80's and 90's DX Trips - More tall stories

The Years roll on - More DX Trips and stories

After those early trips in the 80's to Cape Otway and Marlo with Mike Willis, Peter Bunn and Geoff Cosier I then had a few other trips away in the mid to late 80’s. Peter Bunn, Robin Howell's and I went to Apollo Bay not far from Cape Otway.

There were then trips to Willow Creek in South Australia. Bunny and I made the trip to S.A with a guy called David Heathcote who could have very easily been at home on the Formula One race track. That trip to Willow Creek was where I met Craig Edwards for the first time.

Craig made the trip across to Victoria on quite a few occasions in the 90's. To Marlo, Cape Otway and we even did a trip in the old Mustard Bus up to Bega on the New South Wales Coast.

I still recall the nights sleeping on the beach and getting stuck into some Arrack that Sarath Weerakoon had sent me from Sri Lanka. There is nothing better than drinking warm Arrack and mouldy old cheese dips with sand to dampen the spirits of even the most hearty dxer.

I have never forgotten the sand fly bites either.. That's what you get for falling asleep on the sand.

Craig Edwards and I Dxing in the outback. Gove Northern Territory

Oh and I will never forget the same trip on the way back to Melbourne, Craig and I spent some time at Woodside Beach. I was half way across the dunes stringing out several hundred meters of wire when all of a sudden this vicious thunderstorm swept in across the coastline. Craig reckons to this day that my feet didn't touch the top of the grass as I sprinted back to the car.

We took shelter at a nearby car park as lightening bolts and cracks were coming down around us. I said to Craig (In shear panic) lets get the hell out of here. I reversed back destroying the esky of beer, not bothering to stop we just took off down the road back to the Woodside General store with lightening dancing and chasing us along the road. Is it no wonder I have a phobia about lightening.

Dave Headland at Woodside with bev poles ready to put out

Another trip to Cape Otway, Dave and I had been DXing in a tent. One of those types that is supposed to withstand all sorts of weather conditions in Arctic temps. We had several hundred meters of wire coming in from everywhere, terminating in this very little tent perched high up on a hill, the highest point in the area.

Sure enough we heard the rumbles.. I tried to ignore my fear.. and bury my head in the sand.. Yep.. we're alright.. its okay David.. Stay calm.. hehehe. Well I can tell you.. several hundred meters away.. CRACK! the lightening struck nearby and I busted out of that tent so fast.. headed to the car and just sat there.

Dave was braver than I.. well until two minutes later another huge crack and Dave was sitting in the seat beside me looking quite pale. We both sat there watching this huge storm all around us.. Saying to ourselves.. don't touch the sides of the car.. hahaha What a night that was.

Dave Headland at 90 mile beach Woodside - The end of our 1400m beverage antenna

Cape Otway was a place where things happened. Craig Edwards and I nearly blew ourselves up one year when we had a leaking LPG cylinder in the Tarago Van as we merrily sat there drinking VB around the open fire.. That was scary.

Then there was the trip where we borrowed an old Valiant from a mate of mine after my car had a sudden mechanical problem that couldn't be fixed in time. It was back in the days when I had a moment of madness and thought having a smoke was a cool thing (I have not smoked for 35 years).

The old valiant as we discovered by the time we had reached Geelong had developed a hole in the petrol tank.. It absolutely stunk of fuel and here we were cruising around the cliffs of the Great Ocean road.. me with a smoke in hand.. not a care in the world.. Edwards had already broke into is 12th can of VB into a 150km trip.

Boy that was a mad trip. Then we broke an axle on the way home and had to be towed back.. only to discover it was only a bad puncture.. hahahaha Oh we were lads back then..

Cape Otway Lighthouse

Every trip was full of adventure and life threatening situations. And there were always mechanical breakdowns.. or getting bogged. Carlos Monje 200km from home at The Cape did his automatic transmission line.. we tried all sorts of things like using cloth to mend the hole but to no avail.. It took Carlos about 8 hours to limp back to Melbourne in second gear.. Wow what a trip that must have been.



Karin Onley camping at Cape Otway

Cape Otway also threw up some unexpected things. I'll never forget the time while putting a Beverage out that I stood in this muck on the ground which turned out to be the Torso of a dead woman. As it turned out she had committed suicide and animals had dragged her remains.

I'll never forget the smell. As per usual we were in the middle of nowhere and out of range of the mobile net. Dave and I had a chat to decide what to do.. Do we call the police and wreck our DX trip by having Police crawling all around the place. We had visions of a CSI investigation. Or do we just keep on Dxing and report it on the way back?

Where we ran our beverages

Well we scrambled up a hill, the same one where we had the lightening strikes trips earlier and we called the Police. Three hours later a 4 wheel drive arrived with two slightly bemused officers. They went to the back of the car, grabbed a shovel and garbage bags and off they drove into the sunset leaving us to continue with our listening.

Needless to say we were not quite focused on the listening that evening and I can tell you those shoes of mine are still buried somewhere down in those Cape Otway dunes.



Long point cabin - The Coorong South Australia

The Coorong was always the source of good fun. Smithy (John Smith from Adelaide) and Craig's uncle was for always losing his way and ending up in the middle of the paddock or the car ended up on its side in some ditch.
 

Lets say we used to celebrate pretty hard at Long Point. That trip home from the Meningie Hotel some 25km away was often hilarious as Dave Headland once found out trapped between two rather intoxicated dxers.

There were the midnight cricket games when we would nearly cripple each other batting with fence paling's and bowling pine cones which took wicked deviations. I still have scars from those trips. And yes once we were warriors..

We had some big test matches at the MCG (Meningie Cricket Ground) where Craig, myself and even Dave Martin tried to take each others heads off with balls bouncing and ballooning at over 100 kph. I'd be dead these days if I padded up.

There be big bloody brown snakes in there brother. You can run the beverage out !

Craig will never let me forget the time after about 10 hours of dx planning in the Meningie Hotel we staggered out into a nearby park to be confronted by 'Brother Bruce' an indigenous native to Meningie.

He was quite a likeable fella who thought it would be fun to engage in some wrestling with a couple of "Captain Cooks". It was all a bit of a blur but somehow I ended up being tangled in a wire fence.

Craig wore a couple of nice corkies and Brother Bruce.. well he was Brother Bruce. Being in a rather silly mood.. we had seen Brother Bruce put a flagon of wine behind the BBQ. As Craig distracted old Bruce I shot behind the BBQ, snatched the flagon of Chardonnay and headed into the scrub.

It probably went down in history as the first time a white man had snatched a flagon from a Indigenous gent.

Well lets just say that when our hangovers had worn off we only realised the seriousness of our actions. Fearing we were going to have a Kadaicha Man come after us or point the bone, we decided to return the flagon to the park later that day. We really did spook ourselves. Bloody idiots!

Craig Bundy Edwards on the 20 tinnie band