Mother Nature’s Message Was Clear

Thirty years ago, when I was young, living in Darwin and seven months pregnant with my first child, I decided to head off camping for a weekend, to enjoy some alone time and relaxation.

My destination was the Tjuwaliyn (Douglas) Hot Springs Park, a little known but favourite camping spot which included as the name suggests, some glorious hot springs to soak and wile away the hours, while reading a good book.

Perfection, right?

Well Mother Nature was against this idea for some reason and she made that message pretty clear, through the actions of her animals.

The Douglas Hot Springs are a two and a half hour drive from Darwin but well worth the trip.

I arrived in the early afternoon and after a small walk to ward off the stiffness from sitting behind the wheel, I unpacked the car and began to set up camp.

I was ecstatic to find I was alone and had the entire camp site to myself — or so I thought.

I pitched my tent, set up my bedding and unpacked my cooking equipment. Once my camp site was set up to my liking, I changed into my swimwear and was about to head over to the hot springs for a soak.

As I turned to head away from my camp, I noticed something moving from the corner of my eye. I swung around to find a deadly taipan moving in my direction.

For those that have never come across a taipan in the wild, you may not know but this is not only a highly venomous snake, but also one that will go out of its way to chase or attack you.

And true to form, this taipan was not happy with me being in the area. No matter which way I moved to escape this animal, it followed boldly in the same change of directions, until it eventually chased me up onto a concrete picnic table, located a short distance from my tent.

There I was standing on the table with a taipan on the ground keeping guard. I was cornered.

I stood frozen on that table until the taipan tired of the wait and I watched as it slithered away into the bushes.

I sat on the picnic table, with my feet on the bench seat and tried to slow my beating heart. I sat there for some time before I felt comfortable enough to climb down.

By this time it was beginning to get dark, so I decided to delay the soak in the hot springs and I began a fire in the bar-b-cue pit, on which I planned to cook my dinner.

Once the fire was going to my satisfaction, I opened my esky and pulled out a nice piece of scotch fillet, housed in a plastic freezer bag.

I placed the food on the picnic table and I sat on the table, next to the steak, with my feet on the seat, waiting for the fire to die down and heat the bar-b-cue plate enough to cook my steak.

As I was waiting, a heard a loud screech coming from behind me and I turned to see a beautiful hawk flying in my direction. What a beautiful looking bird of prey.

As it flew closer, it suddenly dived towards me, so close that it’s claws raked my bare shoulder and made me bleed. It then caught the plastic bag, that housed my steak, in its beak and flew off with my dinner.

I had no chance of getting that back any time soon and it was at this time, I realised Mother Nature was telling me I was not wanted there — I took that message to heart and decided it was time to leave.

The animals were clearly telling me “NO.”

I quickly pulled my camp apart, packed the car and said my goodbyes to the hot springs — I didn’t even get a chance to dip a toe, let alone enjoy a relaxing soak with a good book!

I slowly drove the road that linked up to the highway, turned left, planted my foot and began my journey home.

This was back in the days when there were no speed limits in the Northern Territory and the roads were in pristine conditions, allowing us to comfortably sit on anything from 130 to 160 kilometres an hour.

On this trip, being that it was pitch black at the time I was travelling back to Darwin, I was sitting happily doing 130 kilometres an hour, when suddenly my back drivers side tyre blew.

Before I knew what was happening, I was throwing 360’s down the highway, until I was hurtling backwards through the bush, off the side of the road and I was rudely stopped by a large tree, embracing my rear end.

I undid my seat belt and gingerly climbed out of my car to inspect the damage.

I was extremely lucky as there was only cosmetic damage done to the car and it was still drivable, albeit with a shredded back tyre.

I had no choice but to jack the car up, replace the shredded tyre with my spare and then continue my journey home.

I concluded, at the time, that this was the most disastrous camping trip I’d ever experienced and I was so happy when I climbed into my own bed later that night.

When I woke in the morning I found I was struggling to breathe, as the entire side of my pregnant distended belly was extremely sore, painful when I attempted to exhale and inhale. I could only take shallow breathes due to the pain.

I was mainly uninjured, due to the fact that I had my seatbelt fastened securely during those 360’s down the highway, but it was also the locking of the seatbelt over my stomach, that caused the pain I felt through each breath.

However, it could have all ended a lot differently, so I’m thankful that my shallow breathing and painful stomach muscles was the worst I’d suffered from that memorable camping adventure!

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Originally posted on Medium