Wild Camping in an Untouched Paradise (with a camping newbie!)

Oh my god, that was actually quicksand. G'day legends. Just coming out here with my cousin Ryan to bring out on his first backpack, well actually pretty much camping trip ever. First. The only camping trip he's done before is in a caravan park so this is going to be a big difference. This is full bush. Full bush. Full bush camping. So I've come back to a spot that I've been to before, came here I think back in February, early this year. But we're going to push further down river to a section of this river, this gorge I haven't been to before which I'm really looking forward to. I've got pretty high hopes for it so I think it's going to be a good one. Yeah, throwing myself in the deep end. Let's do it. Oh. Old quicksand. Full bush. Oh. What's going on? What are you guys doing here? That's very cool. Mate, loving the shorts. Look at those quads mate. My feet are starting to get a little bit sore now so I've got to put my joggers back on. These are my good gym joggers. Now I'm going to have to buy a new pair of joggers when I get home. Little skinny jeans. Got some Mimu trucks. It'll be very cool to see one out here. It's a big hay. And it's such a sweet cave. Like how good's that view? Just looking down there. So this is the cave that I camped in last time I was here. It's a really nice little cave and it's such a nice lookout down the river. Might have a quick ease. And it's such a nice little cave. Really nice size. Nice sandy flat area to sleep on. That looks all we can. I'm going to chuck that in the backpack and take it home. Alright, so I've got a bit of a classroom lesson for Ryan. Yep, I was just weeing in the water and Scott told me that's not bush etiquette. So Scott's going to tell me what bush etiquette is. Well, number one, don't piss or defecate in your water source. That's probably a pretty important one. But yeah, if you're going to do the old number twos, I'd probably walk I don't know, minimum 30 metres away from the river. I think they say about 100 metres. At least as far as you can go, dig a little hole about 15 centimetres deep. Do your business. Cover it up. Don't leave toilet paper lying around. That is absolutely disgusting when people do that. Where do you put your toilet paper? You can either burn it, or you can put it in a hole, or you can carry it out. I guess it depends where you are and what you want to do with it, but burning it is actually quite effective. Sounds pretty chat, but I did it when I was doing the bushcraft course with Gordo from Bushcraft Survival Australia. And honestly, it doesn't smell at all, and the toilet paper is just gone. So what do you wrap it up? Put it in a bag? You just do your business. So you just do your business when there's a bonfire? Just do your business, get a lighter, just burn the toilet paper, and it's gone. So that's a pretty good way to do it. Definitely don't piss or s*** in the river. Alright, well we're just going to pull up and have some lunch at this really nice spot. Oh, this place is so bloody beautiful. It's a really pretty river. We're making pretty good time. What's it like? 1.30ish or something? 2.20. Oh. 2.20? Okay, maybe we're not. I'll have to check the maps and see how far we've got to go, but yeah, we'll be alright. It feels so good down there. Beats camping in a caravan park, eh? The things you find in the bush, eh? I don't know how this would have got here. Unfortunately, it's too big to hike out, unless you want to carry it out, mate. Use those big guns and put them to use. Oh, I bloody love this place, eh? It is so special. Have a go at it. Nice that it's the last time, but it honestly looks like something out of the Kimberley or the Northern Territory. It is bloody gorgeous. What do you reckon, mate? Unreal. Not bad, eh? Not bad. It's such a good cave. Man, it's such an impressive cave. How sick is that? It's such a sick spot too, like this little constriction where the cliffs come right down to the water's edge. Really cool. So sick. This would make a very nice little camping cave. So tranquil. Alright, well make it known that is now called Cathedral Cave. Always wanted to name the cave, so there you go. Very, very peaceful spot. It is, eh? So tranquil. I reckon this would have to be up there with one of my favourite spots of all time, eh? Like that view. Oh, just this whole section of river is absolutely stunning. We've got this really beautiful bird singing its little head off. Oh, and the afternoon light as well is just like sparkling on the water and through the trees. Lighting up the sandstone cliffs. Man, what a nice time. And how cool is that, eh? Just the colours in the cliff, like the pinks and oranges and reds and yellows. What's that? Mate, it's so good. What's not to like? So, we've made it to the spot that I made it to on the last trip I came here. I believe there's a cave just up over there that I think we'll probably camp in tonight. And then tomorrow we're going to explore down that section of the river, which I haven't been to yet. So, really looking forward to that. I think it's meant to just be more of this bloody awesomeness. So, yeah, very keen. Pretty cool cave. How's the colours as well? Alright, well, I think this cave is going to be home for tonight for us. Really nice cave. Yeah, there's a fair bit of scat lying around. One of the wombat or two visiting us throughout the night. Yeah, it's good. It's a really nice cave. Stacks room, you could probably sleep five or six people in here. Such a nice spot. Alright, we've just got the sleeping gear set up, so I've got my bivvy rode out here and then Ryan's got using the Carinthia over in that corner. Yeah, really nice camp for tonight. Ryan's just down there snoozing. We're both pretty buggered, eh? It's about five o'clock. We've got about an hour until it gets dark, so we might get some firewood collected and get the fire going soon. Well, hard-earned first. Oath. Cheers. Cheers, mate. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming out. What do you think of your first hiking, bushwalking, camping experience? Today was tough. That was like the easiest thing you could have done. No, but that was like walking through the water was tough. Walking through water is actually quite hard. It's actually good for like, it's good for the first maybe four hours and then the next four hours the last two hours is tough. Well, it's just the carbs pushing your foot through the sand. I'm looking forward to going back upstream because there's quite a flow to this weekend and I think going back up is going to be a bit of a workout. With quads like yours, you just push so easily. These little chicken legs, I don't know about these, but... The fact that we've got all these little sandy beaches and you've got the caves and you've just got this water. Just the sound of the water and the birds is just enough to just like... It's so tranquil here. It's my favourite spot, hands down. I'm absolutely in love with it. It's a very special place. Now I've just got to sleep in the wilderness. Sleep in the cave, mate. Mate, it's not a bad experience. Your first overnight experience in the bush is in a cave. In a place like this, people have done a lot worse. It's heaps good. It's exactly what I needed and expected. Margarita time? Margarita time. So what's in there? Tequila and Cointreau. And then I'm just going to put some lemons in there and hopefully she tastes good. Two lemons in there. Give that a bit of a cocktail shake. And... Pretty strong. But it tastes pretty good. Pretty strong. When you go in the bush, mate, your life doesn't change. Yeah. Yeah, it does. It's just hitting me and creating these little ripples. But then you can hear the big... And then we started going around the corner and I'm like, what's going on? Coming back again. I'm like, oh my god, it's down there, just like in the water just looking at me and Scott Gomer. Wait for it, you hear this... Well, good morning. So we had a visitor last night. Ryan thought it was a yaoi coming to visit us. We heard this something just walking through the water quite loud in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure it was a kangaroo. I thought I heard it jumping. But Ryan's a pretty light sleeper. He only woke up a few times. There's a few separate animals going up and down that river and they were scaring me. Look, mate, could have been a yaoi. A lot of people are pretty adamant that they're out there, so you never know. What Ryan's doing is just getting this bark from this log down here and just exposing that inner bark, because the inner bark is what you want to use to scrunch up to make a little tinder bundle to get the fire started. So inner bark and inner bark. Yep. Alright, so Ryan's going to give the old ferro rod a go. So get your right boot. Right boot? Yeah, put your right boot next to the tinder bundle. Use your hand, use that hand, and then pull the ferro rod up against that. You might want to try and bring it a little bit closer. So keep that arm steady. Try and use the whole length of the ferro rod. So you just let it take. Once it takes, then just grab that and tip it upside down so it catches. There you go. Slowly, don't rush it. Cool, now put the bracken fern on. You can probably blow on it a little bit. Might get down a lot. Blow from this side. Define this. Now put some more bracken fern on. There you go, mate. Is that your first fire? That's my first fire with one of these without a lighter. Very nice. Bacon, avocado, sauce, and my bush coffee that's about to get poured. One side wise, you've got to get out further. Yeah, it's quicksand on either side of this lake. Oh, fire out. This is probably one of the best little caves I've ever come across. Well, not little, it's absolutely massive. But man, just the position. Bloody hell. You're right on the water's edge, but you're high enough that you won't have any issue with floods unless you get a lot of rain. Man, this spot is absolutely magical. I wish you camped here last night, but I'm definitely going to be coming back one day to camp in this cave. Wow. So nice up there, the trees. You can bathe in my piggy. Just like this. It's still a bit of kangaroo prints in here, mate. You're not safe from them in here. What a spot. What are you doing, mate? Stop mucking around. Oh my god, that was actually quicksand. Oh, quicksand. Yeah? That was skits. I would have got fully stuck there if I was by myself. Wow. You haven't got a phone in your pocket. Yeah, I know. Man, it is such a dramatic landscape. We're just heading into the main gorge section. These really high, steep cliffs. It's just a very impressive place. Just around every corner, you just don't know what you're going to get. You just get smacked in the face with a big cave or a cliff. Yeah, so good. It's a bloody dream to go for a bushwalk through here. I've just pulled up at this little spot to have some water. Just taking the shoes off. Man, look inside. Look how much sand I'm carrying inside these shoes. That's like an extra 43 kilos worth of sand and water. Alright, we've just pulled up in this little sandbank here. Just beneath this massive cliff. It's about lunchtime. I think it's almost 12 o'clock. We've been walking for about two, two and a half hours. To be honest, we haven't got quite as far as we wanted to. This gorge is quite long. We're hoping to try and do most of it, but just walking through the sand, it's just so slow going. You think it's going to be quick, but it's actually quite tiring. We've still got a pretty decent trek to go back the other direction. Like I said, it's taken two hours to get from last night's camp to here, so we've got at least a two hour hike back to that spot. Probably slower because we're going against the current. Then we want to try and go back to those caves that I camped at last trip, which is I think about a three hour hike from last night's camp back to those caves. We've got about a five hour walk ahead of us, and like I said, it's about 12 o'clock. It's probably a wise idea to probably call it quits for here. Probably just have some lunch here, and then we'll make our way back. We just have to save that other section for next time. Came for some lunch, so we'll sit down and have that and we'll make our move back up. All right, mate. Came for your five hour hike back up. Let's do it. We've just changed out the shoes into some socks because the shoes are just so heavy pushing through this water. Too much drag. Ryan reckons socks are better, so give it a go. We've got a nice little red-bellied black snake just sunning himself. Not a bad spot, mate. See, if you're here by yourself, you'll be stuck. Walk on my knees. Yeah, just missed it. We're almost to the caves. Hey man, you cannot come soon enough, hey? I'm buggered. What do you reckon? Big enough for two people? Yeah. Nice and cosy, but might be worth it. It's the size of a house. We've got plenty of room. Good shot. So, how was today? Today was very tough. We actually thought we were going to do we thought we were going to be hiking for seven hours, but we actually were five hours. We did cut the trip a bit further out short. Yeah, we didn't get to do the full gorge we wanted to do, but it was just like, yeah, even just walking through this for five hours is pretty tiring. On the way back, we'll just head down, just trying to get there. Hips were going, knees were going, they were burning. I consider myself to be pretty fit, but I was in the hurt locker room for the last hour and a half. Scenic wise, it was hectic. That gorge, I'm so keen to explore the rest of that one day. It's really, really impressive. Gosh, like 50m high cliffs on either side of you. It's really special. That cave we came across, man, I've got to camp in that cave one day. And as you said, you go down one way and you've got one view and then when you come back, you've got a completely different view and you're seeing the same stuff, but just from a completely different perspective. You just walk around a corner and then you just get surprised with a big cliff or a cave or something. It's pretty cool. It's an art. We've got a really, really nice spot. Blue sky still. No wind. Really nice cave. Fire. Hopefully no yowies around. Did we speak about your experience last night? I think we spoke about it. There was last night, there was something moving through the water while we were asleep and I was certain it was a yowie. Scott reckons it was a kangaroo, but it sounded like it was swoosh swooshing and I thought kangaroos would have splash splashed. But who knows, maybe we hear it tonight. I'll be jumping out of the tent hard with the flashlight on. We're up on a bit of a ledge tonight, so someone's got to scale the cliffs to get to us. Just get that knife handy next to you, mate. I'll be sleeping with a head torch and a knife all night. A few more of those margaritas, mate, and just knock yourself out. But, first trip. Pretty specky place to come and do your first camping trip. It doesn't get much better than this. This is really special. You don't realise how physically intense the hiking part is, just especially because you've got all your gear you could be carrying. I probably started off with 15 kilos or something because I brought about 5 kilos of food. Going through the water is hard, and obviously that's different because you're actually treading through the sand. But as soon as you're climbing up rocks and that, you're still scaling with that extra weight on your back. Try climbing up an 800 metre high mountain. It's pretty tough. You start using different muscles and stuff. For a newbie, you've got to get used to it. Even just how the pack feels on your back as well. On the hips, on the shoulders. I'll be sore tonight. I was very sore last night. Chill out. Have a drink. Put on the fire. You'll be able to watch me spark a fire with flint. Is it flint? No, ferro rod. You did the ferro rod this morning. I've got a flint steel. We'll have a laugh at that. Then we'll be able to show you our little campsite. Wow. Alright. Is that all I need? These two things? Yeah, that. The striker, the steel striker, the flint and a little bit of that black char cloth. Just one bit of it. You're going to be holding that like that? Yeah, so you've got your striker. Yeah, this. Then you've got your piece of flint. That's flint? That's flint. You can also use quartz, which is quite common in this area. A bit of char cloth. Where should I be striking? Put on a sharp edge. Like that edge? Maybe that edge there. Put the char cloth right up towards the edge of it. Then get your steel striker. Into one of those red sparks. Perfect. Then your tinder bundle. Put the other bit. You've got a little bit of char cloth. Put that in there as well. Now just blow. Bring it close to your mouth, I reckon. I reckon? Yeah, like that. There you go. There she's on. Don't smother it. I smothered it. Yeah, you smothered it. Quick try and blow it again. Red bits. Don't smother it. Just gently. There you go. Wow, that's hard work. You got it, mate. Use this smaller stuff. Put that on. Very nice, mate. Put that on top. Good job, mate. Well, that was tough work. Not bad for your first attempt. Man, there's so many Currawongs around this morning. It's such a nice sound to wake up to, especially when you've got all the mist surrounding us. It's a very beautiful morning out here. It's about quarter past eight. We've just had some brekkie. We're probably going to start packing camp up pretty soon. We want to try and get out of here by about nine o'clock because it's a bit of a trek to get home. We'll start packing up camp soon and we'll get back to you guys in a bit. We've just packed up camp. We've just covered up the fire pit as well. Now it's time to brave that icy water. It's pretty fresh this morning. We're not too keen on it but we'll do it. All right, guys. I think that's a wrap for this trip. How did you enjoy it? It was good. It was very, very tough. I didn't think it was going to be this hard. I thought I chose a pretty easy place to take him as well. I thought just walking down a nice, beautiful, sandy river would be a good spot for your first camp but it does take you out of here. It's pretty hard on the feet as well. As I said this morning, I thought it would be like you'd get camping and it'd just be like tranquil and you're relaxing the whole time and you've got the fire and you're singing kumbaya but actually exploring with the pack on, walking down the cold river and just treading through the sand and stuff. You get back to camp and it's five o'clock and you've still got to do the fire, you've still got to do dinner, you've still got to set up your tent. It shows you how easy we actually have it in society. That's one thing I've learned about doing these trips so much is once you get back to a nice comfy bed and a nice burger on the way home you just realise how easy we have a day. Chocolate milk, burger and then an afternoon nap on the lounge I reckon. It was good to get you out of here on your first backpack camp. It's a pretty spectacular place to come for it. We'll definitely get you out on some more mate. I'll be back next time. Alright guys, catch you guys on the next one. See ya.