Location: Taree, New South Wales
Date: June, 2003
Yakcam's (Kraig and Wendy), Expedition Taree NSW
We arrived at Geoff & Vicki's at about 2pm in the afternoon. As we drove up to the property, we commented on all the bush across the hill range. I think our description was "definitely Yowie territory".
We stopped off at Geoff's parent's house at the bottom of the hill, said "Hello" introduced ourselves, and got the key to the caravan that we were going to be staying in that night. We opened up the caravan to let some air in. (A couple of weeks earlier Jeannie & Nigel, had an experience with two Yowies by the shed waving their arms about. They had seen a strange glow coming from the shed.) And then we ventured up the hill to Geoff's house.
We briefly met Vicki as we pulled up, she was off into town to do the shopping. We went to the front door, met Andrew, their son, the same age as our daughter Kristy. After a few minutes they were off and playing, totally occupying themselves, which gave us a chance to meet Geoff, and to listen to his many stories of his encounters, and the area around his house. We were fascinated by the whole surrondings, the total escape from suburbia.
After an hour or so, Kraig excused himself from the group, and with some directions from Geoff, ventured up behind the house to an area described as the "observation area". It has been named this, as from previous expeditions to this property, there was always an area of flattened grass, which it is assumed where the local Yowies, sit down and observe Geoff & his family in their daily lives.
Kraig manouvered his way through the tall grass, across in front of an area of Lantana. He had been stepping very carefully so as not to make too much noise, but unfortunately stepped on a twig and "snap". Within a second of the snap he heard "Hmmph.....Hmmph...", coming from behind the Lantana only about 20 feet away. He froze. He heard a car door close down at the house and called out "Wendy". Waited then "Wendy" even louder. But I hadn't heard him. As he was alone, and had no equipment with him, he thought it better that he move back down toward the house.
When he got back to us, he told us the whole story. Geoff assumed that Kraig had just met "Oscar" the Yowie they most frequently see. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking to Geoff about his many encounters, and especially his last one (which we will report seperately at another time).
Across from their front porch, on the hill opposite, there is a group of trees with a white fence post just below. Nigel & Jeannie had told us they had seen movement on that hill when they were there a few weeks earlier. With this knowledge, we set up our video recorder on a tripod, just pointing at the hill, in the hope of capturing some movement.
That night, we had an enjoyable evening over a BBQ, talking again about their many encounters.
We went to the caravan, to settle in for the night. We were anticipating night time activity so really didn't get much sleep. Unfortunately it was an uneventful night.
The next morning, Kraig went for a wander up to the dam. He found a lot of footprints up there, but there had also been cattle up in the area, so many of them had been trampled through. He had been up there about ten minutes having a look around, and videoing the area when "thud" a rock landed beside him. He panned around with the camera to see if he could see anything, but to no avail. This is the same spot where Ashley had had a rock thrown at him in a previous expedition.
After that we ventured down a fire trail, off which there were many tracks through the grass undergrowth. This is not an area where the family venture. We then found a tree twisted and broken at the top at least 10 foot if not higher in the air. Further back from that there was another tree snap. Further up the track, there were even more trails through the bush and up the hill.
We went back to the caravan. Met up with Kristy and Andrew who had a camp out inside the house overnight. They had cooked themselves breakfast. Vicki came down, offering to go with us for another venture up behind the house. We jumped at the chance.
This time we went up the hill behind the Lantana. Again there were a lot of visible tracks through the grass, leading up and down the hill. We didn't have any encounter, but certainly found a lot of evidence of their presence.
An area where two trees forks had been wedged into the fork of one tree. And then another where a branch had been bent round, so it didn't come out.
We started our way down the hill toward the house, and found serveral flattened areas, where the Yowie had either been sitting or laying down.
Not far from the house, we found a hand print, and a foot slip mark. It looked as though a Yowie had been going up the hill in the wet, had slipped and put it's right hand down to steady itself.
Still further down toward the house, there were lot more trails, and flattened areas. It was an amazing experience to see such an active area.Geoff mentioned that something had happened since the day before over on the hill, so I focused my camera at the area. We have done a comparison of the 2 days footage. The white pole seemed to have disappeared, and a tree had grown in front of it????
We thank very much Geoff & Vicki for their hospitality, and allowing us to join their family for a day. We hope to get back there again soon.
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Australian Yowie Research - Data Base
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