cast iron pan suitable for cooking on camp fires. A plan was beginning to materialise!!
The pan was carefully manoeuvred out, the tin of mince and veggies fortunately had a ring pull top, and with a teaspoon that miraculously appeared, dinner was quickly served hot and yummy from the pan. Phew!
Once sorted, the planned fireside evening was even more welcome.
Although not a life-or-death situation it did make us realise how quickly things could turn against you. Top tip – keep spare matches, tin opener and food somewhere apart from the main store.
However, the drama didn’t stop there. At approx. 10pm a noise could be heard. Now remember, you’re 22kms from the main road with nothing else along it, the National Park isn’t open with no Rangers or mobile coverage to call for help should the worst happen. The noise (a car’s engine) got closer, stopped and then carried on again…where the bloody hell was it! Of course, now the senses are heightened any small rustle or twig breaking obviously meant certain death was just round the corner. Perched inside the van, the heart rates quickened and a real sense of fear kicked in until enough time had passed for logic to conquer and we could settle. But where did the car go?
The morning mist cleared and we set off 100m down the track to the National Park just opposite the private road to a cattle station several kms up the road. Mystery closed.
Oh, and the National Park in question was Umbrawarra National Park and wasn’t really worth all the excitement in the end. A lovely setting but not a massively busy Park that had bundles to see and do :)
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