AE 1433 - The Goss: Why Do Aussies Love Camping?

معنی واژه با لمس

1. 0:08SPEAKER_01: Why does rain on a tent sound so unbelievably good, Dad?
2. 0:13SPEAKER_01: Okay.
3. 0:15SPEAKER_01: Dad doesn't even know what the topic is yet.
4. 0:17SPEAKER_00: No, it's rain and tent.
5. 0:19SPEAKER_00: Um it's the same as rain on a tin roof, which is no longer made of tin.
6. 0:24SPEAKER_00: But um on a metal roof.
7. 0:27SPEAKER_00: I think it's um we enjoy as humans white noise.
8. 0:35SPEAKER_00: Because it distracts us from other things.
9. 0:37SPEAKER_00: So it's it's calming.
10. 0:39SPEAKER_01: Um it's almost more stressful if everything's quiet and you can hear anything that makes a noise.
11. 0:44SPEAKER_01: You can hear clearly.
12. 0:45SPEAKER_00: You can hear your own heart beating.
13. 0:46SPEAKER_00: You get fucking um but no, it's um I think it's the white noise thing.
14. 0:51SPEAKER_00: It's just that and it has a a rhythm to it.
15. 0:54SPEAKER_00: It's not just like radio static, which is because rain is not constant.
16. 0:59SPEAKER_00: You know, it'll be you'll be getting different patterns of raining and intensity will go up and down.
17. 1:06SPEAKER_00: It's like a surf if you're um we live near a surf beach, and when the surf's up, you can hear it at night, in particular when there's less other noise around.
18. 1:15SPEAKER_00: And it's not just straight white noise, because there's a rhythm to it that is it the rhythm has multiple layers to it, so every wave has its own sound, but then the backwash and there's different frequencies of waves and stuff.
19. 1:29SPEAKER_01: It's interesting how that changes depending on how close to the beach you are too.
20. 1:32SPEAKER_01: Yes.
21. 1:32SPEAKER_01: Like if you're really close to it, you can kind of hear the distinction between the different waves and the rhythm of it.
22. 1:36SPEAKER_01: It's just gonna crack a tinny, crack a tinny.
23. 1:39SPEAKER_01: And the further away you are, the more you just hear in the background, right?
24. 1:44SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
25. 1:46SPEAKER_01: G'day guys, welcome to the Aussie English podcast.
26. 1:49SPEAKER_01: Grab a cupper, get comfy, and let's have a yarn.
27. 1:54SPEAKER_01: You know, Australians really do seem to be obsessed with camping.
28. 1:58SPEAKER_01: Even the people who spend half the trip complaining about the mozes, the cold, or sleeping on the ground somewhere end up planning the next one only a few months later.
29. 2:07SPEAKER_01: And I don't think it's because we enjoy being uncomfortable.
30. 2:10SPEAKER_01: I reckon it's because camping changes the way we experience time.
31. 2:14SPEAKER_01: Life slows down, the little things start to matter again, and somehow we feel a bit calmer.
32. 2:20SPEAKER_01: So today we're talking about those tiny moments that make camping such a relaxing part of Australian life.
33. 2:27SPEAKER_01: So, what's the first thing you notice, Dad, when you arrive somewhere that you're going camping?
34. 2:30SPEAKER_01: When you you've you've gone for a long drive, you've reached the location you're gonna be camping at, you get out of the car.
35. 2:36SPEAKER_01: What is the first thing you notice or pay attention to?
36. 2:40SPEAKER_00: First thing I look for, or the first thing I notice?
37. 2:43SPEAKER_00: The first thing I notice is a cat crawling out from under the couch.
38. 2:46SPEAKER_00: Hang on, I'm just gonna open the door.
39. 2:48SPEAKER_00: Time out.
40. 2:49SPEAKER_00: It's all this ruffling in the background, like it's gonna look around.
41. 2:53SPEAKER_00: This head comes out, appears from under the couch.
42. 2:56SPEAKER_00: All right, go back to camping.
43. 2:57SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, well, look for is you're looking for a place that is going to be a suitable campsite.
44. 3:04SPEAKER_00: So is it going to be under a tree that is likely to drop a branch branch and kill you?
45. 3:09SPEAKER_01: Ah, widow makers.
46. 3:10SPEAKER_00: Widow makers, yeah.
47. 3:11SPEAKER_00: Is it um got good drainage?
48. 3:15SPEAKER_00: So if it rains, you're not gonna get flooded.
49. 3:18SPEAKER_00: Um is it if you're by the beach, is it close to the beach but not so close that the track to the beach is right next door and everybody's gonna be trampling through your campsite?
50. 3:28SPEAKER_00: So those sort of just environmental things.
51. 3:31SPEAKER_00: But then what do you look at?
52. 3:34SPEAKER_00: It's and you talked about time slows down.
53. 3:37SPEAKER_00: I think that's the thing, is that it's when you when I go out camping, um when there's that it's a cliche, but when there's nothing to do, you do nothing.
54. 3:48SPEAKER_01: And I just get anxious.
55. 3:53SPEAKER_00: So and so you need to be doing something.
56. 3:57SPEAKER_00: I think you get that from your mother.
57. 4:00SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I just look at it and go, well, I can actually sit here and do nothing for an hour.
58. 4:04SPEAKER_00: Just meditate.
59. 4:05SPEAKER_01: Just mindfulness.
60. 4:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah, mind well, don't get me started on that one.
61. 4:10SPEAKER_00: Um mindfulness.
62. 4:11SPEAKER_01: None of your hippie shit.
63. 4:13SPEAKER_00: No, the the concept is fine, the word's just wrong.
64. 4:16SPEAKER_00: Yes.
65. 4:17SPEAKER_00: We can do an entire episode on that.
66. 4:19SPEAKER_00: Mindlessness.
67. 4:20SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
68. 4:20SPEAKER_00: It is mindlessness that's important.
69. 4:23SPEAKER_00: Stop thinking about other things.
70. 4:24SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's what camping does for me, is it you can actually just go and you know potter around in the bush or the beach or by a river or um whatever it happens to be.
71. 4:32SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I enjoy just sitting in a campground and watching the world go by, and the world is just other people and cars and stuff.
72. 4:40SPEAKER_01: It's funny how much I noticed the other day that I'm I really desire that at the moment, a moment like that.
73. 4:45SPEAKER_01: Like we went to the farm about a week and a half, two weeks ago, and those moments are so important of just like being somewhere away from everything, not having any immediate things you need to do.
74. 4:56SPEAKER_00: No responsibilities other than other children breathing.
75. 4:58SPEAKER_01: Having nature, having animals, having nice weather, any kind of weather, really, and just expecting it.
76. 5:05SPEAKER_00: It's irritating, but it's just a different thing.
77. 5:07SPEAKER_00: It's still kind of cool.
78. 5:08SPEAKER_00: But If you just sit in the tent and listen to the rain, although I don't camp in a tent anymore, I camp in a van.
79. 5:14SPEAKER_01: But I think the first thing that came to my mind when I asked you this question was arriving at Tidal River.
80. 5:19SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Wilson's from a different experience.
81. 5:22SPEAKER_01: Getting down into our campground, and it was usually from memory, it was usually close to the river.
82. 5:28SPEAKER_00: So you I I When you were little kids, we camped by the river.
83. 5:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
84. 5:31SPEAKER_01: I can distinctly remember having a campsite where you could literally walk through the sort of ten meters or so of bush onto the sand where the river is, yeah.
85. 5:41SPEAKER_01: And then just noticing, I think, getting out of the car and noticing how quiet it was and the birds and the sounds and the water.
86. 5:46SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's probably I think what most people are wanting to go camping for, right?
87. 5:52SPEAKER_01: They just want to be somewhere where Oh the serenity.
88. 5:55SPEAKER_01: Exactly, right?
89. 5:56SPEAKER_01: You don't have as much noise, there's no car sounds, all of this And there's nothing to do.
90. 6:01SPEAKER_01: Artificial life, yeah.
91. 6:02SPEAKER_00: Even though even though camping there is a lot to do, because if you get there and if you're in a tent, then it's setting up the tents and setting up the campsite and getting the cooking stuff out, and and all of those things take more time than they do at home because you're not bringing your entire kitchen with you that's got everything there.
92. 6:19SPEAKER_00: You've got you know, you've got your food in an eskey or a small car fridge or something, and it's all buried underneath it.
93. 6:25SPEAKER_00: It's not like neatly shelved in the fridge and the freezer and things.
94. 6:29SPEAKER_00: So it all takes a bit longer, but that's okay because the only thing you're there to do is just uh hang out.
95. 6:35SPEAKER_00: And if cooking dinner takes you longer or whatever, then it takes longer.
96. 6:39SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
97. 6:40SPEAKER_01: It's it's funny, a shameless callback to a previous episode I think I did with Kel a few weeks ago where we were talking about camping.
98. 6:47SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to ask you while you're here, I remember a camping trip where we went somewhere, and the moment we arrived, it was pissing down with rain.
99. 6:56SPEAKER_01: It was you, me, Annika, my sister, and um my mum, so Joe.
100. 7:01SPEAKER_01: You had to get the tent ready with me.
101. 7:03SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think Annie and Mum from Member.
102. 7:05SPEAKER_01: That was Wilson's prom.
103. 7:06SPEAKER_01: Was it?
104. 7:06SPEAKER_01: Yes, okay.
105. 7:07SPEAKER_01: So you remember that?
106. 7:08SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
107. 7:09SPEAKER_01: Can you tell the story?
108. 7:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
109. 7:10SPEAKER_01: Just so that listeners get it from both sides.
110. 7:13SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we we arrived in the dark.
111. 7:15SPEAKER_00: Well, the Wilson's Promontory from where we were living at the time was about three and three to four hours drive.
112. 7:23SPEAKER_00: And when you've got younger children, because you guys were probably, I don't know, seven and nine, six and eight, something like that.
113. 7:30SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you don't just sort of sit in the car for four hours and drive, or three hours and drive.
114. 7:35SPEAKER_00: You stop along the way.
115. 7:36SPEAKER_00: We'd probably stop somewhere to get food to eat for dinner and things.
116. 7:40SPEAKER_00: Fish and chips, right?
117. 7:41SPEAKER_00: Where was it that we used to go that fish and chips on the way to Wilson's prompt?
118. 7:44SPEAKER_00: Tourudin.
119. 7:44SPEAKER_00: Tourin.
120. 7:45SPEAKER_00: Tourin fish and chips.
121. 7:46SPEAKER_00: There you go.
122. 7:46SPEAKER_00: Check that place out, guys.
123. 7:49SPEAKER_00: Two fish and chip shops there.
124. 7:50SPEAKER_00: They're both good.
125. 7:51SPEAKER_00: But one of them has um cheese, bacon, and onion fritters.
126. 7:57SPEAKER_00: Oh.
127. 7:57SPEAKER_00: I know.
128. 7:58SPEAKER_00: It's hard attack.
129. 7:59SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you need you need to have a certificate from your cardiologist in order to order it.
130. 8:03SPEAKER_01: Is this the place where there's one fish and chip place where you can eat behind it and there's a river there, or there's some water.
131. 8:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's an inlet.
132. 8:09SPEAKER_01: An inlet.
133. 8:10SPEAKER_01: Because I remember being there and there were jellyfish in the water.
134. 8:12SPEAKER_01: Yes.
135. 8:12SPEAKER_00: And I remember being like, what the fuck?
136. 8:14SPEAKER_00: Tidal inlet.
137. 8:14SPEAKER_01: Obviously, that's where they grow up though, or they got the water.
138. 8:17SPEAKER_00: They just well, they come in in the tide.
139. 8:18SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
140. 8:19SPEAKER_00: So turret and fish and chips.
141. 8:21SPEAKER_00: So we got there and it was pissing down with rain.
142. 8:24SPEAKER_00: It was just belting down with rain.
143. 8:26SPEAKER_01: Had it been raining the whole way down, or it just started?
144. 8:28SPEAKER_00: Uh I think well, it it wasn't when we left, but it was by the time we got there.
145. 8:33SPEAKER_00: And so there's the well, do we all just sit in the car for the whole night?
146. 8:38SPEAKER_00: Yes.
147. 8:40SPEAKER_00: Sleeping in a and it was actually, I think, the little yellow Mitsubishi van that we had probably.
148. 8:44SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
149. 8:45SPEAKER_00: Um, and so four of us sleeping in there was not going to work.
150. 8:48SPEAKER_00: Um, not easily.
151. 8:50SPEAKER_00: And so and we had a big sort of double room tent.
152. 8:54SPEAKER_00: Yep.
153. 8:54SPEAKER_01: Um that this is that big green canvas thing.
154. 8:57SPEAKER_00: With a big green canvas thing.
155. 8:58SPEAKER_00: And so for two people, for your mum and I, it would probably take us 20 minutes under perfect conditions to set that up.
156. 9:06SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
157. 9:07SPEAKER_01: Without wetting the interior.
158. 9:09SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in the dark and the rain with an eight-year-old at this point who was sick of this after 30 seconds, it probably took at least half an hour to set it up badly.
159. 9:23SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's all just part of the gig.
160. 9:26SPEAKER_01: I distinctly remember you yelling at me for not holding the poles correctly.
161. 9:29SPEAKER_01: And it's funny because I think I've had those same moments with no you know when I had that moment.
162. 9:34SPEAKER_01: So again, we're getting off topic, but I have a greenhouse in my backyard, right?
163. 9:38SPEAKER_01: A small one.
164. 9:39SPEAKER_01: And inside of it a cacti and succulent plants.
165. 9:41SPEAKER_01: So I keep them in there so they don't get too wet and they stay hotter.
166. 9:44SPEAKER_01: When I had to put that together, I needed Noah's help.
167. 9:47SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ.
168. 9:48SPEAKER_01: I keep just hold the pole straight because I had to line up all the poles.
169. 9:52SPEAKER_00: Hold the pole.
170. 9:52SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's straight or not, just hold it.
171. 9:54SPEAKER_01: He was holding himself straight, but letting it fall down.
172. 9:58SPEAKER_01: So yes, I that got my come up at the end.
173. 10:00SPEAKER_00: And that was a bit of that's one of those where you're dealing with those large tents.
174. 10:03SPEAKER_00: Yes, it wasn't easy.
175. 10:04SPEAKER_00: Back in the days where there were you know corner poles and uh everything else, you actually had to have somebody holding poles.
176. 10:10SPEAKER_00: It's you could do it by yourself, but not in the rain.
177. 10:13SPEAKER_00: It was heavy canvas stuff.
178. 10:14SPEAKER_00: It was heavy canvas.
179. 10:15SPEAKER_01: It wasn't those easy ones that you can sort of just open up and erect now with like the click of a button or you just untie it.
180. 10:21SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, that was fun.
181. 10:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
182. 10:23SPEAKER_01: So that was it was Wilson's problem.
183. 10:25SPEAKER_01: See, guys, so you'll be able to go and compare my telling of that story and dad, so you can you can pick which one you like better.
184. 10:32SPEAKER_01: So truth or the when does it actually start feeling like you're camping, Dad?
185. 10:37SPEAKER_00: Uh feeling like yeah, well, I have a um an endorphin response to a road trip that starts about five seconds after driving the car.
186. 10:50SPEAKER_00: And it and I and it and it actually is a thing.
187. 10:52SPEAKER_00: I can I can recognize it.
188. 10:54SPEAKER_00: So can I?
189. 10:55SPEAKER_00: It's when you're there going.
190. 10:59SPEAKER_00: It's it's when you get in a car and you go, We're on a holiday.
191. 11:02SPEAKER_00: And it's just very different from driving to Melbourne, which is from our place about an hour and a half or two hours, depending on the traffic.
192. 11:09SPEAKER_01: Um that would stress you out.
193. 11:11SPEAKER_01: That'll do the opposite, right?
194. 11:12SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't I don't particularly get stressed driving.
195. 11:14SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't care about traffic.
196. 11:16SPEAKER_00: Unless I've I got an appointment that I need to get to.
197. 11:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
198. 11:19SPEAKER_00: Then traffic is traffic.
199. 11:21SPEAKER_00: It's just people go, oh, the traffic, it's horrendous.
200. 11:23SPEAKER_00: And you go, No, the traffic's just the traffic.
201. 11:25SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but for me, it's like I'd rather be somewhere else.
202. 11:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but but you're going to somewhere.
203. 11:29SPEAKER_00: But um, but yeah, I I just have this endorphin kick in immediately that I get in there and go, oh, road trip.
204. 11:35SPEAKER_00: Uh but yeah, when do so when do I first get that experience of camping?
205. 11:39SPEAKER_00: Immediately by the time I get into second gear in the car.
206. 11:43SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, it's more it's normally when I get to somewhere that is recognizably close to where I'm going.
207. 11:50SPEAKER_00: If it's somewhere that I've never been before, then it will probably be you know, where if I get to the beach or a forest or whatever.
208. 11:58SPEAKER_00: So then you go, Oh, this is gonna be cool, or uh driving along a river and going, yeah, it might be still a hundred kilometres along the river by the time you get to where you're gonna be camping, but you go, We're here now.
209. 12:08SPEAKER_01: It's uh what's your favorite smell with camping?
210. 12:11SPEAKER_01: Is there a specific one that stands out?
211. 12:13SPEAKER_00: Oh, there are two.
212. 12:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
213. 12:15SPEAKER_00: Eucalyptus.
214. 12:17SPEAKER_00: So Eucalyptus forests.
215. 12:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
216. 12:20SPEAKER_00: Um and the sea.
217. 12:22SPEAKER_00: Yeah, salt and uh iodine from kelp usually.
218. 12:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
219. 12:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
220. 12:28SPEAKER_00: And it's that combination.
221. 12:29SPEAKER_00: You get you get you you know when you're close to the sea.
222. 12:31SPEAKER_00: If you're used to being by the sea, you go, oh, there's the beach.
223. 12:35SPEAKER_01: I think for me it's that's it's that sound.
224. 12:37SPEAKER_01: That would be the first thing.
225. 12:38SPEAKER_01: Like, even just in the bush, yeah, you would hear that shh for sure, yeah.
226. 12:43SPEAKER_01: No, I sorry, the beach made me think of that.
227. 12:45SPEAKER_01: But smell-wise, it'd be that wet forest, like the detritus leaf mulch that's like decaying, and there's this smell of it in the air that I don't know, it's not like musty or anything, right?
228. 12:56SPEAKER_01: It's just this kind of like foresty fragrance.
229. 12:59SPEAKER_01: It has its own smell.
230. 13:00SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
231. 13:01SPEAKER_00: And you combine that with the eucalyptus smell.
232. 13:03SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
233. 13:03SPEAKER_01: It's kill us to die for bottle that.
234. 13:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but what about your favorite sounds then?
235. 13:07SPEAKER_01: What are the things you know?
236. 13:09SPEAKER_01: Surf.
237. 13:09SPEAKER_01: Just the surf, huh?
238. 13:10SPEAKER_00: Yeah, surf.
239. 13:11SPEAKER_00: And birds in the bush.
240. 13:12SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
241. 13:12SPEAKER_00: If you you know you you get out of the car at a forest um and you just hear birds around you, um, you just go, oh, this is good.
242. 13:22SPEAKER_00: And it's got little to do with.
243. 13:24SPEAKER_00: It's hard to separate, but for me, it's little to do with that, oh, this is a bird photography opportunity or a bird watching opportunity.
244. 13:31SPEAKER_00: It's just this is we're in the bush.
245. 13:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is what the bush sounds like.
246. 13:35SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's wind in the trees, um, but often it's just uh you hear birds twittering around you.
247. 13:41SPEAKER_01: Um I love the wind in the trees.
248. 13:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah, especially when it is quite windy, and you get that shh.
249. 13:47SPEAKER_01: And it like it becomes in pulses.
250. 13:49SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, it's quite nice.
251. 13:53SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite part of the day to to camp at, I guess, or like favorite time of day at the camp, rather.
252. 14:00SPEAKER_01: Two.
253. 14:01SPEAKER_00: First thing in the morning.
254. 14:02SPEAKER_01: First thing at night.
255. 14:03SPEAKER_01: And after eating at night.
256. 14:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
257. 14:05SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
258. 14:06SPEAKER_01: Is that whenever all the animals start waking up?
259. 14:08SPEAKER_00: No, well, first thing in the morning it's just yeah, it's that the world is just coming alive.
260. 14:14SPEAKER_00: Um and then in the evening it's just that I just sit down, relax.
261. 14:18SPEAKER_00: There is nothing left to do now that I'm required to do other than go to bed.
262. 14:23SPEAKER_00: So if I just sit here, put my feet up, have a beer, have a whiskey, have a snooze in the camp chair, whatever it happens to be, then it's just it's just that relaxation opportunity where there is no responsibility for anything other than yourself.
263. 14:38SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
264. 14:39SPEAKER_00: So different if you've got children with you and things, but if they're in bed, hopefully asleep, then it's just a chance to sit around and it could be just, you know, poking a stick into the campfire if you've got a fire.
265. 14:53SPEAKER_00: Uh but if you haven't got a fire, then it's just sitting around and just listening to the world.
266. 14:59SPEAKER_00: Which you tend we tend not to do at home.
267. 15:00SPEAKER_00: It's don't I don't go and yeah, I could do that in the backyard.
268. 15:03SPEAKER_00: I could just go and sit in the backyard and listen to the surf and listen to the wind and the trees and the birds.
269. 15:07SPEAKER_00: Yes.
270. 15:08SPEAKER_00: But you don't do it because when you're at home, there's always something else to do.
271. 15:12SPEAKER_00: There's always that other person that's on your shoulder nagging in your ear, going, You need to mow the grass, you're gonna cut this, you gotta you know, do the washing, you know, unpack the dishwasher, yeah, whatever it happens to be, there's always something else to do.
272. 15:25SPEAKER_00: But when you're out on holidays in general, that's less likely, but camping as well.
273. 15:29SPEAKER_00: It's you're out in a bush or the beach or something, and it's just it's that r relaxation where there is no nagging responsibility to do anything else.
274. 15:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
275. 15:40SPEAKER_01: So once you've arrived at the place and everything's set up and the little rituals begin, uh what are the first little rituals that you start doing?
276. 15:51SPEAKER_00: Um if I'm camping by myself in the van, um, and it's be the same thing for a tent, but it's but if I'm in the van, then it's it's look for a site.
277. 16:00SPEAKER_00: If I've found a site, or if I've been allocated one, uh because if I'm if I'm booking in a campground, you you get can't usually you get allocated a site.
278. 16:08SPEAKER_00: So I haven't got the choice of no, I don't like this one, we're gonna go somewhere else.
279. 16:12SPEAKER_00: Uh then it's find the best angle for the van so that a it's as close to level as possible, so I'm not you know sleeping at a weird angle.
280. 16:21SPEAKER_01: Um I hadn't thought about that, because obviously it's it'd be the same with caravans, right?
281. 16:25SPEAKER_01: You're constantly looking for a flat spot.
282. 16:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
283. 16:28SPEAKER_00: And it's the same with if you're setting up a tent.
284. 16:29SPEAKER_00: You don't want your tent on a hill.
285. 16:33SPEAKER_00: Um and then it's finding somewhere where you know the the side the door that I'm gonna open has room to move.
286. 16:40SPEAKER_00: So I can set up the awning, set up a you know, a mat outside, uh get the kitchen-ish set up, so tables and chairs and or a chair for me, if it's just me.
287. 16:52SPEAKER_00: Um and then it's usually go for a walk.
288. 16:55SPEAKER_01: Yeah, is there somewhere specific?
289. 16:57SPEAKER_01: Like have you got an idea in mind when you go for a walk?
290. 16:59SPEAKER_01: Or do you just literally just go and have a look around and be there?
291. 17:02SPEAKER_00: Particularly if I haven't been somewhere before, it's go and find you know where are the toilets, the showers, the the track to the river, the beach, the what are the interesting things about it, or just go look at the place and see what's around.
292. 17:15SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
293. 17:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because often you'll know where the toilets and showers are because you've got a little plan of your campground that says your campground's here and the toilets and showers are over there.
294. 17:24SPEAKER_00: And if there's a shop, you know where that is.
295. 17:26SPEAKER_00: And uh the tracks to the beach are usually marked.
296. 17:29SPEAKER_00: If I I mention the beach a lot because I tend to go to beaches, but there's a recurring pattern.
297. 17:33SPEAKER_00: Yes, but I do go to, you know, up in the bush and the rivers and or just out in the desert, you know, or semi-desert places sometimes there, you know, you just go there and go, Well, I need to know what this environment's like, you know.
298. 17:44SPEAKER_00: And then it's usually looking the that walk rarely happens without a camera.
299. 17:49SPEAKER_00: That's for me.
300. 17:50SPEAKER_01: Is that because you're specifically looking for birds to photographs?
301. 17:53SPEAKER_00: Unlike landscapes or anything.
302. 17:56SPEAKER_00: I might and and often the first time I go, I might not actually take a uh camera, I'll just have my phone with me and I'll be framing up stuff going.
303. 18:04SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
304. 18:04SPEAKER_00: In the morning when the sun rises over my shoulder, this is going to have some good light on it.
305. 18:08SPEAKER_01: But is that hard to turn off?
306. 18:10SPEAKER_01: Or do you not mind?
307. 18:11SPEAKER_00: It's impossible to turn off.
308. 18:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
309. 18:13SPEAKER_01: Because that's sort of like I remember You see the world in a rectangle.
310. 18:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I remember when I got deeply into photography once we'd moved to Canberra, and for a year or so after that, it felt like you were just constantly looking at how to frame things up.
311. 18:25SPEAKER_00: I see the world in a rectangle.
312. 18:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
313. 18:27SPEAKER_00: And and it drives your mother nuts in a in a generic sense because I'm always going, oh, that'll make a great photograph.
314. 18:33SPEAKER_00: What?
315. 18:33SPEAKER_00: Who cares about?
316. 18:34SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
317. 18:34SPEAKER_00: And oh, look at the light here, and I, you know, I could say you cannot turn it off.
318. 18:39SPEAKER_01: It's one of those interesting things where that light, too.
319. 18:42SPEAKER_01: I remember learning more about photography and taking photos in the golden hour, right?
320. 18:47SPEAKER_01: In the morning or the evening when the sun is really low and you get this soft gold light.
321. 18:52SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
322. 18:53SPEAKER_01: Being really sensitive to that now, like that I noticed that at different times.
323. 18:56SPEAKER_01: Like what there was something the other day where we had like some it's one of those moments where the sun's setting, you've got clouds that are in the sky, but there's a gap on the horizon and the sun gets below the gap.
324. 19:08SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
325. 19:08SPEAKER_01: That is amazing when that happens, right?
326. 19:11SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I remember that happening about a week ago.
327. 19:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it just feels like you're in some kind of weird video damage.
328. 19:19SPEAKER_00: And it is one of those things where you try and describe that to people and they go, I don't know what you're talking about, but when they see it, yeah, they know.
329. 19:25SPEAKER_01: And there's often a rainbow.
330. 19:27SPEAKER_01: You'll see a rainbow sometimes if it's like mist or raining.
331. 19:30SPEAKER_00: Often the best light is after a storm.
332. 19:33SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when the clouds are clearing and the sun's just coming out.
333. 19:36SPEAKER_01: So what food are you normally tucking straight into?
334. 19:39SPEAKER_01: Do you have specific food or drink that you normally get straight into when you're camping?
335. 19:43SPEAKER_00: Well, drink it depends on when I arrive.
336. 19:46SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
337. 19:46SPEAKER_00: So there if I'm you typically I'm arriving at a campsite because often I don't stay in the same place for very long.
338. 19:53SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
339. 19:53SPEAKER_00: So I might be one or two nights.
340. 19:55SPEAKER_00: So I'll arrive at a location mid to late afternoon.
341. 19:59SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that opened is a beer.
342. 20:01SPEAKER_00: Um and and then I'll set up.
343. 20:04SPEAKER_00: Um and then food-wise, um, I tend to have a combination of foods that I can either heat up quickly if it's crappy weather and I don't want to be cooking outdoors.
344. 20:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
345. 20:17SPEAKER_00: Because I don't cook inside the van.
346. 20:18SPEAKER_00: It's only a small van and I hate the idea of cooking inside it.
347. 20:22SPEAKER_01: It's a quick way to get carbon monoxide poison.
348. 20:24SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but also there's there's food smells in there.
349. 20:26SPEAKER_00: You just never get rid of them.
350. 20:28SPEAKER_00: Um don't put bacon in there.
351. 20:30SPEAKER_00: No, exactly.
352. 20:31SPEAKER_00: Or garlic.
353. 20:32SPEAKER_00: Um and um so I'll often have things that I can just heat up quickly.
354. 20:37SPEAKER_00: And I I have, you know, pre-made meals.
355. 20:41SPEAKER_00: So I'll cook a curry, for instance, and just vacuum seal it.
356. 20:45SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
357. 20:46SPEAKER_00: And so that and a You mean before you've gone camping?
358. 20:49SPEAKER_01: Before I go camping.
359. 20:50SPEAKER_00: Before I go camping, I'll have a couple of those.
360. 20:53SPEAKER_00: So it literally is just throw the vacuum sealed thing into a uh into boiling water.
361. 20:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
362. 20:59SPEAKER_00: Heat it up for five minutes with those the other little microwave packs of rice.
363. 21:03SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
364. 21:04SPEAKER_01: Oh, that can go in the water.
365. 21:05SPEAKER_00: They work really well.
366. 21:06SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
367. 21:06SPEAKER_00: In fact, they work even better.
368. 21:08SPEAKER_00: Here's a hint for you.
369. 21:09SPEAKER_00: If you want to get those um those little microwave rice packs, don't cook them in a microwave.
370. 21:15SPEAKER_00: Just pop the pack into boiling water for about five minutes.
371. 21:18SPEAKER_00: It's it actually, for whatever reason, it doesn't cook it as much, it just heats it up.
372. 21:22SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
373. 21:23SPEAKER_00: Um so um so that's just you know, literally throw the packet of curry and the packet of rice in boiling water and you know, heat it up.
374. 21:30SPEAKER_00: And then split them open and it's done.
375. 21:32SPEAKER_00: Um then other times it's meat and salad mostly.
376. 21:36SPEAKER_00: Um so but that's when I have to cook the meat, and that relies on being outside for longer.
377. 21:42SPEAKER_00: Uh there are times where I and I usually have um a loaf of bread with me, so and lunch is often just either bread or you know, standard sliced bread, or um I have wraps.
378. 21:56SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
379. 21:56SPEAKER_00: Um and uh flatbread wraps.
380. 21:59SPEAKER_00: Um and so you know.
381. 22:00SPEAKER_00: Every now and then if it's pissing with rain and I don't want to cook, it'll be just ham and salad rack tonight.
382. 22:07SPEAKER_01: So do you ever have a campfire?
383. 22:09SPEAKER_00: Um occasionally.
384. 22:11SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
385. 22:11SPEAKER_00: Um, but often it's more trouble than it's worth.
386. 22:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
387. 22:14SPEAKER_00: And often I'm camping in national parks where you you can't collect firewood, you have to bring it with you.
388. 22:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
389. 22:20SPEAKER_00: And I don't have any room in the van other than throwing it on the roof.
390. 22:24SPEAKER_00: Yeah and I don't really like driving with firewood on the roof of the van.
391. 22:28SPEAKER_01: Um That's a bit of a weird I don't think I've seen anyone do that.
392. 22:31SPEAKER_00: Oh, lots of people do that.
393. 22:32SPEAKER_00: You reckon?
394. 22:32SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
395. 22:33SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if you got a roof rack, but yeah, which I do, but uh um so i if I'm somewhere where I can uh either buy wood or if I'm not in a national park and I can collect firewood, I will, but not often.
396. 22:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
397. 22:47SPEAKER_00: And if you're by yourself, it's sort of you know a little bit not pointless, but it's not as much fun sitting around a campfire by yourself.
398. 22:54SPEAKER_01: Do you ever take like a Billy with you to ho heat up over a fire, or is that a bit old school?
399. 22:59SPEAKER_00: Um, well, I don't drink tea or coffee.
400. 23:01SPEAKER_01: So you don't really care too much about that.
401. 23:03SPEAKER_00: No, I don't really care about that too much.
402. 23:04SPEAKER_00: I'm not a hot drink drinker.
403. 23:06SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
404. 23:07SPEAKER_01: Is it the taste of the two?
405. 23:08SPEAKER_01: Is it the hot aspect of the drink?
406. 23:10SPEAKER_01: No, no, I don't I I don't mind hot drinks.
407. 23:13SPEAKER_00: Well, I I've never liked tea.
408. 23:15SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
409. 23:15SPEAKER_00: Um I used to be a coffee drinker.
410. 23:17SPEAKER_00: I gave it up when I was at university and I was drinking ten cups a day and you know, getting flutters in the heart and bouncing off the walls and going, This is stupid.
411. 23:25SPEAKER_01: Substitute it for coke.
412. 23:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but uh but I don't drink ten of those a day.
413. 23:29SPEAKER_00: I might drink two.
414. 23:30SPEAKER_01: Only nine.
415. 23:31SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
416. 23:31SPEAKER_00: I'm up to my limit.
417. 23:32SPEAKER_00: Single figures is fine.
418. 23:34SPEAKER_00: That's it.
419. 23:35SPEAKER_01: Oh god.
420. 23:35SPEAKER_01: Alright.
421. 23:36SPEAKER_01: So do you reckon food tastes better outside?
422. 23:38SPEAKER_01: Do you reckon that's a big part of the eating experience?
423. 23:41SPEAKER_01: Does it add to the succulent of the meat?
424. 23:44SPEAKER_00: I don't know that food tastes better, but the eating experience is different.
425. 23:48SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
426. 23:48SPEAKER_00: Even if I go to a um cafe or restaurant and there is outdoor seating, yeah, providing it's not raining or forty degrees and blazing sunshine, um, I'll prefer to sit outside.
427. 24:02SPEAKER_00: It's just and maybe it's just because it's different.
428. 24:04SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just like you know, the eating outdoors is better, although when you're out camping, there's usually flies and mozsies.
429. 24:12SPEAKER_01: It is just nice though, eating and watching the world go by, right?
430. 24:14SPEAKER_01: It's like having fish and chips at the beach.
431. 24:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
432. 24:16SPEAKER_01: Or you know, getting fishing.
433. 24:17SPEAKER_00: Fish and chips at the beach is different from sitting at the dining table with a even if you had here's my same, you know, bag of chips and fish and stuff, put it on the dining table.
434. 24:26SPEAKER_00: It's not the same as stick it beside you and watch the surf and just perving on the action.
435. 24:32SPEAKER_01: Having a look at the action, seeing what's going on.
436. 24:35SPEAKER_01: Once you've cooked and everything, how do you deal with dishes?
437. 24:37SPEAKER_01: How do you deal with all that stuff?
438. 24:38SPEAKER_01: Do you do do you tend to wash it somewhere nearby?
439. 24:41SPEAKER_00: Well, if I'm cooking with you know, let's let's imagine the um the curry and rice situation.
440. 24:47SPEAKER_00: I've boiled those up, so that boiling water then becomes the dishwater.
441. 24:51SPEAKER_00: And often it's if I'm particularly if I'm somewhere where they're not providing water.
442. 24:55SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
443. 24:56SPEAKER_00: Um, so I've got to bring my own, then water is scarce.
444. 24:59SPEAKER_00: Otherwise you just use sand.
445. 25:00SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
446. 25:01SPEAKER_00: But no, I actually um one of the things I do if I'm not using water is I just have a little squeeze bottle, a spray bottle, um, that has um very dilute detergent in it.
447. 25:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
448. 25:14SPEAKER_00: So I'll just spray the detergent over a a plate and a knife and fork or whatever, and wipe them down.
449. 25:20SPEAKER_00: And then maybe rinse them with a ver with pure water very quickly.
450. 25:24SPEAKER_00: So I don't I'm not actually using five litres of water in order just to wash the dishes.
451. 25:29SPEAKER_00: Um but normally if I've got water provided, if I'm at a campground that's providing water, I'll literally just boil up some water and throw it in a you know, I use a rectangular bucket thing and use that as my sink and wash the dishes.
452. 25:43SPEAKER_01: Do you do you prefer doing all this on your own or with family?
453. 25:46SPEAKER_00: I I like I like both.
454. 25:49SPEAKER_00: Um but it's a different experience.
455. 25:50SPEAKER_00: When you're on your own, you're on your own.
456. 25:52SPEAKER_00: You can just do whatever you want.
457. 25:53SPEAKER_00: And you can do whatever you want.
458. 25:54SPEAKER_00: When you're with family, with the adults it's different.
459. 25:57SPEAKER_00: But when there's kids, then it's all of a sudden it's all about the children.
460. 26:02SPEAKER_00: It's no longer a holiday.
461. 26:03SPEAKER_00: It's no well, it isn't.
462. 26:05SPEAKER_00: It's uh you you just yeah, it and and there's nothing wrong with that.
463. 26:08SPEAKER_00: Uh it's yeah, when it's about the children, then it's about the children.
464. 26:12SPEAKER_00: And you know, finally they get off to sleep and you can sit around and have a chat or whatever.
465. 26:17SPEAKER_00: For an hour.
466. 26:17SPEAKER_00: For an hour, and then they're yahooing around again.
467. 26:20SPEAKER_01: But no, no, then it's time to go to bed.
468. 26:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
469. 26:23SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the other thing.
470. 26:24SPEAKER_00: I I find that you know, normally if on a normal day, I will probably wake up between six and seven and I might go back to sleep again for an hour, but I'll be up by eight-ish.
471. 26:34SPEAKER_00: You mean when you're not a normal day at home.
472. 26:37SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
473. 26:37SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'll probably I very rarely go to bed before midnight.
474. 26:43SPEAKER_00: And when I'm out camping, I'm up five minutes before the sun rises.
475. 26:48SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
476. 26:49SPEAKER_00: And I'll be in bed by eight o'clock at night.
477. 26:52SPEAKER_00: Yeah, an hour or something.
478. 26:53SPEAKER_00: If I'm by myself.
479. 26:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or assuming the sun's not like if it's summer.
480. 26:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if it's the middle of summer, I might not.
481. 26:57SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're gonna follow the circadian rhythm type thing with the sun and everything.
482. 27:02SPEAKER_00: Um but also I can, you know, with the being in the van, I can sit and watch the you know, videos or TV or whatever on an iPad.
483. 27:09SPEAKER_00: So I've got the iPad set up in the van that I can just lie there in the bed or sit and watch TV or so what is your evening routine usually like?
484. 27:19SPEAKER_01: Um if you buy yourself.
485. 27:21SPEAKER_00: If I've been photographing, then it'll be uh just downloading and backing up the photos.
486. 27:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
487. 27:26SPEAKER_00: I might go through them and process a couple just for the entertainment value.
488. 27:30SPEAKER_00: But I've always got a laptop with me.
489. 27:33SPEAKER_00: Um and then it'll be yeah, and then often I'm doing that while I'm cooking.
490. 27:37SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
491. 27:38SPEAKER_00: You know, while you're heating up water or whatever, you're downloading stuff, and then it just takes its time.
492. 27:43SPEAKER_00: Um and then it'll be just sit around until you decide it's bedtime, but bedtime could be in winter it could be seven o'clock at night.
493. 27:51SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
494. 27:51SPEAKER_00: And I'll just go there and just you know, watch a couple of episodes of TV and start to doze off and go, all right, it's sleep time, and you find yourself asleep at 8 30 at night.
495. 28:00SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is funny how much the lack of artificial light gets you to sort of get ready.
496. 28:05SPEAKER_01: Your body obviously just detects.
497. 28:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and gets ready to go to sleep early.
498. 28:09SPEAKER_00: But also I think the other thing too is if you're up at six o'clock in the morning and you're on the go all day, even if you're just driving.
499. 28:15SPEAKER_00: You're ready.
500. 28:16SPEAKER_00: You know, if I drive for six hours during the day, driving I I don't find driving stressful, but you're on.
501. 28:23SPEAKER_00: But you're on, yeah.
502. 28:24SPEAKER_00: It's it's passive activity.
503. 28:26SPEAKER_00: Your brain is on the whole time.
504. 28:28SPEAKER_01: I I was doing this today, I think, on the way home from dropping my wife at work.
505. 28:32SPEAKER_01: I was sort of just mindfully watching my eyes and what I was looking at.
506. 28:37SPEAKER_01: And it was funny how much I was noticing them dart between different cars and looking at different parts of cars.
507. 28:44SPEAKER_01: Are they indicating, looking at the tires, are they coming across the lane, looking for where people cross the line?
508. 28:49SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and just noticing how active I had to be despite one part of my brain thinks, oh, I'm just chilling out the car, not doing anything, and the other part of my brain is just paying it trying to pay attention to everything.
509. 28:59SPEAKER_00: The mechanics of driving is completely automatic.
510. 29:03SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
511. 29:03SPEAKER_00: But the environment you are constantly checking.
512. 29:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
513. 29:08SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
514. 29:08SPEAKER_00: It's like watching a we've just got a new kitten, and it's like watching the kitten in playing in the uh down in the um family room.
515. 29:17SPEAKER_00: Um she's surveying the in whole environment constantly.
516. 29:22SPEAKER_00: Looking around her, looking around her, looking around, oh there's another toy, oh there's another, oh there's another cat, oh there's dogs outside.
517. 29:27SPEAKER_00: Everything's new.
518. 29:28SPEAKER_00: Everything's new.
519. 29:29SPEAKER_00: And none of that is conscious.
520. 29:31SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
521. 29:31SPEAKER_00: She's not out there, you know, she'll go and look for a toy and find it and play with it, but mostly it's just this subconscious checking out the world.
522. 29:38SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
523. 29:38SPEAKER_00: And that's what cats do.
524. 29:40SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's what most animals do, whether they're predators or prey.
525. 29:44SPEAKER_00: Um, and driving is the same thing, you're just constantly on.
526. 29:48SPEAKER_01: So why do you think Aussies love camping at the beach?
527. 29:52SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like that's a more popular area, right?
528. 29:54SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'm biased being down here in Victoria.
529. 29:56SPEAKER_00: 85%, I think it is, it might be higher than that.
530. 29:59SPEAKER_00: But 85% of Australians live within 50 kilometers of the coast.
531. 30:02SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
532. 30:03SPEAKER_01: So if you're on if you're in the say you are, I don't know.
533. 30:07SPEAKER_00: All of our capital cities, uh state capital cities, not their national one, but all our state capitals are on the coast.
534. 30:13SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
535. 30:14SPEAKER_01: And but the the draw is usually towards the coast, not inland.
536. 30:17SPEAKER_01: Even though inland's probably equally beautiful and interesting and there's plenty to do.
537. 30:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
538. 30:21SPEAKER_01: At least from my view of the world, I feel like most people would be drawn instantly to the beach.
539. 30:26SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't be drawn inland.
540. 30:28SPEAKER_00: I think the other thing too is that most people in Australia, if they're going away on a holiday, will do it over summer because that's the longest period of school holidays.
541. 30:37SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
542. 30:38SPEAKER_00: It's also usually the best weather.
543. 30:40SPEAKER_00: Um, and so where do you want to go in summer?
544. 30:42SPEAKER_00: You want to go to the beach.
545. 30:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
546. 30:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're not going to go out to the you know, out back in summer where fifty degrees and yeah.
547. 30:50SPEAKER_00: So um I think that's the thing is that but also this we live by the coast and so it's easy.
548. 30:58SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go far to get get to the beach.
549. 31:01SPEAKER_00: Um and we yeah, swimming is our national sport.
550. 31:05SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you look at the yeah we've just had the Commonwealth games and and we won literally won more than half the events in the swimming.
551. 31:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
552. 31:14SPEAKER_00: And yeah, and so that it's just that's what Australians do.
553. 31:19SPEAKER_00: We swim.
554. 31:20SPEAKER_00: And where's the best place to swim?
555. 31:21SPEAKER_00: The beach.
556. 31:22SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
557. 31:23SPEAKER_01: Do you think there's something spiritual to it?
558. 31:25SPEAKER_01: Do you think there's something inside of us as humans?
559. 31:27SPEAKER_01: Or is it attached to the street?
560. 31:28SPEAKER_00: There is to me biologically.
561. 31:30SPEAKER_00: There is for me, and I can't speak there.
562. 31:33SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'm completely irreligious.
563. 31:36SPEAKER_00: Uh but there's an inner spirituality to some experiences in life.
564. 31:42SPEAKER_00: And one is being on a beach for me.
565. 31:44SPEAKER_00: It's just there's something about it.
566. 31:46SPEAKER_00: It it lifts your spirit, if you and that for me is what spirituality is.
567. 31:51SPEAKER_00: The other one is live music.
568. 31:53SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
569. 31:54SPEAKER_01: And and listening connectivity with other people as well as the band who are playing.
570. 31:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
571. 31:59SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, being on a beach and yeah, some people say, and I the well the third one for me is um which I don't very rarely do now, is playing sport.
572. 32:08SPEAKER_00: Uh actual physical activity of of doing a and not just going for a run, that's not terribly spiritual, but being in a race is I remember uh I remember having it when I was surfing, when I used to surf, I think there was one day that I was surfing at Ocean Grove Beach and there were dolphins.
573. 32:24SPEAKER_01: It was one of those days where the waves were really clean, it was very sort of like slow swell, and it was evening, so the sun was kind of setting.
574. 32:34SPEAKER_01: And I remember just sitting there and just being like, I get it.
575. 32:37SPEAKER_01: Like this is just you know, if you could hold this moment, it'd be a beautiful moment to be able to just live in.
576. 32:42SPEAKER_00: Even sometimes for me, you go for a walk on the beach, and we live by the beach, and I I haven't been for a walk on the beach since we got home from Scotland, which is over a month ago.
577. 32:50SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
578. 32:51SPEAKER_01: Um But it's the middle of winter and it's pretty cold.
579. 32:54SPEAKER_00: It is, but even that, but even you you go to the beach, I can go to the beach today and it's probably 14-15 degrees out there, and it's not raining at the moment, it has been.
580. 33:01SPEAKER_00: In your budgie smugglers.
581. 33:02SPEAKER_00: The budgie smugglers um and the bawdies.
582. 33:05SPEAKER_00: And and um, but just walking along the beach.
583. 33:08SPEAKER_00: Walking on the beach in the rain and the cold, it still has something about it.
584. 33:12SPEAKER_00: Whereas uh walking along a riverbank doesn't do it the same way.
585. 33:16SPEAKER_00: Doesn't do it the same way.
586. 33:17SPEAKER_01: It's not as big an experience, usually, right?
587. 33:20SPEAKER_01: Like when you're at a beach, it's kind of it feels like the environment around you is quite large and you're small.
588. 33:25SPEAKER_01: Whereas I think when you're at a river, usually it's a little more enclosed, there's not as much bank to kind of work on.
589. 33:30SPEAKER_01: It's sort of like here's the land, there's the water, and it's about a few meters wide, and there's the other side.
590. 33:35SPEAKER_01: What about the night and like a campfire or a fire of some kind?
591. 33:39SPEAKER_01: I feel like evokes it as well.
592. 33:41SPEAKER_00: Fires are always good, and I think there is a deeply embedded spiritual thing in human beings.
593. 33:47SPEAKER_00: We are drawn to fire because our our evolution has relied on it.
594. 33:52SPEAKER_00: We we could not have evolved as a species without being able to control fire.
595. 33:58SPEAKER_01: That's it.
596. 33:59SPEAKER_01: Food, defence, yeah, yeah, being able to stay up later at night and work.
597. 34:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
598. 34:03SPEAKER_00: Um, and so yeah, I think we are drawn to fire and and that control of fire.
599. 34:10SPEAKER_00: I mean, you notice that you talk about going up to the farm, and you notice with your kids, and I notice it with you when you were kids, is this I want to be poking sticks in the fire.
600. 34:19SPEAKER_00: And just see what happens, and just see what happens.
601. 34:21SPEAKER_00: I want to be playing with it, I want to be pushing the coals around.
602. 34:23SPEAKER_00: I want to that to me is almost that innate thing I want to learn how to use it.
603. 34:27SPEAKER_00: Your 96-year-old grandfather is exactly the same.
604. 34:32SPEAKER_01: So I reckon it probably is an evolutionary thing where we're drawn to it because it enhanced our survival if you were.
605. 34:37SPEAKER_01: And you if you interacted with fire more, you were more likely to survive.
606. 34:40SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you and you had to know how to use it, control it.
607. 34:44SPEAKER_01: You wonder if they're the first humans.
608. 34:46SPEAKER_01: There were a bunch that were like, we use fire, and there were a whole bunch that were like, no, not for me, mate.
609. 34:50SPEAKER_01: No, like, good luck.
610. 34:52SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
611. 34:53SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
612. 34:54SPEAKER_01: That's not my bag.
613. 34:55SPEAKER_00: No, no, bloody hurts.
614. 34:57SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
615. 34:59SPEAKER_01: Can't sleep, it's too bright.
616. 35:00SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, campfires are great, but sometimes, as we've talked about, for me, if I'm by myself, just a bit of a pain because you're gonna be carrying wood around and stuff.
617. 35:09SPEAKER_01: But do you reckon you're the type of person when you go camping that you take too much shit or not enough shit?
618. 35:16SPEAKER_00: I try, and uh being in a small van, you know.
619. 35:19SPEAKER_00: You're pretty limited.
620. 35:20SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're pretty limited.
621. 35:21SPEAKER_00: So can't fit the canoe in there.
622. 35:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
623. 35:24SPEAKER_00: Can't fit Joe in there.
624. 35:25SPEAKER_00: Um we can, and two of us can't.
625. 35:28SPEAKER_00: It's on top of the car.
626. 35:29SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
627. 35:29SPEAKER_00: Two of us camping in there is is um is doable.
628. 35:32SPEAKER_00: It's warmer.
629. 35:33SPEAKER_00: It's warm.
630. 35:34SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, and it's a problem in summer, but hey, she snores as much as I do.
631. 35:39SPEAKER_00: And I don't snore anymore because I've got those, yeah.
632. 35:43SPEAKER_00: Um so I try and take everything I need, but nothing more.
633. 35:48SPEAKER_01: The best part about the mouthpiece isn't the that you don't snore anymore, it's that no one complains about you snoring anymore.
634. 35:54SPEAKER_00: Yes, because yeah, other than sleep apnea when you wake yourself up, um when you're snoring, you're asleep, so you don't know.
635. 36:02SPEAKER_01: The only reason I got it was that every morning I kept getting complaints from the kids and my wife.
636. 36:06SPEAKER_00: You're snoring all night.
637. 36:07SPEAKER_01: Keeping us away.
638. 36:08SPEAKER_01: Sorry for rudely interrupting you.
639. 36:10SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's right.
640. 36:10SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I try and take everything I need, but nothing I don't.
641. 36:14SPEAKER_00: Um, and everything I need could be um I know I'm gonna need some tools.
642. 36:21SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna need some spare bits if something goes wrong with a car.
643. 36:25SPEAKER_00: Not that I'm a mechanic, but you know, yeah, but I can you know I can fix a door handle if it's suddenly gets banged and it's falling off.
644. 36:31SPEAKER_00: So that sort of stuff.
645. 36:33SPEAKER_00: Um but I try not to take too much.
646. 36:37SPEAKER_00: There are other people I know that Who are these people?
647. 36:44SPEAKER_00: We can't go camping because we can't tow a trailer that's big enough.
648. 36:47SPEAKER_00: Uh everything with you.
649. 36:50SPEAKER_00: And I've never been a tower, yeah, other than boats, and I've never owned a boat, but you know, you working at you know university when we used to be you know out on boats, so you'd be towing boats around stuff then.
650. 37:02SPEAKER_00: But um I I don't I understand why people like caravans yeah because it's set and forget.
651. 37:09SPEAKER_00: You can you tow your house behind you when you get somewhere you unhook and then you can it's also more amenities, right?
652. 37:14SPEAKER_00: You've got everything.
653. 37:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can take your TV and your microwave and your that's it.
654. 37:19SPEAKER_01: You got a toilet, the heated blankets and your there seem I was gonna say there seem to be two factions in in Australian camping culture.
655. 37:26SPEAKER_01: There'll be those who have some kind of trailer or caravan that they're towing behind the car.
656. 37:31SPEAKER_01: Everything.
657. 37:31SPEAKER_01: And those that will have a tent or something on top of the car that they can unfold and sleep with a knife and fork and a plate.
658. 37:38SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
659. 37:38SPEAKER_01: So you fall into that second category, do you?
660. 37:41SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but but I'm you know getting old now, so I don't use tents anymore, so I've got the van, but it's um Yeah.
661. 37:46SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did I do tend to take uh as little as I think I can get away with, although I do carry a lot of camera gear.
662. 37:54SPEAKER_01: That's why you have to minimize everything else.
663. 37:56SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
664. 37:56SPEAKER_00: Sorry, can't fit the kitchen sink in.
665. 37:58SPEAKER_00: I need the camera bag.
666. 37:59SPEAKER_01: So what do you think's uniquely Australian about the camping experience here?
667. 38:03SPEAKER_01: When you think about camping in Australia, if you've been camping, say in Great Britain, you know, you've been over there recently, you probably didn't go camping.
668. 38:10SPEAKER_01: What do you think is different about it here compared to places like Great Britain or America?
669. 38:14SPEAKER_00: Well, there's I think it's very similar in lots of places.
670. 38:19SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's anything unique about Australian camping other than the the wildlife and the locations.
671. 38:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
672. 38:27SPEAKER_00: Um you go camping in North America and you're gonna be concerned about bears.
673. 38:33SPEAKER_00: I don't cougars.
674. 38:35SPEAKER_01: I do not get Americans who go, Oh, I'm scared about your spiders.
675. 38:38SPEAKER_01: They have a fucking cry about snakes.
676. 38:40SPEAKER_01: Oh, everything here's gonna kill you.
677. 38:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then you'll see them just going for hikes with cougars and bears and buffalo and moose and all this shit that's like these are large land mammals.
678. 38:50SPEAKER_01: What are you how are you not worried about this shit?
679. 38:52SPEAKER_00: I got attacked by a wallaby.
680. 38:54SPEAKER_00: How many yeah?
681. 38:55SPEAKER_01: Two people die a year from snake bites in Australia, and they've got rattlesnakes.
682. 38:59SPEAKER_01: I know.
683. 38:59SPEAKER_01: But how are they not afraid?
684. 39:00SPEAKER_01: It just blows my mind.
685. 39:01SPEAKER_01: No, it's uh I think it's just you're anything you're not uh familiar with, it's from a different country.
686. 39:06SPEAKER_01: I'm not used to the idea of these creepy crawlies.
687. 39:08SPEAKER_01: Yes.
688. 39:09SPEAKER_01: But bears and cougars and oh, that's fine, mate, no worries.
689. 39:11SPEAKER_01: Whereas for me it's the other way around, right?
690. 39:13SPEAKER_00: But it depends where you come from in America.
691. 39:14SPEAKER_00: People who live by in forests tend to be, you know, where you've got the bears and the cougars and stuff, they uh they tend to be more relaxed about it.
692. 39:22SPEAKER_00: But I remember I went on a um a four-wheel drive trip, uh four drive tour, one-day trip, uh, when I was in the Grand Canyon years ago.
693. 39:31SPEAKER_00: And um the guy who was the guide uh said, Oh yeah, welcome to Arizona, where everything will prick your stick, you bite your sting, you will make you sick if you eat it.
694. 39:41SPEAKER_00: So yeah, the the desert in in Arizona is yeah, everything will will do you damage.
695. 39:48SPEAKER_00: Um whereas yeah, in most places, you know, like you can you're much more likely to see a funnel web spider in the backyard in Sydney than you are to see a dangerous spider when you're out camping.
696. 40:02SPEAKER_00: Snakes are an issue, yeah, but if you're snake aware and you're not crashing around in long grass and stuff, it's one of those things where the the thing though that for me it's like snakes and spiders inherently want to avoid you.
697. 40:15SPEAKER_01: Yes.
698. 40:16SPEAKER_01: As long as you're not a fucking idiot putting your hands under sticks and running around, rolling rocks over and just like literally not giving the animals time to run away.
699. 40:24SPEAKER_01: Yes.
700. 40:24SPEAKER_01: If you're making them feel trapped, they're gonna attack you.
701. 40:26SPEAKER_01: Or if you try killing them when just leave them alone.
702. 40:30SPEAKER_00: People get bitten by snakes trying to kill them.
703. 40:32SPEAKER_01: Whereas with bears, cougars, they hunt you down.
704. 40:34SPEAKER_01: Yes.
705. 40:35SPEAKER_01: They're not you they're not trying to avoid you, they're trying to find you.
706. 40:39SPEAKER_01: They're trying to get into your car and eat your last.
707. 40:43SPEAKER_00: That's right.
708. 40:43SPEAKER_00: Bears are gonna rip the car apart.
709. 40:45SPEAKER_01: I know exactly.
710. 40:45SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
711. 40:46SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I think there's that element to it.
712. 40:48SPEAKER_00: Um, the beach is something that is different in Australia because we all live, well, most of us live so close to it.
713. 40:55SPEAKER_00: So I think people go camping at the beach more than camping out in the bush.
714. 40:59SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
715. 41:00SPEAKER_00: Whereas certainly in America's Americans' version of camping is going to a mountain lake.
716. 41:05SPEAKER_00: Yeah, true.
717. 41:06SPEAKER_01: Uh and they have more of them because of the um last glacial maxima, right?
718. 41:10SPEAKER_01: With all of the ice sheets that came over the top of the continent.
719. 41:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
720. 41:13SPEAKER_01: It ended up scraping out all these.
721. 41:14SPEAKER_00: There are lots of glacial lakes and things.
722. 41:16SPEAKER_00: That's it, when everything melted.
723. 41:18SPEAKER_01: We don't have the same sort of number.
724. 41:20SPEAKER_00: In Britain, my my experience of holidaying in Britain, I've never lived there, is that it's not so much a camping experience.
725. 41:28SPEAKER_00: It's a the outdoor experience there is walking.
726. 41:30SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
727. 41:31SPEAKER_00: Everybody walks.
728. 41:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
729. 41:33SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, well, you can walk from village to village, so so almost everywhere in southern from southern Scotland south, you know, other than the big national parks where you you can be out in the wilderness in the mountains, but everywhere else, you know, it's 10 miles to the next village.
730. 41:48SPEAKER_01: I was saying that to one of my students recently.
731. 41:50SPEAKER_01: I was saying, like, it is it weird for you living in Germany or Poland or Czech, where you could literally just walk in any direction and you'll be in another town.
732. 41:59SPEAKER_01: Like you you just can't get lost.
733. 42:01SPEAKER_01: Yes.
734. 42:01SPEAKER_01: There's no one dying of exposure, getting lost in the middle of you know, Slovakia, at least as far as I know.
735. 42:08SPEAKER_01: Unless they're up in the mountain somewhere.
736. 42:09SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
737. 42:10SPEAKER_01: But but I imagine if you as long as you're not stupid, you can find your way out.
738. 42:13SPEAKER_01: Whereas in Australia, you could drive probably half a day in most directions, and if you lost your car and you were stupid, you would be fucked.
739. 42:22SPEAKER_01: You know, if you didn't have any water or anything and you left the car, you'd be in trouble.
740. 42:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so but uh there's a there's a definite camping culture in um and I've never been to South Africa, but I know lots of South Africans.
741. 42:34SPEAKER_00: Um South Africa is very similar to Australia in that sense of you know, people will have all the camping gear and the setup and their and their holidays are very much around camping and going out in the bush and the beach and stuff.
742. 42:47SPEAKER_00: Um less so in America, but I think the Americans it's more around going to lakes and rivers and stuff.
743. 42:53SPEAKER_00: But uh you you don't hear of people camping by beaches in America, and I think part of that problem is that the coast in America are so populated and the beaches are tend to be populated and private.
744. 43:08SPEAKER_00: So you don't have national parks or little towns on you go to a you know, particularly on the east coast, you go to any town that's on the coast, try getting to the beach.
745. 43:18SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you end up having to pay twenty dollars to go and park your car there.
746. 43:22SPEAKER_00: Really in America.
747. 43:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
748. 43:24SPEAKER_00: It's it's crazy.
749. 43:25SPEAKER_01: So what's your favourite Australian camping memory?
750. 43:29SPEAKER_00: Uh Wilson's Promontory, first time I ever went there.
751. 43:31SPEAKER_00: Really?
752. 43:32SPEAKER_00: I was 12 years old.
753. 43:33SPEAKER_00: So what happened?
754. 43:34SPEAKER_00: Um it was you you arri we it was um I was with the um the Be Morris Athletics Club, which no longer exists.
755. 43:42SPEAKER_00: I was a foundation member of it.
756. 43:44SPEAKER_00: It started when I was twelve.
757. 43:46SPEAKER_00: And in our first year there, we of the club we the club um captain, he wasn't the president, but he was the guy who started the club.
758. 43:57SPEAKER_00: Um he was a camper and they used to go to Wilson's Promontory a lot.
759. 44:00SPEAKER_00: And so about thirty of us went camping down there and I was a kid and went down with them.
760. 44:06SPEAKER_00: So um so there's a whole bunch of us a between the ages of twelve and forty, um, that you know went down and so arrived there and so it was an experience getting there.
761. 44:16SPEAKER_00: You're twelve years old and you're in somebody else's car and you got your mates with you and you're rattling around in the back of the car, you get there at night, and all you hear is the surf.
762. 44:24SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
763. 44:24SPEAKER_00: And then you're gonna go, well, we've got a picture of the next morning you run around and you go down to the beach and you're Holy shit.
764. 44:33SPEAKER_01: Wilson's one breach is pretty cool, yeah.
765. 44:35SPEAKER_00: Tidal River that yeah, Norman Bay Beach is incredible.
766. 44:39SPEAKER_00: How many kilometers is it like one or two kilometers?
767. 44:40SPEAKER_00: It's about a kilomet kilometer, but but because it's got mountains around you on either side, yeah.
768. 44:45SPEAKER_00: On either side, and these huge granite boulders and stuff, it's it doesn't look that big.
769. 44:53SPEAKER_00: And so you look at it and go, the first time we were there, we got the got there and went, let's I'll race you to the end of the beach.
770. 45:00SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you take off sprinting, and you're like, oh shit, over a yeah.
771. 45:04SPEAKER_00: We've been running for about 400 meters and we haven't gotten any closer.
772. 45:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's about a kilometer and a half, I think.
773. 45:09SPEAKER_01: Is that Mount Oberon right there that has this huge escarpment or like granite exposed rock at the top of the volcano?
774. 45:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
775. 45:16SPEAKER_00: So it's um yeah, that place and it's just magical and it's still my favorite place in the world.
776. 45:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
777. 45:23SPEAKER_01: It is pretty cool.
778. 45:25SPEAKER_01: What's the most Aussie camping experience you've ever had?
779. 45:28SPEAKER_00: The most Aussie camping experience.
780. 45:30SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've got a good one here.
781. 45:31SPEAKER_00: Um the most Aussie camping experience, I think, is not one that I've ever had.
782. 45:35SPEAKER_00: Okay.
783. 45:36SPEAKER_00: And that's the um and I'll I'll use the a particular place, but it's generic of a lot of places.
784. 45:43SPEAKER_00: Um the foreshore at Rosebud, which is on the um Port Phillip on the bay, um, on the Mornington Peninsula.
785. 45:52SPEAKER_00: And camping there is you are cheek by jowl, um, camped in and people have the same campsite every year, every summer.
786. 45:59SPEAKER_00: They go down there in their caravans and their tents and everything else, and that's their camping experience.
787. 46:05SPEAKER_00: And they go down, so they they have their their neighbors that they go to, or their camping neighbours, and and it's so it's just this little community that arrives there and lasts four to eight weeks during the summer and then disappears again um for the rest of the year.
788. 46:19SPEAKER_01: So I've never done that, and I don't have so they actually stay there for four to eight weeks, or the community's there for four to eight weeks?
789. 46:25SPEAKER_00: Uh the people will just go there and stay there for that the whole time.
790. 46:28SPEAKER_00: Or because it's so close to Melbourne, and they're usually people from Melbourne, yeah, then they'll come they'll go and set up in November and they'll unpack it in February, but they'll be down, they'll be down for the school holiday period and then weekends and things, but but they just have the sites booked for the whole time.
791. 46:44SPEAKER_00: Yeah, wow.
792. 46:45SPEAKER_00: So that's a very typical experience of some people, but I don't like it much.
793. 46:50SPEAKER_00: But the classic Australian camping experience, I think, is you go somewhere and you go out in the bush and you Yeah.
794. 46:56SPEAKER_01: I think it's yeah, well, I was gonna say the the memory that I have specifically is about getting chased off the pier by a wombat into the river.
795. 47:03SPEAKER_00: Yes, Wilson's prom again.
796. 47:05SPEAKER_00: Wilson it's the highlight of everything.
797. 47:07SPEAKER_00: I remember that wombat chasing you down the path.
798. 47:09SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I remember I think I think how old would I have been?
799. 47:12SPEAKER_01: Oh eight or nine?
800. 47:13SPEAKER_01: Eight.
801. 47:14SPEAKER_01: And I remember there were wombats that would come out.
802. 47:16SPEAKER_01: So you would see like the the mums and their babies, and they sort of just wander around the campsite looking for food, you know.
803. 47:22SPEAKER_01: And we were food is grass.
804. 47:25SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
805. 47:26SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah.
806. 47:27SPEAKER_01: We're walking down this this um boardwalk, right?
807. 47:31SPEAKER_01: A wooden boardwalk near the near the river.
808. 47:33SPEAKER_01: With with the with the river on one side and the sand or the you know, the campground on the other side.
809. 47:38SPEAKER_01: And the wombats were on there, and I I remember chasing one of them.
810. 47:41SPEAKER_01: I think I may have asked you, like, what's gonna happen?
811. 47:43SPEAKER_01: Is it gonna attack me?
812. 47:44SPEAKER_01: And you're like, No, it's fine.
813. 47:45SPEAKER_01: No, still we gotta go though.
814. 47:46SPEAKER_01: And so I chased it and it stopped moving and turned around and strunted and chased me, and I ran into the water off the thing into a foot deep water.
815. 47:58SPEAKER_01: And the other one was um we went to Wilson's prom years later when I was at university.
816. 48:03SPEAKER_01: We were going on like a four-day hike um around it, and I remember I was staying there in a tent with a guy called Jesus.
817. 48:11SPEAKER_01: It was his nickname.
818. 48:12SPEAKER_01: His name, his first name was um Rob, but there were a bunch of Robs, so there was one nicknamed God and one called Jesus because of his hair.
819. 48:18SPEAKER_01: As you would, yeah.
820. 48:19SPEAKER_01: And um there I remember we we went for a walk and then came back, and there was all this rustling inside the tent.
821. 48:26SPEAKER_01: And Jesus was like, fuck, not again, and just ran over to the tent and out he came, wrestling a wombat.
822. 48:32SPEAKER_01: Get out of the bread, you bastard.
823. 48:36SPEAKER_01: And he grabbed it out, accidentally let go of it, and it just ran straight back into the tent.
824. 48:40SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and was just like wombats.
825. 48:43SPEAKER_00: If if you want to find an animal that should have tattooed on the back of its head, I don't give a shit.
826. 48:49SPEAKER_00: It's wombats.
827. 48:50SPEAKER_00: They uh just tunnel visioned when they have something on their mind, they're gonna go for it.
828. 48:55SPEAKER_00: My favorite story about wombats is, and I don't really remember the holiday we had down there, where we weren't camping, we stayed in one of the new they built some new cabins.
829. 49:04SPEAKER_00: Um, and we we stayed in those.
830. 49:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
831. 49:07SPEAKER_00: And it was they'd just opened it and they'd done all the landscaping around it.
832. 49:11SPEAKER_00: And I was talking to one of the rangers um the next day when there was a wombat hole on the inside of this wombat proof fence that they had built.
833. 49:21SPEAKER_00: And he just said, Little bastards.
834. 49:23SPEAKER_00: So they they built this the so they dug a metre down in the fence and and a and a and a and a meter out well, they'd actually dug this trench that was two meters wide and a meter deep.
835. 49:36SPEAKER_00: Put the fence in there, and they had and they had put fencing wire, um, as in, you know, chicken wire, so mesh fence, um, horizontally and then vertically in it, and then they and then they'd built the fence back of filled it in and built the fence up from that.
836. 49:52SPEAKER_00: So they figured there's no way a wombat is going to dig under this because they wanted to the there were as soon as they built the cabins, um, silver gulls started breeding.
837. 50:03SPEAKER_00: Yeah, under the cabins.
838. 50:05SPEAKER_00: They got violent when they're breeding and having nests.
839. 50:07SPEAKER_00: And and so they didn't want the wombats in there disturbing them, but they also wanted to landscape it and they didn't want the wombats in there digging them up and eating the new plants.
840. 50:15SPEAKER_00: And so they they went to this huge expense.
841. 50:18SPEAKER_00: The first night a wombat has gone to the fence, dug down, dug back out, dug under the thing, two metres up, and popped up the other side.
842. 50:26SPEAKER_00: In one night, they had got through this thing.
843. 50:28SPEAKER_00: And it's next challenge, please.
844. 50:30SPEAKER_00: Yes.
845. 50:31SPEAKER_00: So wombats, they just they I don't give a shit what you do.
846. 50:34SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get on to the other side of this fence.
847. 50:37SPEAKER_01: Oh man, one of the other memories I I had was um I can't remember where we were camping.
848. 50:42SPEAKER_01: It was in the forest somewhere, there were big eucalypts, it was raining quite a bit, and I remember waking up in the middle of the night to and freaking freaking the fuck out.
849. 50:53SPEAKER_00: I don't remember where that was.
850. 50:54SPEAKER_00: Where was it?
851. 50:55SPEAKER_00: It was it's now called Bunjal National Park, I think, or Bun Bujbim National Park.
852. 51:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, it was Mount Eccles, um, down in the Western District of Victoria.
853. 51:07SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
854. 51:07SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, and yeah, and you also get bitten by a bull ant.
855. 51:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was why I was bringing up as we camped on a bull ant's nest and I went out in the night because I had to take a leap.
856. 51:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well we went we're setting up at night.
857. 51:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had to I had to urinate, I had to go out and have a slash, and I think on the way back I stepped on bull ants and got stung up the leg.
858. 51:28SPEAKER_01: That was unfucking pleasant.
859. 51:29SPEAKER_01: Yes.
860. 51:30SPEAKER_01: Why do you think they're called bull ants?
861. 51:32SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
862. 51:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
863. 51:34SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was uh at that down at that national park.
864. 51:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Google, do yourself a favor if you want to be freaked out and have a listen to koalas, especially male koalas.
865. 51:44SPEAKER_01: Male koalas.
866. 51:45SPEAKER_01: Male koala call.
867. 51:46SPEAKER_01: It is fucking horrifying.
868. 51:48SPEAKER_01: And especially when you just hear that echoing through the night.
869. 51:51SPEAKER_01: Brushtail possums.
870. 51:52SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
871. 51:52SPEAKER_01: What is with marsupials and these like kind of sounds that they make?
872. 51:57SPEAKER_00: Because they don't vocalize.
873. 51:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
874. 51:58SPEAKER_00: They're they they're their only vocalizations of these sort of grunting things.
875. 52:02SPEAKER_00: They don't there's no terrifying.
876. 52:04SPEAKER_00: You listen to deer and they're rabbits.
877. 52:08SPEAKER_00: I know.
878. 52:08SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
879. 52:09SPEAKER_00: Wombats make no sound.
880. 52:11SPEAKER_00: No.
881. 52:11SPEAKER_00: Except Yeah.
882. 52:13SPEAKER_01: It's just these guttal grunts.
883. 52:15SPEAKER_01: Same with kangaroos.
884. 52:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, kangaroo.
885. 52:17SPEAKER_00: Kangaroos grind their teeth.
886. 52:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they do that too, but they'll also grunt at you.
887. 52:20SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, Google it, man.
888. 52:22SPEAKER_01: It was horrifying.
889. 52:23SPEAKER_01: I remember just it echoing through the campsite and you would have warned.
890. 52:27SPEAKER_00: Imagine the first Europeans that arrived in Sydney Cove or you know at Botany Bay when they first got there for a few days.
891. 52:35SPEAKER_00: And they're and they're you know, they would have been sleeping in the ship at the time, but the first ones that decide they were going to get out and sleep.
892. 52:40SPEAKER_00: Well, they would have known nothing about it.
893. 52:42SPEAKER_00: And there's no education.
894. 52:44SPEAKER_00: No one would have known about it.
895. 52:45SPEAKER_00: Because during the day you don't see anything.
896. 52:46SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
897. 52:47SPEAKER_00: It might be a kangaroo hopping around somewhere, but you know.
898. 52:50SPEAKER_00: And you you think it's that bunny.
899. 52:54SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
900. 52:54SPEAKER_01: Well, that's probably where the the myth came from, you know, large megafauna that went extinct or the large animals making noises at night.
901. 53:01SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
902. 53:02SPEAKER_01: Alright.
903. 53:02SPEAKER_01: Well, we should probably finish up with some rapid fire questions then, Dad.
904. 53:06SPEAKER_01: Been going for about an hour.
905. 53:08SPEAKER_01: This one's gonna be a tough one for you.
906. 53:09SPEAKER_01: Beach or bush?
907. 53:10SPEAKER_01: Beach.
908. 53:11SPEAKER_01: Tent or caravan?
909. 53:13SPEAKER_00: No.
910. 53:14SPEAKER_01: Not anymore.
911. 53:15SPEAKER_00: Small camper van, but tent.
912. 53:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
913. 53:18SPEAKER_01: Sunrise or sunset.
914. 53:19SPEAKER_01: Sunrise.
915. 53:20SPEAKER_01: Oh really?
916. 53:21SPEAKER_01: Okay.
917. 53:22SPEAKER_01: Campfire or ocean.
918. 53:23SPEAKER_01: I don't know how that's they're not opposite, but no.
919. 53:25SPEAKER_00: Uh Pokan los dos.
920. 53:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
921. 53:28SPEAKER_00: Campfire by the ocean.
922. 53:31SPEAKER_01: Tea or coffee.
923. 53:32SPEAKER_01: No.
924. 53:33SPEAKER_01: Beer.
925. 53:34SPEAKER_01: You gotta choose one, Daddy.
926. 53:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
927. 53:37SPEAKER_01: Uh swag or tent, we've done that.
928. 53:39SPEAKER_01: Rain or tent.
929. 53:40SPEAKER_01: Rain on a tent or waves in the background.
930. 53:42SPEAKER_00: Oh waves in the background.
931. 53:44SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
932. 53:44SPEAKER_01: Mountains or coastline?
933. 53:46SPEAKER_00: Coastline.
934. 53:46SPEAKER_01: Both.
935. 53:47SPEAKER_01: Go to lawn.
936. 53:48SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
937. 53:48SPEAKER_01: Get both.
938. 53:49SPEAKER_01: Go to Wilson's Promontory.
939. 53:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah, get both.
940. 53:51SPEAKER_01: One night or one week?
941. 53:54SPEAKER_00: Um one two weeks.
942. 53:57SPEAKER_00: Two weeks.
943. 53:58SPEAKER_00: As long as I could possibly can, but not necessarily in the same place.
944. 54:01SPEAKER_00: So I I do road trip camping as well where I might go away for ten days and I'll stay at eight different places.
945. 54:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
946. 54:08SPEAKER_01: So you sort of like enjoy the short periods of time at a lot of places in a row.
947. 54:13SPEAKER_01: Yes.
948. 54:14SPEAKER_01: And campfire breakfast or barbecue dinner.
949. 54:18SPEAKER_01: Barbecue dinner.
950. 54:19SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
951. 54:20SPEAKER_00: Um because I tend not to eat steak for breakfast.
952. 54:25SPEAKER_00: And I just want steak.
953. 54:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
954. 54:27SPEAKER_00: I don't mind campfire breakfasts, but uh I do tend not to have campfires, but if you're talking about this, yeah, a cooked breakfast, uh whether it's on a campfire or on a gas stove or an electric hot plate, I'd still prefer a um a barbecue dinner.
955. 54:42SPEAKER_01: Good job.
956. 54:42SPEAKER_01: Alright, well the the the questions here for listeners, I guess, to get in touch and let us know about are what's one tiny camping moment that instantly makes you feel relaxed, if and when you go camping.
957. 54:53SPEAKER_01: And if you've never been camping, what's your idea of the perfect peaceful place then?
958. 54:58SPEAKER_01: Instead.
959. 54:59SPEAKER_00: And why wouldn't you go camping?
960. 55:02SPEAKER_00: Not stopping your fighters.
961. 55:04SPEAKER_01: All those creepy crawlies that are out there.
962. 55:06SPEAKER_00: They're grizzly bears.
963. 55:08SPEAKER_01: Anyway, thanks for joining us, guys, and we will see you next time.
964. 55:12SPEAKER_01: Bye.