WHat is the strangest/weirdest thing you've come across?

[Thornbill]

This skull was the was the strangest thing I've found. Large...about 40cm long, 20 wide and 15 high. Is it a small whale or something??

Location is nearish to Encampment Cove on Maria Island

Certainly a small whale of some species. Difficult to tell from the photo. No obvious teeth or sockets, so that would make it a mysticete (baleen) whale. Given the relatively small size, could be a Pygmy right.

[Sammy38]

Walking in the 1970's with my brothers and went slightly off track as I spotted some fresh diggings in the hillside in the bush. There was a large dugout in the hillside, As I walked into it in I made out in the dark an old grey haired man in tattered Khaki trousers and brown boots with no socks sitting on a shelf cut into the cave wall. We both let out a scream and I took off up the hill to catch up to the others.
I don't know who got the biggest fright!.
I revisited the place about 20 years later and the dugout was then a washaway scar on the hill.
Back in the 1970,s there were a lot of homeless old men around that lived in various bush camps near my home and this man had made himself a comfortable little home.
I have always wondered what had become of him or if he still lays under the silt of that hillside.

[Tortoise]

I scrambled down off the track to check out a big overhang in a steep reserve, probably 10 minutes' walk from suburban houses+++. There were a pair of brown business shoes next to a briefcase, and the bottom half of someone in a sleeping bag. Lots of scenarios shot through my mind, but I quickly retreated before I got to see the top half of that someone! A few innocent explanations are possible, but they aren't the ones that came to mind first. I confess my enjoyment of exploring the said reserve, as a little middle-aged woman on her own, went down.

[wayno]

fake DOC signs have appeared around NZ, one proclaimed it was illegal to do no 2's in a park and you had to wear nappies. another one that children conceived in parks were the property of DOC,

[rcaffin]

We were two days walk from the nearest road, in the middle of New Zealand's Greenstone-Caples Track, when we came across a wooden door. Bold as its brass handle, in the middle of thick forest, it stood propped up against a mossy ledge. The words “Please Shut the Door” we're scratched onto it.

Can't offer any doors, but we did find this doorway on the Via Alpina near Oberstdorf in Austria.

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Cheers
Roger

[Lophophaps]

fake DOC signs have appeared around NZ, one proclaimed it was illegal to do no 2's in a park and you had to wear nappies. another one that children conceived in parks were the property of DOC,

LOL!

[Gadgetgeek]

fake DOC signs have appeared around NZ, one proclaimed it was illegal to do no 2's in a park and you had to wear nappies. another one that children conceived in parks were the property of DOC,

Isn't that how we get rangers? Just like how we get fire-fighters, people just leave a kid they can't handle at the fire-station, and they grow there! All in jest, I know some fireies and most of them had parents. As an aside, as I realize there might be a cultural gap, is leaving puppies or kittens at the fire hall a thing in australia? It only cultural memory in north america, but one that persists.

[ChrisJHC]

Never heard of it happening in Aus.


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[Gadgetgeek]

good thing I asked then, since it could have seemed kinda cold hearted otherwise.

[Davo1]

Found a heap of stuff over the years, one could almost say everything but the kitchen sink.



Then one day, yep, found it as well.

[taswegian]

never expected to see this at Junction Lake

[taswegian]

not sure if this is permitted these days?

[bronman]

Found a heap of stuff over the years, one could almost say everything but the kitchen sink.



Then one day, yep, found it as well.

Hahahaha! Yep, everything, including the kitchen sink! On my hike on Sunday I only saw a bunch of other hikers, a wallaby and some potenitally old white dog poo, waaay out from the "suburb" beginning of the hike. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for strange stuff though!

[bronman]

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Oooo I would love to come across something like a horse (tamed, mind you).

[Son of a Beach]

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Oooo I would love to come across something like a horse (tamed, mind you).

"Like a horse"... you mean a zebra or a unicorn? Yeah... I'd like to see that.

[Lophophaps]

The pictures of the water jogged my memory. Lake Payanna, Central Plateau, Tassie, late 1983. I was standing a metre off shore in the shallows and saw people looking behind me. I turned around an there was a canoe, so close I could touch it. It made me jump and use, er, certain words, causing much amusement with my party. Not funny at all! The canoeist had walked the collapsible canoe into the plateau and paddled over several lakes each summer. He then stashed the collapsed canoe, well wrapped up, and came back when the snow had gone.

[skibug]

Coastal track (Mallacoota Vic to NSW), very isolated spot a day's walk from the end, in the evening heard fireworks, went to have a look and it was a lyrebird.

Crosslands, Sydney, a goanna licked my Action Cam while I was filming - great footage.

Glenbrook (Blue Mountains) giant centipede about 30 cm long. It was in a tent two teenage girls were about to use.

Azure kingfisher landed on a branch less than a metre from my face. It took off when I involuntarily gasped - probably ten years ago now, at Burra Curtain, Grose Valley. Exact same spot last January, watching eels feeding in the creek about an hour after sunset. My 11 year old daughter turned around, and said "what's that?", as a small diamond python leisurely made its way past, inches from her feet.

Back in the nineties my wife was walking Blue Gum Forest to Burra Curtain, came upon a bull blocking the track, refusing to move. After a half hour or so it finally wandered off.

Skibug.

[Lophophaps]

The preceding post reminded me of something I saw near the foot of Duane Spur, Bogong High Plains., Victoria. We bashed our way down what we thought was an interesting route, and it was very interesting, two hard days of scrub from Ropers to Cleve Cole. Should have taken the track. On the Bogong High Plains side, close to Duane Spur (cannot recall the exact place) there was a cow or bull, head down in the scrub, very dead. This beast was not touching the ground, and we thought that it was scrub bashing, stumbled, and was trapped. This was on a very steep section of track, just minutes from the river.

[puredingo]

Waking down starlights once right on dusk, about where the track sidles the hill and the views open up there sat a bloke...alone, wearing a *&%$#! butchers apron. Not a word was spoken just a nod of our heads were exchanged as i quickened my pace and didn't dare look back.

Another interesting sighting,though not really weird, was when I was cooling off in the Cox river in one of those natural spas you find in the rapids near Flaggi? I think. I watched a black snake stalk then srtike out at a tree frog only a few meters away.

[Truck]

This was more on the way back from a hike then on a hike, i came across about half a dozen people all on postie bikes kited out for a long distance ride it wasnt the postie bike or the decked out for a long ride it was more that there were half a dozen of them that i had to chuckle and give them a wave as i went past with a smile on my face.

[tas-man]

Back in the late 1960's climbing Mt Beerwah in SE Qld on a hot summer's day, I recall the amazement and then disappointment of seeing a brass water tap on a galvanised standpipe concreted into the summit cairn. Wonder if its still there? Most likely not!

Another memory of being surprised, was climbing Mt Ossa in December 1971 and meeting and talking to an american lady with one leg and two walking poles descending after having reached the summit! Her partner was carrying their shared pack which I was also amazed to see as it was an enormous over head high framed pack totally different to our Paddy and Flinders Ranges "back breakers." I remember him letting me try it on, and with a padded waist belt the difference in comfort was incredible.

[rcaffin]

Colo Gorge near Angorawa Ck one evening. Entertained for about 1/2 hr by a whole range of different song birds.
Then a Lyrebird walked off.
I wonder: was he challenging us to a song duel?

Cheers

[Gippsmick]

There are some classic fake DOC signs I've seen in New Zealand. I remember one reading "Children conceived in this hut remain the property of Minister of Conservation" in Bullendale Hut near Queenstown. Another reading "We are liable if you #@%& up"

[Bob the builder]

Canoeing down the Katherine river we came across the font half of a kayak jammed hard into the rocks on a small rapid. We loosened it up and opened the hatches to discover cans of beer - in the end we extracted 30 cans.
The weight itself would have been enough to sink the boat!

[wildwanderer]

Recently returned from a solo 3 day walk along the Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains.

First night I camped at Burra Korain flat. (at the bottom of the valley and aprox 1 & a 1/2 hours walk from the nearest road) The first thing I see when I get to the empty campsite in the darkening late afternoon is a decently sized red axe.. Bit weird but thought someone has likely forgotten it or couldn't be bothered to carry it any further.

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Then a few meters away, I find two abandoned packs, a ripped tent, food and clothing.. With my over active imagination producing visions of some axe wielding manic waylaying hikers.... it was not the best recipe for a good night sleep alone in the wilderness !

[ribuck]

...and? Don't hold us in suspense, wildwanderer!

[devoswitch]

How strange.... A quick search reveals 2 missing walkers in the grose valley back in 2015. Not sure if they were ever found. How old did the stuff seem.

[wildwanderer]

...and? Don't hold us in suspense, wildwanderer!

and... thats it. Aside from a determined possum failing to steal/reach my suspended food bag that night, the rest of the trip was uneventful. Being midweek the area was quiet, I saw no one the next day and my second night camp at Acacia Flat was similarly empty. I did run into a couple of National Parks guys doing trail maintenance up near Govetts Leap on the 3rd day. I mentioned the axe/abandoned gear to them and they said they would make a note of it.

How strange.... A quick search reveals 2 missing walkers in the grose valley back in 2015. Not sure if they were ever found. How old did the stuff seem.

Hard to tell but going from the faded labels on the tinned food Id say atleast a few weeks maybe a lot longer. If your referring to this missing walking party http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/search-for-missing-bushwalkers-continues-20151004-gk0sv4.html I strongly doubt there is any connection. The area they went missing is almost 50km downstream and through quite rough, slow walking country if following the river. Edit. Saw an online article that mentioned they were were found safe and well.

The Mt Victoria station to Blackheath station section of the Grose Valley that I did is fairly popular, Id assume a group every few days would walk it. If I had to speculate, Id say the abandoned gear was possibly washed downstream at some point and someone has collected it and dumped it at the campsite, likely other similarly mundane explanations as well. Of course, when you combine it with the axe it made for a strange/spooky thing to find when out on a solo wilderness walk.

[puredingo]

Found this old timey bottle poking out of s creek bed on the weekend.

Googled it and it came straight up.

[ribuck]

Thanks for the extra info, wildwanderer. I would have been tempted to sort through it for clues.