G'day, new here. Looks a beut!

[EyeSpyGuy]

G'day! My name is Dan, and I am from tropical northern Australia!

Things are a bit different here. I have heard tell of these things you guys call "seasons". I reakon they are a beut idea! But isn't four excessive? I think three would be about right. No need to go overbord, eh?

It is a bit confusing. So many of you spend your energy trying to figure out how to "keep warm in the snow". Aren't you stretching the truth a bit? I mean, I am an educated man, and I know for a fact that this "snow" stuff exists! But is it really as cold as all that? I mean, you talk about it as though you can't even wear your thongs anymore. Ah, I mean "flip flops".

Local past times here include fishing, pigging, chasing sheilas, avoiding tourists (unless they are sheilas), drop bear education, and two other kinds of fishing. My missus is a keen fisher ... person, though we have had to cut that back since the squids came along. Still, family life has its compensations! Being married to my wife beats the tar out of chasing sheilas!

My family (specifically my mum) owns a rural block on a creek that is a tributary of a local river. We like to spend time out there on holidays, staying in the "summer home". Local features include rainforest, spiders (you guys know about Aussie spiders?), snakes (All of the pythons, but the Death Adder population has been gutted by those ******* toads), and a single croc named "Joe".

The little woman used to be a professional snake-wrangler; having much experience with reptiles, one of her first jobs in our little town was in snake removal. She is the sheela that would turn up and remove the brown snake from your dunny or whatever. As a result all of our little nippers have a healthy respect for reptiles of all shapes and sizes. We even make the little mites wear gumboots rather than "flip flops" to run about in the bush! Bloody sucks to tip leaches out of your boots though. I suspect that they may be over-rated.

Anyway, I have long had a dream of hiking and camping with the little woman and our rug-rats. Unfortunatly they are a bit small right now, but they are growing up fast, and I think that hammock camping is the way to do it. Comfie, light and keeps the ******* mozzies out! Sign me up!

And on top of that, my Dad is a master sailmaker. His interest in hammocks is traditional, since their original popularity is closly linked to their use in naval vessles. Tied out of knotwork (buy fishermen who work with nets all day) or sewn out of canvas, they made great use of the space available in cramped quaters.

As a teenager, I had a chance to test a few prototype hammocks my dad was working on. Single point suspension with a spreader bar, they were wonderful to sleep in. Not at all the thing for camping, though.

Anyway, I am here to shoot the breeze. I'll also be happy to answer questions about camping in Oz, up to and including helping to arrange a trip and avoid the tourist traps. The Greenback is gaining in power compared to the softening Aussie dollar, which might make it a good time for a trip.

[EyeSpyGuy]

It seems like your Yank program has a differing opinion as to what constitutes swearing. For example "*******" is an acceptable greeting for a policeman; as in "Hello *******!". I could cite that particular court case, should I choose to look it up.

[OutandBack]

Hi Eye Spy Guy. That's a pretty interesting intro post. Welcome.
We are a family friendly forum with many rug-rats and sheilas participating here so we keep the forum filter pretty tight
and we moderate the forum to keep things that way.
Many families trust this site as a safe place for there kids to enjoy the internet and learn about camping in the outdoors with a hammock.

I am looking forward to a trip report with pictures from you since I have never seen your part of this great big world.
The hammock your Dad makes sounds very interesting I would love to hear more about that.
Many of us have non camping hammocks on our decks and in our backyards so weight is not a big issue.

[ofuros]

Used to FIFO via Darwin for work, stayed over a few times, even flew from there to Timor for
a couple of R&R's....love the feel of Darwin & the Top End....welcome to the forum EyeSpyGuy.

[EyeSpyGuy]

G'day Ofuros, OutAndBack! Nice to be here.

Yeah, Darwin is grouse. It is a beaut place to raise kids! I admit that it has somewhat lost it's identity these past few years. So much of the population is made up of people like you, Oruros, who are just passing through. Here there are three kinds of people, Tourists, Short Timers and Locals. Stay more than two weat-seasons in a row and you are well on the way to being a local. Most don't stay that long, though. They go home for summer at the second christmas and never come back. As a result, there is a high turn-over in employment. That means it is a great place to get a job, if you can afford the rent.

OutAndBack, my dad invented Shade Sails, which are shaped like sails because he is a sailmaker. He had a workshop that produced them for over twenty years. As a result, the hammocks were made of knitted shadcloth with a strong PVC fabric binding around the edges. He cut them as a diamond shape like a kite with a hollow cut in the edges to make them stretch right. There was a pole across the short dimension of the diamond, and the whole thing was hung from a single point, which I would hook to the roof of our veranda.

You'd lie streight in it and you could see through the black shadecloth, so you had good visibility and heaps of breeze. I spent many afternoons asleep or reading. Eventually that prototype bit the dust because it was not hung high enough and my sister liked to dig her toes in to the floor and spin in a big circle around her feet, wearing out the shadecloth.

I think the success was down to the stretchy fabric and the clever shape. I think it would be okay in a frame, but hanging from a veranda beam was ideal.

It is going to be a while before I can go on a trip, but I will take photos when I do and post them here. Even just weekends at the rural property would be interesting, you know, for yanks.

[Cali]

I've always dreamed of visiting Australia. I actually had an uncle living over there, but my mother never told me that until after his death. (What a shame) I did visit New Zealand for two weeks back in 2006, and had an awesome time. Maybe one day I will make it back over the water to your beautiful country.

Welcome to the forum, and I look forward to your posts. I actually read your post and it read with an accent.

[EyeSpyGuy]

No worries, Cali. If you want to spend some quality time down-under, then give us a shout, eh? I can give you the dinkum oil on the Top End, tourist traps and what the locals do. If you like to fish, the top of down-under has the best there is, as long as you make a study of the habits of snapping handbags first. Crocks like to eat fish almost as much as they like to chew on tourits.

Don't let the stories of Aussie wildlife put you off. Snakes and spiders are not very dangerous, as long as you watch where you put your feet. Neither compares to Drop Bears or Crocs, though we don't get many Drop Bears this far north, as of the heat.

With my expert tuition, you will be able to sink ... beer, spin yarns, not die of exposure and avoid Drop Bears like a local. Just say the word, mate!

[Cali]

No worries, Cali. If you want to spend some quality time down-under, then give us a shout, eh? I can give you the dinkum oil on the Top End, tourist traps and what the locals do. If you like to fish, the top of down-under has the best there is, as long as you make a study of the habits of snapping handbags first. Crocks like to eat fish almost as much as they like to chew on tourits.

Don't let the stories of Aussie wildlife put you off. Snakes and spiders are not very dangerous, as long as you watch where you put your feet. Neither compares to Drop Bears or Crocs, though we don't get many Drop Bears this far north, as of the heat.

With my expert tuition, you will be able to sink ... beer, spin yarns, not die of exposure and avoid Drop Bears like a local. Just say the word, mate!

Okay Mate, I will keep this in mind. Now I need to save some money and vacation time.

[Boomer]

Welcome Dan from the PNW. Sounds like your Aussie tongue is quite a bit different!

[EyeSpyGuy]

Boomer, good to be here! I would love to visit the Pacific Northwest! Or Alaska. I hear great things about Portland Oregon. Apparently if I move there I don't have to give up clowning?

I am bilingual, mate. I grew up on Magnum PI and the A Team. I can speak yank just fine.

"We can begin the cook out just as soon as you put on your flip flops and take the trash out to the sidewalk."

See?