News Item
[12]
24/07/05 Australia
The Rogue Rodent of Oallen Ford. |
| The Rogue Rodent of Oallen Ford. I had the ute almost completely packed a couple of days before the group trip to Oallen in March except for the fridge and a few last minute articles including my fire bucket which had been in the shed jammed full of some sawn off fence palings from when I replaced my side fence. I loaded these in the back of the ute, said goodbye to Mrs Rowdy and headed for the ford. I arrived about 9.30pm and did a quick lap of the camp area just to make sure that everybody already there was awake and then camped down on the river flat, had a quick cuppa from my thermos and hit sack about 10 pm. Next day saw me up early and working an area that I started to work a couple of years ago which I thought was promising but in hindsight was not as good as I thought. About 4.00 pm I cleaned up and went up to the camp area and grabbed a good spot to set up camp amongst the other campers More of the group were starting to arrive now and Dazza, Burnie and Dr Johno were right next to me about 5 and 10 metres away. I cooked the evening meal and settled down with everybody around the camp fire and got to meet other members and put a face to a name on the screen of a computer of members from the group. Just on dark I went to the back of my ute to make another cuppa and as I unzipped the canvas canopy something caught my attention as there was movement in the back. I just saw the tail of what I thought was a mouse but wasn_t sure, it could have been a small lizard but then I found a small puddle and a deposit on the mattress so I knew I had an unwelcome hitch hiker on board. I then emptied almost everything out of the ute and placed it on the ground and turned my mattress over and I was sure that there was no where in the back where the intruder could hide so I then put every thing back in ensuring that each item returned had no aliens hiding in it. I had two 115amp hour batteries in crates in under my bed and they were place on carpet and as they were very heavy and awkward to move I left them there but I had a can of insect spray so I gave it a good spray around the batteries in a vain hope that if he was still there it would make him feel off colour enough to keep him quite for the night. Later that night as the evening wore on every body drifted off to bed except Burnie and myself who chatted for some time before I said I had better go to bed and I mentioned that I hoped that the mouse was gone as I didn_t fancy sharing my sleeping quarters him. Burnie then made me feel a lot braver by reminding me that I was a bit bigger than it was, but then he quietly added but if it was a rat I_d be worried. About this time my mind began to run riot with its imagination as I began to wonder, was it a rat, just how long was that tail I saw, was it a juvenile rat etc etc. I climbed into the back and started to get undressed and crawled into my sleeping bag all the time peering at every possible place that a mouse could hide in and all the time wondering if he had gone or was still snuggled up some where in my gear. I didn_t sleep all that well during the night, waking up regularly worrying about where this little rodent was but by morning no sign of him was apparent so I got up had breakfast and was all set for another day of sluicing I was a bit sluggish today caused by lack of sleep and didn't really feel much like shoveling all day again so I just hung around everyone else and watched them do the work. As I was driving around down on the river flat I stopped at where Mike was digging and walked around the back of the ute and water was pouring out the back everywhere. I had left the top off my 20 litre water container and it had fallen over and was now about three quarters empty with everything on the floor of the ute saturated with water. Naturally I blamed the mouse because when I was using the water in the morning I was preoccupied with peering around looking for him. Saturday night and there was no sign of him all day so I thought I must have got rid of him and went to bed looking forward to a good nights sleep. At ten past two in the morning I woke up and I could hear a scratching sound and I immediately knew that that blasted mouse was alive and well and still living in my quarters. After about half an hour of him scratching about I was getting quite ruffled under the collar and I lent over on the mattress to see if I could determine where it was he was making this noise but the slippery sheen finish on the sleeping bag had me sliding off the mattress towards the floor. In a desperate attempt to stop me falling I was waving my arms in mid air clutching at nothing in a vain attempt to grab hold of something to stop me falling, but all I managed to do was land face first on the wet and soggy carpet on the floor. With my pride a little dampened I pushed myself back onto the mattress cursing and muttering to myself about what I'd do if I got hold of him and I lay there wondering what my next plan of attack would be. The scratching just went on and on and I was getting crankier by the minute. Under the bed at one end I had two plastic containers with my cooking gear in one and tinned and packet food in the other. By now I was certain that he was munching on my food so I reached in under the bed, grabbed hold of the container that had my food in it and shook it violently which made him stop chewing, for about ten seconds then away he went again louder than ever. I then grabbed the can of insect spray and gave a long and sustained spray into the top of the plastic box but it had no effect, if anything he chewed all the harder while I was coughing and spluttering on the fumes all the time thinking this is just like agent orange I'm breathing in here He just kept on chewing and chewing and I'm sure I must have woken up the others in the camp with the occasional rattling and banging of the food box as I shook it and banged on it every few minutes until daylight. I was up early the next morning and I started to demolish the back of the ute, I let the side and tail boards down and took out most of the gear again. I then started to empty out the food box and I was amazed at how many museli bars, cuppa soup packets, dried beans and dried peas this little freeloading varmit had sampled during the night. Not to mention the little deposits he had left for me. He was no longer in the food box so grabbed the box with the saucepans and plates in and started to rattle in around there moving them all about when out leapt the mouse stopped on top of the box looked at me as if to say up yours son then jumped over behind the battery boxes and hid there. By now Dazza and Burnie were up and Dr Johno was stumbling out to meet the morning and see what all the commotion was about. A few strained and curt explanations from me soon put them in the picture and they stood around my ute as spotters to tell me where this little fury critter was. After moving a few things he dashed from one to another hiding place always well ahead of me so I decided this was WAR. I went around the other side of the ute and prepared for battle. When I emerged from around the ute I was such a fearsome sight that Dazza backpedaled bumping into Dr Johno who caused a domino effect by falling against Burnie who spilled his hot cuppa he had in his hand over himself cursing that the hot coffee had penetrated the uppers of his chinese safety boots (thongs) and burnt his feet. There I was, wearing a bandana around my head armed to the teeth with a 20 inch machette and my bloodshot eyes, from lack of sleep, were glowing fiery red with rage as I knew this mouse was going to meet a gruesome end. Dazza Burnie and Dr Johno keep a safe distance and cheered me on as I chased this little creature all over the back of the ute. Each time I flushed him out from hiding he do a round of the tray of the ute then back up behind the battery boxes again and hide there. I peer in at him and the fat little freeloader would sit there knowing I couldn't quite reach him, the sun was shinning through the back of his little pink ears and he twitched his whiskers and sneered at me and I'm sure I heard him say "Yeah you and who else's army" or something along those lines. He was in between the two battery boxes now and as usual I had a fool proof plan to bring this pea brain undone, I grabbed the front battery box and slammed it up hard against the other one and to my surprise it worked a treat but by now the mouse was over the other side of the ute rolling around laughing as I had jammed my fingers between the battery boxes which made me use a few four letter words like ouch, damn, dash and oohh that hurt. By now I was starting to lose my sense of humour and this brave little rodent sensing that the back of the ute was now a dangerous place to be, either that, or he took pity on me and realized that if he didn't leave this mad maniac was going to demolish his ute as he slashed and banged the machette at anything and everything within arms reach in the back of the ute he took a leap in the air wound his legs up dashed across the tray and made long and graceful leap in the air between Dazza_s legs which had him dancing on tippy toes trying to get away, but Dazza reckons he was trying not to hurt the little guy, then the mouse waddled off dragging his fat little gut full of my food along the ground and snuggled in under Dazza's swag. Dazza then thanked me for the unselfish gift of a pet for him to look after and I then set about putting all my vermin infested gear back in the ute. You would think that as I was now free of this mouse that I would sleep well of a night now but this is not the case as I keep having nightmares that Dazza caught him and has been feeding him steroids and that cage on his Toyota ute that keeps rocking his ute when you go near it is not a fearless pig dog but Dazza is returning to me that now muscle bound mouse all fired up and with revenge on his mind. http://groups.msn.com/AlluvialGoldProspectors/~whatsnew.msnw |
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