Ticked off

Lead-lined · Post by **Lead-lined** » 13 November 03 2:05 am

On a recent trip to Queensland, I came back from a cache with an unwanted swap - A tick happily burrowed into my leg.

It just got me thinking - Australia boasts some of the most poisonous snakes and spiders in the world ....

Just wondering if anyone has had any nasty experiences with wildlife during their caching adventures.

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 13 November 03 6:37 am

I had a very close call with a Death Adder while doing i!6 Quay I stepped down from a rock and slipped in some leaf litter. I managed to stay on my feet, when I looked down there is the snake moving between my parted feet......... I just turned to the wife and told her to be quiet and we waited for our new friend to depart the scene. Then Mrs Gecko took the long way down to the cache and we took a different route back out. This was at West Head in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.... that has been the worst encounter so far for me... also had numerous leeches and ticks...... another day in the caching life of Swampgecko<P> for further details visitthe Primary Site or the Old Aussie Forums(this has the full account of the whole cache adventure)

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 13 November 03 6:38 pm

Whilst placing Laem-Sai 2 in Thailand I was chased by A Cobra !

Tried running away on the Piggy Trotters as fast as I could, Not easy as there was Long grass everywhere, with coconuts underneath it all !

And then the Bloody Monkeys that mobbed me whilst placing a cache at Khao-Yai National park in Thailand.

The Spindoctors · Post by **The Spindoctors** » 13 November 03 9:02 pm

I went searching for My Son near Hoi An in Vietnam. It was meant to be a little off the track, and after about 15 minutes in 40 degree heat crashing around trees and biten by green ants, I gave up. On the bus trip back to the hotel I read in Lonely Planet that I shouldn't stray from the path when visiting this site as it was littered with LAND MINES during the American war

embi · Post by **embi** » 14 November 03 11:39 am

I had a close enocunter with a snake at one of maccamobs caches. <p> He stood ready to strike while I stood crapping my dacks for at least 5 minutes....in the end he backed off....<p>Must have realised that I would have opened a can of whoop a$$ on him

ToolkiT · Post by **ToolkiT** » 14 November 03 1:17 pm

Worst thing while caching was heaps of leeches in the barrington tops (it was raining..)

While bush walking in the blue mountains I allmost stepped on a brown snake once.. Me and my dad totally missed it and stepped over it, but my mom saw it and started yelling...

The first months we lived here it took us about an hour to walk 100m in the bush because we were so cautious... now we go at full speed... My wife saw a red-belly-black snake on 11-9 /9-11 so not only black cats crossing your path bring bad luck..

Gunn Parker · Post by **Gunn Parker** » 14 November 03 4:11 pm

Hi All
I had a bad experience while searching for "Rock Garden", I was down on my hands and knees searching amongst the rock when with in arms reach a snake slithered out from the rocks and then back into another.
Have a look HERE at the rocks I was searching.
Andrew

tolmh · Post by **tolmh** » 15 November 03 11:07 pm

Had fun finding 'Cactus' at Teotihuacan in Mexico. The cactus was fifteen feet high and joined another to form a tunnel. As well as being covered in spines and rotting fruit, it was also covered in spiders. An attack marshalled from a nearby ant nest topped it all off.

Two Goth Geeks · Post by **Two Goth Geeks** » 18 November 03 12:00 pm

Closest I came was while hiding "Always Xmas". We were going to place it on the other side of a small creek at the bottom of the gully, but while Lil Dwarf was throwing rocks in the water for something to do, I saw a huge long black snake slither out from a bush not six feet in front of me. Fortunately, he was headed away from us, so I grabbed Lil Dwarf and headed back up the hill a bit to hide it.

I'm always worried while poking my arm or just my hand into rocks and holes while trying to find a cache. I always expect a spider to be in there.

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 19 November 03 7:06 am

Can I just interject here with what a change it is to be caching in New Zealand?

It took a bit of courage initially, but you really can shove your arm into a tree stump or a tangle of grass with a high degree of confidence that it won't get bitten and fall off within 5 minutes!

Mama Bear went through the opposite transition when she first moved to Oz; she bought a book of "Australia's Most Dangerous Creatures" and it was a THICK book! (I told her that Volume 4 is even thinker...)

Two Goth Geeks · Post by **Two Goth Geeks** » 19 November 03 2:05 pm

And you are an even thinker too?

Will all the snakes in Ireland please raise their right hand?

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 20 November 03 7:36 am

Bear_Left wrote:Can I just interject here with what a change it is to be caching in New Zealand?

It took a bit of courage initially, but you really can shove your arm into a tree stump or a tangle of grass with a high degree of confidence that it won't get bitten and fall off within 5 minutes!

Mama Bear went through the opposite transition when she first moved to Oz; she bought a book of "Australia's Most Dangerous Creatures" and it was a THICK book! (I told her that Volume 4 is even thinker...)

I know this book..... Mrs Gecko is british by birth, but she has since been nuetralised, and my In-laws bought the book as a gift for one of the relatives back in the Mother Country, They decided NOT to send it over after reading it themselves, and stated that if they had of known about the animals previously they may not have come out to the New Country...... So I started to tell them about Dropbears and Yowies........ It didn't work -they are still here......