Yep, interesting place. We got plenty giant lizards and snakes right here. Plenty poisonous spiders, and even a few marsupials. Been there long ago, but never stayed on the ground long enough to do anything but refuel and take off again.
Served in Vietnam with one of your military units. Between about July of 1970 and the first part of 1973, I was rotated in and out of the 834th Air Division Detachment at Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam. I was aircrew on C-130-E model aircraft at the time. While I was there, an Australian Unit with 6 Wallaby Transports (the Australian model of the C-7 Caribou) was also assigned to Det 1, and operated out of Tan Son Nhut. We all used the same base facilities and were scheduled by the same operations control. Don't remember any names, and barely remembered my own name, by the time we pulled out of there in early 1973, and turned the airlift operations over to the Vietnamese. Did spend a lot of time talking about what it was like back home, and how much we wished we was back there, during the standby times. Some time around the end of 1972 or the beginning of 1973, we pulled back to Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base were we set up operations until the detachment was deactivated. Lost track of where the other units of 834th Air Division went. It all happened very fast and I was rotated back to the USA shortly before my squadron was deactivated.
Oh C'mon Cobweb, you know those are just Fighting Chickens, and a whole lot less dangerous than the truly Wild & never tamed variety of Australian Fighting Chook, which is found mainly in Far North Queensland, parts of PNG, & the island of New Britain, and it's widely known as the World's Most Deadly Bird! See the description and the pic below.
And I'm pretty sure I've posted pics of some Drop Bears on the Forum before, but here's a link to the April 2021 Australian Geographic article on them:
and I also considered telling everyone the famous story about the World Renowned and Undefeated Long nosed, short eared, long bodied, short necked, long tailed, short legged, rough skinned, hairless 'Fighting Dogs' that we have down here - they've never been defeated in a dog fight, but I'm pretty sure the Forum platform wouldn't handle the load due to time & bandwidth constraints! BTW, we generally call these Fighting Dogs 'Salties'
Here's the Fighting Chook description:
The 'Australian Fighting Chook' or Cassowary has been known to kill human beings with slashing blows of its feet, as the innermost of its three toes bears a long daggerlike nail. The bird has been observed to move rapidly along narrow tracks in the bush, sprinting as fast as 50 km (31 miles) per hour.
And for a pic, see the thumbnail below - you can just click on it if you want to see a bigger image.
Last edited by Peter Aawen; 06-14-2023 at 06:32 AM.
Don't have no drop bears in Florida, but during cold spells, you could get hit by a drop iguana that got too cold and let go of the tree limbs it was holding on to. Kind of dangerous walking under the trees on a cold morning, when it might start raining 4 or 5 KG frozen lizards at any time.
Don't have no drop bears in Florida, but during cold spells, you could get hit by a drop iguana that got too cold and let go of the tree limbs it was holding on to. Kind of dangerous walking under the trees on a cold morning, when it might start raining 4 or 5 KG frozen lizards at any time.
That'd make a great Christmas Present & not so great excuse "Sorry, but I can't come home for Christmas Lunch Mum, cos I'm in the ER, just got hit by a falling Iguana!"
Fascinating. I imagine most of those encounters are in 'the bush', but maybe not.
Not that very first pic of a little Perentie Lizard on the wall, that's definitely in suburbia! So is the Megabat; and many if not most of the Spiders! Altho to be fair, the really big Lizards & Spiders are more often found out in the bush these days - too many scared people with cars & bricks & heavy feet etc in suburbia for most of the little lizards & spiders to last long enough to grow too big.... buuut there's always some out there... Usually when you least expect them!
We've got a slightly smaller Perentie lizard than that one on the wall living in our (small) but native bush front yard, and we don't really live in the bush any more - it was pretty much bush just 15-20 years ago when we built here, but now we're surrounded by houses and almost considered to be in an inner suburb! Suburban creep - or is that 'suburban creeps?!'
The Big Red Roos & the bigger Salties are usually Outback somewhere; but the 'Spider frost' & the little snakes in the dunny can be anywhere, and the further I looked thru the slide show again, there's not really all that many of them that are ONLY found in the Outback.... altho they probably aren't quite so common in suburbia that you'd see them every day.... Maybe just once a week or so! Drop Bears, not so often!
Almost every animate or inanimate thing is just waiting there to sort you out. So dont be stupid.
Land of contrasts and amazing places.
Had an encounter with one of those Camels I wont forget for a while.
But its worth the journey. Land of so many contrasts is mind blowing.
Up into that Tableland from Cairns and the view just goes and goes.
Then there the middle bit.
Oh and then that coastal route. A paltry 14,000k or so. Crikey!
So never forget an inch or so on that map is probably a day or so. Its really, really big.
Specially after our long skinny gutted set of islands.
We did Coast to coast and back again in one day. 550K for a challenge.
Earlyish start and back at the motel in Greymouth around afternoon tea time.
Well ok Brown O'clock really.
Up the Arthur's Pass, lunch out the back of Chch and back down the Lewis.
Last edited by Isopedella; 06-14-2023 at 12:30 PM.
Nothing wants to kill you in Florida. Mostly, if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. If you mess with them, they might decide to mess with you. I been living in Florida almost all my life. I don't normally bother anything except venomous snakes, and then only when they are where they might bite my animals. Most of the wild animals will avoid humans if you give them the chance.
So if you're coming down, food wise we have that covered with your national dish. Slightly different given the nature of our chickens in that the portions are slightly larger, and the kitchen noise can be up tempo sometimes. OIP (1).jpg
A few do's and don'ts.
Do bring double the cash you think you'll need.
Don't tip the waiter, you'll get a harassment suit filed.
Do be multi jabbed they're only small irrelevant inconveniences.
Do bring your own street directory for the cab driver.
Don't bring a boogie board through customs.
Don't go to the movie Wolf Creek.
Don't feed the dingoes babies.
Don't get in a shark cage unless you're trying to hide evidence.
If you get home, tell all your friends we're hungry for tourists.
Last edited by Peter Aawen; 06-14-2023 at 07:55 PM.
Reason: 's ;-)
So if you're coming down, food wise we have that covered with your national dish. Slightly different given the nature of our chickens in that the portions are slightly larger, and the kitchen noise can be up tempo sometimes. OIP (1).jpg
A few do's and don'ts.
Do bring double the cash you think you'll need.
Don't tip the waiter you'll get a harrassment suit filed.
Do be multi jabbed they're only small irrelevant inconveniences.
Do bring your own street directory for the cab driver. Don't bring a boogie board through customs 1. Don't go to the movie Wolf Creek 2. Don't feed the dingoes babies 3. Don't get in a shark cage unless you're trying to hide evidence 4.
If you get home tell all your friends we're hungry for tourists. 5.
with all that, only adding just a few clarifying/explanatory comments...
1. Certainly not unless you want an extended stay at our Gubmints pleasure (nice digs, all mod cons, but you won't see much of the Country! ) or a quick turn-around & trip home without seeing anything but the inside of a holding cell at the airport! 2. Definitely DO NOT see/watch BEFORE your visit... But after you get home, fill your boots! 3. Yeah, definitely no babies But if you're really smart, you won't feed them anything! 4. Or you're trying to lose a bunch of weight pdq! This can happen very quickly in a shark cage by either of two methods - firstly, when the sharks start pounding on the cage and you discover that adrenalin truly is brown; and secondly, if you don't try your hardest to always keep all your limbs &/or appendages well clear of the bars! 5. It's true, we are hungry for tourists, but WE promise we won't eat you - the people here that is.... The Drop Bears or any of the other critters, yeah, might not able to hold them to that....
C'mon Down, you'll have a great time; and it really is a great place to visit for sooo many reasons! Great place to live too, no need for 'personal protection' guns, but you might wanta pack a jar of NESCAFÉ® Blend 43
All clear trouble maker sorted. Gotta feel for the dingo though, just doing his thing. So if you want to visit a Zoo with no fences this is the place.
I live in a zoo with no fences, large lizards of several varieties, big cats, prehistoric fish with huge pointed teeth, birds that carry off small dogs and cats, variety of venomous snakes, huge bugs, and other critters.
Someone spun him a yarn, about the Barramundi Burgers at Lake Argyle.......
He got there and they didn't do them.
Talk about getting hooked.
.....
Those burgers aren't at Lake Argyle, they're at Karumba, on the Gulf!! Just go to the Chippie out near the wharf - Best Barra'n Chips in the Country, too!
But I hafta ask why he left all those blank areas in his 'Been There' map?? There's LOTS of great riding and places he's missed hidden away in all those blank spots....
Altho looking at it again, you did say he's only taken 4 winters.... So I guess that'll be why - there's still a few blank bits in my own 'Been There' map too, but they are getting to be pretty small spots now.... except it has taken me 60+ years of riding/driving/walking/flying/paddling/yada yada yada - basically a whole heap of winters and summers too, and I'm still counting!
I reckon he needs to get that Tiger of his into the Alpine areas of Oz; and the Gulf Savannah Country; the Outback; the Deserts; the Atherton Tablelands; Coffs Coast; the Glass House Mountains; the Blue Mountains; the Snowy Mountains; the Murrimbidge Irrigation Area; the Murray Darling Basin; the Wimmera; the Barrossa Valley; the South East of SA; the South West of WA; the North West & Pilbara area; the Border Country; the 'no-man's land' between Vic & SA; the Flinders; the inland Lakes; the Ottways; Gippsland; ...... Oh buggrit! There's juuuust SO MUCH more to see & do & ride & visit & ...... I'm sure you get the picture!
Reminds me of Florida everything wants to kill you.
C'mon, that's not really true. When I was going to a Navy school in Orlando, we had a little pond not too far from our barracks. Of course, the pond had an alligator, maybe because we fed it... it never tried to eat us. Well, it never tried too hard.
Peter, a trip to Oz is on my bucket list. Can I bring a nuke to take care of those spiders?
Last edited by grumpyoldretiredcop; 07-21-2023 at 02:24 AM.
C'mon, that's not really true. When I was going to a Navy school in Orlando, we had a little pond not too far from our barracks. Of course, the pond had an alligator, maybe because we fed it... it never tried to eat us. Well, it never tried too hard.
Peter, a trip to Oz is on my bucket list. Can I bring a nuke to take care of those spiders?
You won't need a nuke - a LARGE road roller & a good Flame Thrower will work on most of the smaller spiders! The biggies &/or the really deadly spiders you won't hafta worry about.... If you see them, it's too late already, and you won't be worrying about ANYTHING for too much longer! Just make sure your Will is in order.
C'mon, that's not really true. When I was going to a Navy school in Orlando, we had a little pond not too far from our barracks. Of course, the pond had an alligator, maybe because we fed it... it never tried to eat us. Well, it never tried too hard.
Peter, a trip to Oz is on my bucket list. Can I bring a nuke to take care of those spiders?
A gator would be more likely to try to eat you if you fed it. If you feed them, they lose their natural fear of humans and begin to associate people with food.
Gators that lose their fear of humans can become very dangerous and the people who associate gators with food have to remove them.
Why don'tcha C'mon on Down Under for a visit... ;-)
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See the description and the pic below. 
BTW, we generally call these Fighting Dogs 'Salties' 
Originally Posted by Gwolf
with all that, only adding just a few clarifying/explanatory comments...
) or a quick turn-around & trip home without seeing anything but the inside of a holding cell at the airport! 
This can happen very quickly in a shark cage by either of two methods - firstly, when the sharks start pounding on the cage and you discover that adrenalin truly is brown; and secondly, if you don't try your hardest to always keep all your limbs &/or appendages well clear of the bars! 
Great place to live too, no need for 'personal protection' guns, but you might wanta pack a jar of NESCAFÉ® Blend 43 
I'm sure you get the picture! 
