Monday 12 September 2005

Dingo enounter

On the third day of my stay on Fraser Island I had a close encounter with a Dingo.

One of the groups we were camping with forgot to lock up their rubbish and so a number of dingos dropped by in the middle of the night to check out the food smells emanating from the black bin bag. One of the girls woke up to find rubbish strewn all over the campsite and spent a very pissed off half hour trying cleaning it up.

I woke up at about 6.30am and thought as it was daylight I didn't need to do the whole 'Be dingo safe and take a buddy with you every where' thing. After using the Aussie dunny I climbed to the top of the sand due we were camped behind and took some photos of the beach. I turned around to take some pictures of the camp site and saw a dingo about 10m to my left down next to one of the tents.

We'd been drilled in what to do if a dingo came anywhere near you (cross your arms over your chest and back away slowly). So I raised my arms up to chest level and started snapping photos. After a minute the dingo turned and looked at me then turned toward the sand dune and started to walk up it.

Sensing this was probably the best time to make a run for it I started down the dune towards the camp at a moderate speed so I wouldn't startle it. Luckily I was right next to the truck and was able to quickly jump inside. The dingo must have thought I was crazy because he walked along the dune till he got behind the truck and stared through the window at me for a full minute before sloping off.

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