Thread: When Possums Attack

Originally Posted by Tommy

Solo trip into the bush, and you wear earplugs? What the hell bro

Haha yeah seems weird. I sleep a lot better when it's deadly quiet. I've had numerous experiences with wind, rain, noise, mates keeping me awake. Earplugs sort this out

I can sleep through everything except a Happy set

Happen to my old man once. got back to his hut after a few days leave to find a possum making a meal of his condensed milk and porridge on top of his down sleeping bag.
Well when he walked in he was a mite unhappy and said possum decamped to the safety of the cast iron pot belly stove.
Now Dad was more than a bit pissed off and by his own admission probably not thinking too straight grabbed the first think which came to hand, an old 12 gauge, poked it in the door and let him have it.
Dad tells me hindsight is a wonderful thing but that possum was not going to foul up his sleeping bag ever again.
Zq

yes I have had them in my fly and a headhog in our tent once. funny shit was we thought it was a mouse and one of the guys was jumping around in bare feet trying to squash this dam mouse. He was dam pleased he did not get it when we put a light on and found a headhog.

Originally Posted by Tommy

I can sleep through everything except a Happy set

He was asleep though until i got up and yelled at him

Originally Posted by Gibo

He was asleep though until i got up and yelled at him

I think the word you're looking for is "paralytic"

Hope you were on top Gibo, much more manly!

Originally Posted by Flyblown

We got into all sorts of shit in Queensland 3 or so years ago. We were camping in some back country bush spot high up on the Divide minding our own business. A delicate flower power hippy woman arrived in her hand painted multicolour slidey-door-irritating-as-fuck-wizz-bang van, and as weirdos always seem to want to do, decided to set up her camp right next to ours. Why the hell do they do that??!! Millions of square KM to choose from and they want to be right next to us. Maybe she found me super attractive. Or maybe she fancied the wife, who knows.

Anyway, we'd been bothered by possums at night that many times I'd grown very weary of them, and was prepared. As soon as the local mongrel fur ball arrived to starting raiding our camp, I was out with the bat, the wife with the Maxtoch torch. She shone the torch in its face, I sent it on a one way trip to the other side of the clearing. And turned round to get back into our swag.

The hippy possum crusader was sitting in the pitch dark outside her van in a meditative trance waiting for the delightful creatures to turn up, which she'd encouraged by leaving fruit around OUR CAMP. She went absolutely mental at us, hysterical. She was in such a state that I feared for my safety! Wasn't worried about the wife, she's pretty staunch, can look after herself. We had to leave the next morning, quite quickly, as this hairy armpitted possum crusader had driven off to find a cell phone signal to report us. Man, she was mad at us.

Anyway, some while later we got a phone call from our mate back in WA who was looking after our mail while we were away. There was a letter from the Dept of Enviro & Science challenging us on the incident, with various demands and threats of punitive outcomes. Which we completely ignored. Can only assume they used the Hilux rego to find us.

Never that good an idea to ignore things official, I suppose, and true as nuts a second letter arrived some several weeks after that, detailing a sworn statement from the dreadlocked one which was utterly hilarious, exaggerated to such an extent I was surprised they'd taken it seriously (hunting possums, evidence of killing several possums, etc etc).

Anyway, by the time that letter arrived we were about to put the truck on the ship in Sydney and come home to NZ. I wrote to the Dept eventually, from NZ, just to make sure there wasn't a chance of a nasty surprise in the future. We claimed ignorance of the law, referencing what possums mean to us in NZ, being a misguided foolish, ignorant twat, very very sorry, only just got the letters... would love to meet the hippy and apologise in person... so very sorry... they let us off eventually with a formal warning and a request that should we be near Dorrigo of all places, we should call into the Department of Fluffy People and receive some education on the matter.

you can go to any local jail and collect such an education9aussie /criminal type).hope you reminded the queensland dingo shaggers re nzs favourite possum tucker 1080
sounds like you encountered another freedom camper -probably one who shits in the woods too

Haha when staying at my dads in Brisbane about 12 years ago we had a possum hanging around in the trees so I took to it and smacked it between the eyes with a stone which made it roll over. Was so proud of myself I showed dad who promptly panicked and made me Bury it incase his Australian spouse and her children saw it hahaha

Now, nobody knows who I am in real life (go in disguise without my mask) so I can share with the group the time we flew into West Coast valley with no foot exit, high snow mountains all around and back in those days there were keas ... Well, returning from a day of gold panning and looking around for chamois, keas had pecked holes through all our tents round the hoops. We managed with a pre dawn to after dark kea watch and stack of snowballs, fortunate good weather and help from MacPac who had a repair shop in those days. Pretty much like Flyblowns experience in Oz so don't laugh if its a protected animal and don't feed the keas !

As far as I know, twin needle are the only gear fixers in the country at present. Expensive but Highly recommended.

Second twin needle, Did a dam fine job of fixing my down bag last year, added an extra 200 gr down and repairs some baffles.
Washed, cleaned, and used water repellent on the down.
Probably a 1/3 the cost of a new bag.

My wife decided to be nice to me one day and wash my down bag for me. Ever since each year it had been getting colder and colder on the chest area.

She probably wanted to be in it with you. Could be worse.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Now, nobody knows who I am in real life (go in disguise without my mask) so I can share with the group the time we flew into West Coast valley with no foot exit, high snow mountains all around and back in those days there were keas ... Well, returning from a day of gold panning and looking around for chamois, keas had pecked holes through all our tents round the hoops. We managed with a pre dawn to after dark kea watch and stack of snowballs, fortunate good weather and help from MacPac who had a repair shop in those days. Pretty much like Flyblowns experience in Oz so don't laugh if its a protected animal and don't feed the keas !

As far as I know, twin needle are the only gear fixers in the country at present. Expensive but Highly recommended.

Depends on what gear. I dont know if Cactus is also worth a shot here in Chch but I know Brooks brothers in Blenheim (saddlers) have sorted out repairs for me many times.

l id love to get hold of a stinking snarling old buck jacko or two and let em go in parlaiment or at a green party conference
-the penalties(if any ,most would see the joke) involved would be just compensation for the best laugh a bloke could have with his strides on!
imagine the look on wee eugenies face as that fella rips up her leg into the darkness!
those breeding mares up there might like something warm and furry to keep the bubbies milk tanks warm too!

Originally Posted by ZQLewis

Second twin needle, Did a dam fine job of fixing my down bag last year, added an extra 200 gr down and repairs some baffles.
Washed, cleaned, and used water repellent on the down.
Probably a 1/3 the cost of a new bag.

My wife decided to be nice to me one day and wash my down bag for me. Ever since each year it had been getting colder and colder on the chest area.

What should you do to clean a down bag?

Sent from my TA-1024 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

What should you do to clean a down bag?

Sent from my TA-1024 using Tapatalk

I wash mine in the washing machine all the time, hasnt seemed to affect it just let it dry out properly