The giant crocodile that gave guests at a popular Northern Territory caravan park the fright of their lives when it paid them a midnight visit last week is just the tip of a worrisome wildlife ‘iceberg’. .
The 2.5-metre reptile was spotted lumbering through the Dundee Beach Holiday Park to the west of Darwin at night, and one group of campers even woke up to find the croc lying right across their caravan doorstep. It is reportedly the first time a croc has found its way into the park, apparently enticed by the smell of food from the barbecue.
Happily, the situation ended without major problems and, after an hour or so, the reptile was caught and tied up before being removed by rangers.
This sort of thing, of course, is the stuff of grey nomad nightmares and a reminder that, as far as wildlife is concerned, you have to expect the unexpected.
The usual suspects. PIC MONTAGE: Pexels / Cizza
And we’re not just talking possums scurrying around your camp at night looking for crumbs.
Back in 2015, grey nomads and other campers were forced to flee after a rogue bull started charging around the McArthur River campground near Borroloola, about 700 kilometres from Darwin. Some campers even had to climb trees to escape. The bull was eventually shot by Northern Territory police as it attacked their vehicle.
And in 2013, a drunken feral pig made headlines for constantly marauding through the camping area at the DeGrey River rest area near Port Hedland. In one memorable night the pilfering porker, nicknamed Swino, reportedly stole and the drank 18 cans of beer. He was later killed in a road accident.
This python caused a bit of alarm when it dropped in to a Happy Hour gathering at Lake Arragan in the Yuraygir National Park. PIC: David Muirhead
But not all campsite ‘invasions’ end up being headline grabbers. There’s the more mundane – but nonetheless mood-changing incidents of crab invasions, mice swarms, emu visits, and mozzie attacks.
And even regular visitors can sometimes cause problems.
In 2018, a seven-year-old boy required surgery after a lace monitor bit him on his foot at The Basin campground in Kuring-gai Chase National Park near Sydney.
And then, of course, there are the usual suspects, such as funnel-webs, dingoes or snakes, that don’t have to do anything … except ‘be there’ to spark considerable alarm.
Grey nomad David Muirhead was free camping at Lake Arragan in the Yuraygir National Park just north of Brooms Head in NSW a year or so ago when a python emerged from a tree to poke its head into the camping area.
“I couldn’t believe it as it was only two metres away from my wife,” he said. “I told her to slowly get up and walk to where I was sitting, then she turned and looked … and nearly passed out!”
We camped in Victoria’s Mallee region during a mouse plague.
Sitting around our campfire at night we had to tuck our pants into our socks to stop them running up our legs.
Every slot in our cars wheels had a mouse head looking at us with beady little eyes.
One of them died in our cars ventilation system, every time we turned the heater on it smelt like dead mouse.
There were so many mice that our footprints in the sand around camp were obliterated overnight.
I got attacked 10 days ago, by something I couldn’t see in the early hours of the morning, it was drawn in by a bbq not being cleaned, and I disturbed it. I retreated to my camper, and it circled around my camper, for 2 hours. Both the dog an I needed to go to the toilet, but it was 7am before it left. I think it was a 6 pointer white tail buck deer, as I had seen one earlier in the day, near the bbq’s. This was in the New England area of NSW. Later I was told that the deer, come in for the fat left on bbq’s, so it wouldn’t hurt people to clean bbq’s before they left.
I did have a frightening experience one day when I was camped at a remote peaceful site … my ex mother in law turned up!