Wild Aussie Hammock Camping in a THUNDERSTORM! __ New Bushcraft Knife.

I keep this dirt on my hands Strong like a tree These roots where I stand Oh, I've been running from the law Hope they won't shoot me down soon Days been gone and sleepless nights Try to catch me howlin' at the moon G'day guys, thanks for joining us on another walkabout. Finally back out in the beautiful Australian bush. It's been way too long since my last camping trip. Almost two months ago. Obviously the bushfires have put a lot of camping on hold for the last couple of months. We've had a fair bit of rain over the last week and managed to put a lot of the fires out. I've finally found a patch of the bush in this state that has been burnt. I managed to get out here for a quick little overnighter tonight. It's a pretty nice spot here. I've got a nice little waterhole behind me with a big cliff face. It is pretty clear. I should be able to find a spot to string up a hammock between the trees. I've only just got here so I might go for a bit of a wander around and see what I can find around the area. See if I can find a good place to set up camp. It should be a nice weekend so stick around. Man, this is a very beautiful spot. Cannot complain about this. Man, it's so good to see the rivers and creeks flowing again. Like I said, I think in the last week we had about 2 or 3 months worth of rain all in a matter of a couple of days. So many places got flooded. It's pretty crazy to go from fires to floods but that's Australia for you. Last year was one of the hottest and driest years on record so we really needed this rain. It's good to see that the rivers are finally flowing again. This could be a pretty cool spot to set up camp. You've got a nice little sandy beach and a rock wall behind you. And right out in front of you, a nice view of the creek. Yeah, so this could be a pretty cool spot to set up camp. So what I bought in terms of sleeping arrangements. I bought my hammock, my tarp and I bought my inflatable mat. Because I just wasn't quite sure the kind of terrain that I'd be camping amongst. Kind of covered all bases but I was kind of hoping to probably use the hammock this time. Just because I slept on my mat heaps of times this year. I haven't been able to use the hammock much. So I could easily set up the mat behind me on this little sandy beach. But I might still go for a bit more of a wander around and see if I can find some nice trees to string up the hammock. Because I think I probably would prefer to sleep in the hammock tonight. Yeah, so here's not a bad spot either. It's quite clear down the bottom here and I could run the ridgeline from this thing off across Stata or Sydney Red Gum. Across to this banks here over here. Have the tarp and hammock there. Obviously when you're camping amongst gum trees you've got to be careful. You're not going to drop any widow makers on you during the middle of the night. Which they tend to do. If I have a look at this gum, most of its branches are on the right hand side of the tree. There's not a whole lot of branches coming out from the left hand side. So I should be pretty sweet there. There's only one other tree of concern and that's this one over here. But it's only got one branch coming out and it's quite a distance away from where I'd be setting up camp. So I should be pretty sweet. It would be quite a nice spot camping amongst the gummy lilies and the grass trees. And I've got the creek right next to me. Yeah, not a bad spot at all. So this plant right here would have to be one of the most useful plants you can come across in the Aussie bush. It's called a grass tree or a xanthuria. And it has so many uses. I'll have to do a whole video alone just to dedicate to this plant. Because there's so many things to talk about it. But just to name a few. So this is the flower spike that it shoots up. Sort of after bush fires and at the right time of year. And so that comes just out of the top of the plant. And so when it first shoots up, this section up here is covered in little white tiny flowers. And they're full of nectar. And it's a really nice sweet nectar. It's probably one of the nicest nectars you'll find out here. And it's one of my favorites. Also the seed. So after it flowers it turns into seed. And I believe that if you roast them they're actually edible. But I'm pretty sure. Don't take my word for that. Do some research but I'm pretty sure that's correct. Also inside the flower stem itself. You always get grubs boring into here. So like you won't be able to see it from there. But there's all these little holes inside the flower spike. Because grubs grow in there. And then by the time of year they'll come out and hatch as crickets and beetles and things like that. So it's a really good bit of bush tucker inside of these. But one of the probably the most important uses of this. Is it's actually really good for fiber friction methods. So doing the bow drill or the hand drill method. Because it's a nice soft sort of timber. So you can get an ember for it quite easily. Also these use. Because this one's not the best example. But you can get them. They tend to grow really nice and straight. So the aborigines would use these as spears and things like that. Some other uses for it. The leaves. The green leaves in the center of the tree. You can pull them out and actually eat the base. Like the white base of the leaf. Also in the trunk of the plant. After fire or if it's been. If a beetle or something has been attacking it. An insect has been attacking the plant. It'll exude like this resin. And that resin is extremely useful. Yeah so this is the resin I'm talking about. As you can see it sort of oozes out of the trunk of the tree. After it's been attacked by an insect or by fire. But yeah incredibly useful stuff this. So as I was saying you can melt it down in the fire. And then combine it with ash and some dried kangaroo dung. And then when it hardens it forms like a really solid cement. So it's really good for binding things together. Or patching things up. Other uses for it are. Yeah it's used as like an incense. So it actually smells really nice. And they also used to use it for like a shellac. Like a wood varnish. Obviously you find it form around the trunk of the tree. But you also find it around the base of the tree. Because when it gets so big the resin will fall off. And then collect around the base of the tree. So always have a look around there. Yeah incredible useful stuff. This is a skirt that it gets. And it's actually a good indicator to tell you when a bush fire has been through the area recently. Obviously this has been built up for quite a number of years. So there obviously hasn't been a fire through here for quite a while. But it's a good little indicator when this is all burned away. You know a fire has been through recently. Yeah anyway. Plenty of things to talk about this. I'll have to do another video dedicated to this alone. But I hope you guys know a little bit about it now. Man this part of the bush is absolutely stunning. It's like a garden of gummy lilies and grass trees and red gums. It's really beautiful. Oh man it's so nice to be back out in the bush. It's been way too long. It's actually a really nice day today. We're in the middle of summer but it's not too hot. The clouds have come over. It's just nice and tranquil. You've got the sound of the rapids in the distance as well. It's just what the doctor ordered. Alright well I think I'm going to head back to the original spot. Next to the big water hole and that big rock cliff face. Just because around here it's pretty hard to find a decent spot. Lots of rocks everywhere and all the trees are going to be pretty annoyingly spaced apart. So I might go back to the other spot because I think it will be much easier to camp there. Alright so back at the water hole area. Just trying to find some suitable trees to set up. Once again a little bit tricky. Just trying to find ones that don't look like they're going to drop any branches. Some of them look a little bit sketchy but just behind me I've got a stringy bark and a banksia that I think I'll be able to tie off between. Stringy bark. There are some branches over me but I'm not too worried about them. They don't look like they're going to come down. They're quite small as well. So I should be alright and the banksia I'm not too fussed about either. So I think that will do me. So let's get stuff out of the bag and get it set up. Alright well change of plans I think. I'm just getting absolutely hammered by bull ants over there. These big red bull ants with massive pincers on them. When they bite their body hurts and I'm just getting overrun. As soon as I stop for more than a few seconds my boots get overrun. They're all over my bag. So it's just going to be a nightmare if I decide to stay there because I won't be able to sit out on the ground and cook dinner or anything like that without getting eaten alive. So as frustrating as it is even though I've just went through all the effort of filming and setting up the hammock and stuff I'm going to have to pack it all down now and then move to a little bit of a higher ground. I found up on top of a little bit of a ridge which could be a pretty nice spot to set up camp and get a nice view of the river and stuff. I think that's what I'm going to have to do which is very frustrating but it's better than the alternative of here being eaten alive. So I'll get that packed down now. Alright so this is what I'm thinking about setting up camp. Some nice sized trees nicely spaced apart. You get a really nice view. So looking down at the river and down the valley there so it should be a really nice spot to wake up to in the morning. I am sort of on the edge of this little rocky outcrop. I'm not too worried about that. I actually think it might be quite nice to sit on top of the rocks watch the sun set with a nice cold one. Yeah it should be a nice spot so we'll get everything set up now. Music Alright well I've got our camp all set up now. I'm pretty happy with the day. I think it should do me pretty well for tonight. It was a little bit tricky trying to tie off the tarp because obviously being on rock can't really drive any pegs into the ground but I managed to get some fallen logs and sort of wedge them between some rocks and just tie off to those so it should do me pretty well for tonight. It's a really nice spot. It's a very beautiful spot especially to watch the sun set so I'm pretty happy with it. But I'm very dehydrated now so I need to go down and fill up some water because I've been running around like a headless truck today. I'm so sweaty as well so I might go down for a bit of a wash and fill up some water and then I'll come back up here and take in the sunset. So it looks like we've got some clouds moving in. There was a prediction for some rain tonight and possibly a storm so yeah hopefully it doesn't get too severe. I'm actually pretty happy with this spot hey. All things considering I think it turned out quite well. Such a beautiful view. So yeah maybe it's a blessing in disguise those ants being down there kind of forced me to come up here. Just fingers crossed if this storm does come through it doesn't rattle me around too much because I am a little bit exposed up here but we'll see how we go. Alright well with this storm rolling in I might cook up dinner pretty quickly. I'm not going to have a fire tonight even though this park that I'm in there is no fire ban and we have had a hell of a lot of rain over the last week it's just a bit of a sensitive topic at the moment. I don't really need to have a fire either. I brought my alcohol stirrer with me tonight so I can easily cook up on that so I'm just not going to have a fire. Let's play it safe. Yeah so we'll get that out and get that going. Yeah so I can hear a lot more thunder now and I see some lightning every now and then so I thought there was a bit of lightning then. So yeah might be in for a bit of a show tonight. I was going to cook some dinner but I might leave that for a bit because if it starts to get pretty severe I don't want to be in the middle of cooking so I'm just going to leave it for the moment and see how this blows over. Alright well how about a beer and some Bill Tong to take in the storm. Man there is so much lightning and thunder now. It's not raining just yet but I'm hoping it doesn't get too severe because you definitely feel pretty vulnerable when you're out in the bush in a lightning storm. Especially camping up in a bit of a ridge here. Man so I don't know if you guys heard that thunder there. Got a few drops of rain as well. Man it's going to get pretty interesting. Oh I don't know if the camera would have picked that up but there's the biggest fork lightning. Oh man this is a bit sketchy to be honest. Man that just absolutely turned it on. That was gorgeous. Funny how things turn out the way they do. Like I thought that storm was going to come over and absolutely hammer me but it sort of skirted around me. There's still lots of lightning going off in the distance but I know it started to rain and then the sun managed to pop underneath the clouds and just light up the entire sky and all the water droplets. Oh man absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. This is why I love getting out here because times like this it's you and mother nature just doing her thing and you just get to witness it all. It's absolutely beautiful. One of the nicest sunsets I think I've had in the bush for quite a while. Euripa, absolutely beautiful. Alright well I don't think I'm going to have dinner tonight. It's just wet, it's getting late. I can't be bothered to cook to be honest. It's going to take me about half an hour to cook it and I really just can't be bothered. I'm pretty exhausted. I've got enough beer and a biltong and some nuts and a plum to get me through tonight. I'm going to crack this open. Sit back, enjoy the beautiful view and I'll get back to you guys in the morning. See you then. Good morning guys. I woke up to a beautiful morning this morning. It was such a lovely day. It's a very stark contrast to what it was like last night but it didn't rain too much throughout the night which is good and sleeping in a hammock was awesome. I really like sleeping in a hammock. Some people hate it but I find if you find that sweet spot in the hammock you get a pretty comfy night's sleep. And when it comes to sort of camping in this kind of sandstone country where it's pretty difficult to find some flat level ground that hasn't got shoves in the way or isn't overrun by ants or anything like that having a hammock in the kit that way it just gets you off the ground and it opens up a lot more campsites because I wouldn't have been able to camp here last night with the inflatable mat because there's just too many rocks around and it's a really beautiful spot so I'm very glad that I brought the hammock with me. So I've got something pretty cool to show you guys. It's my brand new knife made by Mitchell Core Knife and Tool. It's a really beautiful knife. I'm so stoked with it. It's got some really nice weight to it and just the quality of it is absolutely gorgeous. And the same goes with the leatherwork and the sheath. It's just, yeah, second to none. It's really beautiful. I've also got this little pouch here which he calls the Swagman's Pantry. So I'll grab the camera and give you guys a bit of a closer look. Yeah, so as you can see the quality of this is absolutely gorgeous. The leatherwork is so nice. I'm going to take out the knife. Such a beautiful looking knife. It's got some really nice weight to it. It's made from 4mm O1 tool steel and the scale is repurposed Jarrah Sleeper rails. And it's got a really nice contour to the handle as well so it fits in the hand nice and snug. Really nice knife. And it also comes with a fire steel made out of the same material. And then, yeah, just a dangler sheath as well so nice and handy when you want to keep this on the belt and be able to take off the sheath as you please. And then this thing which is really cool which he calls the Swagman's Pantry. So if I open this up inside it's got all these little glass bottles which you can put your herbs or your spices or your salt and pepper. Or if you didn't want to use it as that you could just use it as your fire kit to keep your flint and steel in there. But it's just a really beautiful pouch to have. So yeah, really nice quality stuff. Definitely worth checking out Mitch at Corn Knife and Tool if you're in the market for something like this. He's just a young bloke from South Australia and he does some really nice work. So definitely worth checking him out. Alright guys, well that's another trip done and dusted. Really enjoyed this weekend. It's been such a nice weekend to come back out in the bush. A few things didn't quite go to plan. Obviously having to move campsite because of those stupid ants and that sort of storm rolling through yesterday Arvo. Kind of mucking up my dinner plans. But apart from that it's been a really beautiful weekend. Like even watching as that storm went past watching that sunset last night. That was really beautiful. So yeah, it's been a really nice weekend and I'm glad I managed to get out here because it's been way too long since I did my last camp. So hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. And as always, thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate your support. If you're new to the channel and you like this kind of stuff feel free to give us a thumbs up and a subscribe. That would really help me out. Anyway, until next time guys. Hooroo!