rivarat
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 140
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Post by rivarat on Jan 12, 2019 17:15:38 GMT -5
When for a explore yesterday, good day out though not much luck, only a few small crystals worth taking home. After hiking up a hill in 102° heat, taking a nice long drink break sitting in the shade. Do you think I jumped when I heard something just behind me? This little fellow was about 6 feet behind me and about 3 feet about my head, probably wondering what stupid creature is out in this weather.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jan 12, 2019 17:57:00 GMT -5
I can imagine it made you jump. Let me ask you- As an American, I imagine that living in Australia is very dangerous. Seems everything is poisonous. DH stumbled on a plant the other day that is crazy poisonous- gympie gympie and, of course, it is in Australia. I'm not dissing Australia, at all. Going there is on my bucket list, but you better believe I would watching my back. And spiders.... let's not even talk about those. Sooooo, am I wrong or do y'all really need to be careful.
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Post by parfive on Jan 12, 2019 18:30:12 GMT -5
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jan 12, 2019 18:42:56 GMT -5
How cute is that? I know they can be mean, but boy are they cute!
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rivarat
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 140
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Post by rivarat on Jan 12, 2019 19:53:48 GMT -5
I can imagine it made you jump. Let me ask you- As an American, I imagine that living in Australia is very dangerous. Seems everything is poisonous. DH stumbled on a plant the other day that is crazy poisonous- gympie gympie and, of course, it is in Australia. I'm not dissing Australia, at all. Going there is on my bucket list, but you better believe I would watching my back. And spiders.... let's not even talk about those. Sooooo, am I wrong or do y'all really need to be careful. I've never really thought about it, at least not from your point of view. I grew up on a farm and still live on a small farm, so encounters with snakes is not unusual. You do have to be aware while walking around, but generally they don't go out of their way to attack you. A lot of the snakes do have the capability to kill you, or at least require medical attention but most times they are defending themselves, don't try to pick them up, stand on them or kill them and you should be right. We only have a few things snakes, spiders, sting rays, jelly fish, stone fish, sharks, cone snails, blue ring octopus, crocodiles, cassowary, feral pigs, wild dogs, plants, heat, cold, fires, storms, I'd still rather be out in the bush than live in the cities. Lets face it, it's probably the things that we do every day that is going to get us in the end. chemicals, food, life style choices or you job. I went through cancer once at the age of 29 been clear for almost 15 years, honestly that scares me more than all the above. Enjoy life, you don't know how long you've got above ground
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Post by MsAli on Jan 12, 2019 21:12:01 GMT -5
"Enjoy life, you dont know how long you've got above ground"
Amen to that!
Koalas are so dang cute.
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Post by pauls on Jan 12, 2019 21:48:38 GMT -5
I live in country Australia too,
We don't have bears, wolves, mountain lions or people with assault rifles.
Unless you are really looking you wont even see a snake, they hear you coming and are gone. That Gympie Gympie or "giant stinging tree" is fairly common in rainforests (jungle), if you have any reason to be walking around in the jungle (why would you?) you should know what it looks like and avoid it. The only thing that scares the crap out of me is Saltwater Crocodiles, I just keep well clear of the water in the tropics.
I feel absolutely safe in country and remote Australia. Cities not so much.
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Post by woodman on Jan 12, 2019 21:53:28 GMT -5
I live in country Australia too, We don't have bears, wolves, mountain lions or people with assault rifles. Unless you are really looking you wont even see a snake, they hear you coming and are gone. That Gympie Gympie or "giant stinging tree" is fairly common in rainforests (jungle), if you have any reason to be walking around in the jungle (why would you?) you should know what it looks like and avoid it. The only thing that scares the crap out of me is Saltwater Crocodiles, I just keep well clear of the water in the tropics. I feel absolutely safe in country and remote Australia. Cities not so much. I lived in Northern Queensland for 10 years, Had a good friend killed by a snake while on a camping trip, too far out to get aid in time. All his wife could do, is watch him die!
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Post by rockjunquie on Jan 12, 2019 22:50:50 GMT -5
I can imagine it made you jump. Let me ask you- As an American, I imagine that living in Australia is very dangerous. Seems everything is poisonous. DH stumbled on a plant the other day that is crazy poisonous- gympie gympie and, of course, it is in Australia. I'm not dissing Australia, at all. Going there is on my bucket list, but you better believe I would watching my back. And spiders.... let's not even talk about those. Sooooo, am I wrong or do y'all really need to be careful. I've never really thought about it, at least not from your point of view. I grew up on a farm and still live on a small farm, so encounters with snakes is not unusual. You do have to be aware while walking around, but generally they don't go out of their way to attack you. A lot of the snakes do have the capability to kill you, or at least require medical attention but most times they are defending themselves, don't try to pick them up, stand on them or kill them and you should be right. We only have a few things snakes, spiders, sting rays, jelly fish, stone fish, sharks, cone snails, blue ring octopus, crocodiles, cassowary, feral pigs, wild dogs, plants, heat, cold, fires, storms, I'd still rather be out in the bush than live in the cities. Lets face it, it's probably the things that we do every day that is going to get us in the end. chemicals, food, life style choices or you job. I went through cancer once at the age of 29 been clear for almost 15 years, honestly that scares me more than all the above. Enjoy life, you don't know how long you've got above ground Thank you. I hope you weren't offended. I really was curious. I have a big fear of spiders. My son was dating a girl in Australia. He was skypeing with her when a huge spider, the size of a dinner plate, walked across her ceiling! I would have died of a heart attack!
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Post by rockjunquie on Jan 12, 2019 22:57:48 GMT -5
I live in country Australia too, We don't have bears, wolves, mountain lions or people with assault rifles. Unless you are really looking you wont even see a snake, they hear you coming and are gone. That Gympie Gympie or "giant stinging tree" is fairly common in rainforests (jungle), if you have any reason to be walking around in the jungle (why would you?) you should know what it looks like and avoid it. The only thing that scares the crap out of me is Saltwater Crocodiles, I just keep well clear of the water in the tropics. I feel absolutely safe in country and remote Australia. Cities not so much. Funny you should mention assault rifles. I talk to people from all over the world and just about all of them imagine that there are people here lurking with rifles ready to take someone out. Alligators are not nearly as dangerous as those crocs. We have them living in neighborhoods now in the South. I wouldn't like that myself. They were endangered and really rebounded. But, yeah, a lot of them live close with people with few problems.
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Post by aDave on Jan 13, 2019 1:03:22 GMT -5
We don't have bears, wolves, mountain lions or people with assault rifles. I really don't want to turn this into a "Cave" thread, but you've been a victim of the US mainstream media. Rifles of any sort are extremely low on the list of weapons used to commit murder in the US, at least according the the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. For 2017, topping rifles are handguns, knives or other cutting instruments, personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.), and blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.). In the overall scheme of things, bear, wolf, and mountain lion attacks are pretty infrequent, though they do happen.
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rivarat
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 140
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Post by rivarat on Jan 13, 2019 1:11:12 GMT -5
The heat can be deadly. Here is the next weeks forecast for here pauls I see your weather forecast is only slightly lower than Benalla's
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Post by pauls on Jan 13, 2019 1:49:02 GMT -5
Those big spiders are called Huntsmen, I was a bit scared of them once but now I like them quite a lot. When one gets in I just pick it up and move it outside, more to appease the Arachnophobes than any other reason, they are good to have inside they catch cockroaches and other critters that share the house. There are many different species of Huntsman, they are harmless (they wont kill you), they don't build webs, they don't eat each other, some species even live together in colonies.
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Post by pauls on Jan 13, 2019 2:03:31 GMT -5
adave, Mainstream media run by an ex Aussie? Rupert, the sooner he kicks the bucket the better for all of us, though I suspect his son will take over and be just as much a scourge on the USA UK and Australia. We both know the reality of our countries is way different to what is portrayed in the media and I'm including social media in that as probably worse than the MSM. rivarat, yep pretty much in survival mode, I get up a 5:00AM do a few things then close up and hibernate for the rest of the day, good weather for faceting inside though.
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rivarat
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 140
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Post by rivarat on Jan 13, 2019 3:44:53 GMT -5
There are quite tight control for firearms over here, even having one for self protections isn't a justified reason. All firearms need to be stored under lock and key, with the ammunition locked separately. Using one to protect yourself, family or your property could result in all your firearms being removed from you by the law. Handguns have even tighter controls.
I'm not anti gun. being a hunter and working for a company that manufactures ammunition and explosives for Australian Defence forces. but I do believe that some people are not fit to own one and no one wants to see a young one shot because they were playing with dads gun.
This is getting tooo political.
Australia is a great place to live. never been to the US so I'll leave it to you guys.
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Post by parfive on Jan 13, 2019 14:11:53 GMT -5
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rivarat
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 140
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Post by rivarat on Jan 14, 2019 0:53:24 GMT -5
One area that I regularly go is know to have wild dogs, dingoes, and x breeds. I once found dogs tracks on top of my foot steps on the hike out of the area, the bush is thick in that area (you might see 6 feet in front) I actually left early that day because I felt something wasn't right. not worried about a single dog but packs are more of a concern. Heres a local news report, all the locations mentioned back into bushland near where I go. www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-29/wild-dog-attacks-victoria-exacting-heavy-toll/9807402
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Post by pauls on Jan 14, 2019 1:16:42 GMT -5
That is depressing reading parfive.
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lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
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Post by lookatthat on Jan 14, 2019 11:34:31 GMT -5
I wonder why Australia seems to have such a high percentage of the world's most venomous critters? Is it to make up for the absence of large carnivorous mammals?
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 3,759
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Post by gemfeller on Jan 14, 2019 16:02:59 GMT -5
One of the funniest books I've read recently (and I read a LOT of books) was Bill Bryson's "A Sunburned Country." It's a travelogue of his trip to Australia where he became hilariously paranoid about the country's many-venomed creatures. Like all Bryson books it's also filled with a great amount of valuable and interesting information, in this case about that fascinating country. lookatthat , I can't explain in detail why Oz has so many venomous creatures. But it's a land that's been separated the longest from any continent and evolution there has taken is own path. When it separated from Gondwana only the animals and plants existing there at the time were preserved. The thing I find fascinating is that the Aboriginals lived there for some 50,000 years in complete harmony with the country's harsh environment and creatures. That has to set some sort of record for the success and longevity of a single culture.
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