I recently received a few interesting and lengthy accounts from a witness in Australia. I've decided to present the incidents in 3 separate posts:
Dear 'Phantoms and Monsters'
Twice in Australia I camped 'in the bush' with my nephew Trevor and twice we experienced very strange UFO occurrences. These took place in 1973. The first camping trip was at the 'YouYangs' National Park and the second was at the 'Otway Ranges' Victoria. At both venues we slept 'under canvas' in a 'four person' tent that I had bought back in 1961 when Den and Rosemary had shared a tent with Marion, my first wife and I, along with our baby Caroline at a camp site at Brighton's 'Sheepcote Valley'. On that Brighton 'holiday' Caroline had been about 'three to six months' old. I had given that tent to my brother Den prior to his sailing to live in Australia with his family in 1969. I recall that it felt strange to be sleeping once again in that same tent out there in far off Australia. At the 'YouYangs' National Park we experienced a UFO 'hovering' invisibly, close-by when we were out with our .22 rifles, hunting rabbits. We had been following the dried-up bed of a former river and had trekked a considerable distance from where the tent had been erected. We had bagged just one rabbit, but not with our rifles. The poor creature was caught in a vicious gin-trap similar to those used for catching much larger animals. The trap had jaws that were forced apart and locked against the extremely strong spring until an unfortunate animal stepped into the trap when the jaws would slam unmercifully shut, the vicious teeth of the 'jaws' biting deep into the animal's flesh and bone. In this instance the rabbit's leg was broken and the bone was showing. The poor creature must have been suffering much pain and Trevor put a .22 bullet into it's head to put it out of it's misery. That shot proved to be disturbing to me because the rabbit's eyes bulged from their sockets from the force of the bullet from Trevor's rifle. We then discovered several more of these vicious traps which were staked with chains and metal-pegs into the ground. We 'sprang' them and then tore the metal pegs out of the ground and threw the traps, chain and pegs into a nearby lake. There was a dozen or so of these traps that we found and disposed of into that lake. The rabbit we took back to camp and cooked it the following day. We made a stew of the rest of it when brother Dennis (Trevor's dad) turned up to collect us and run us back to Williamstown near Melbourne. Den was only too happy to 'polish off' the remainder of our re-heated rabbit-stew which he tucked into voraciously. It did smell rather delicious though it may well have been left over from the day previous. Although it was then Winter in Australia at that time nevertheless the climate was mild compared with that of the United Kingdom.
The UFO itself was silent and invisible, stationary and poised above us, perhaps 'fifty to one hundred feet' above the ground at most and just ahead of us. It was Trevor who first drew my attention to it. It was dark and Trevor had said "hey Bri do you see those lights up ahead?" I didn't take much notice, not having seen anything myself and besides which we were in an isolated area of bushland with a profusion of scrub around us as we endeavoured to keep to the narrow track of that former river bed in order to be able to find our way back to our tent in the dark. It had been daylight as we'd set out but then eventually darkness was upon us at around 'six o'clock in the evening. We had pushed on in the darkness when suddenly Trevor had drawn my attention to the lights. I hadn't taken him seriously as I stared ahead in the semi darkness. The sky was brilliant with stars and it was possible to see to travel in that star-light. I cannot recall whether there was a moon visible however. Then, suddenly, without warning, two beams of intensely bright 'white light' just like daylight suddenly beamed down to the ground just a hundred yards ahead of us. Trevor spoke in a whisper, "hey Bri they're searching for us!" The two beams moved around independently of each other and indeed to all intent and purpose they looked as though they were indeed searching the ground just ahead of where we were standing and talking quietly. I had my tape-recorder strapped around my neck. It was a heavy unit even though it was portable and was switched to 'record'. The two beams of 'daylight' then came together on the ground still approx. one hundred yards or so ahead of us, then, as though having located our position, both beams of light then travelled rapidly across the intervening ground towards us. Instinctively I knew that once caught in those two beams of light we would never escape and as one we both ran the moment the beams lifted to swing rapidly towards where we both stood. We ran blindly into the scrub-covered bushes to our 'right', then described a wide U-turn so as to bring ourselves back on the 'trail' that would essentially lead us back to our tent. Following that dried-bed of the river we would then find our way back to the tent in that semi darkness which was the best way of finding the path back to the twin peaks of the 'You Yangs' which was close to where our tent was pitched. We did not have a compass nor a map and the territory was virtually unknown to us.
As we ran, panic-stricken and blindly, the ground beneath me suddenly 'opened up' and gave way beneath my feet as I plunged down a large sandy bottomed crater. I was badly winded, my ribs bruised and my rifle had plunged muzzle first deep into the sandy bottom of that hole, thus rendering my .22 rifle unusable due to the sand in the barrel and also in the breach. Trevor's voice was calling for me, he sounded frightened. Painfully I hauled myself to the top of that crater and with me limping and gasping painfully for breath we continued our flight back in the direction from which we had come, following that dried-up river bed. As we hurried along Trevor indicated that my tape-recorder was still 'recording' and was likely giving our position away and so I switched it off. We were a good 'two/three hour' walking distance from where our tent was pitched and we walked, tired, frightened and in silence making our way back. On finally arriving at our tent, we climbed the steep gradient above where that 'dried-up river bed' led us back to where our tent was pitched. At long last we arrived at the incline above which our tent was pitched. Upon entering I seized some rags and oil and hastily set about removing the sand from my rifle and oiled it and with my rifle loaded with eleven rounds of .22 ammunition (ten in the breech and one up the spout) I sat on the 'rise' that overlooked the 'dried-up river bed' and sat there with Trevor for one full hour, looking back in the direction from whence we had come. My decision to keep that one hour 'look out' being that I didn't know whether we had been followed back to our tent where we had to sleep. I had nightmarish visions of being awakened from slumber by that beam of white light as we slept and I didn't want to be taken by surprise hence our decision to 'wait and watch' for one hour before turning-in. The hour passed without any further sighting of those beams and we returned to the tent and the comfort of our sleeping-bags. Fortunately we slept undisturbed until the 'sing song' cries of the Australian magpies broke-in musically upon my slumber - momentarily startling me before I realised that dawn had broken and the birds were 'welcoming' the rising Sun. I believe we were picked-up by my brother Dennis a few hours later that same day, thankfully, so that we did not have to remain there another night. BB
It Was a Dark and Creepy Night: Real-Life Encounters with the Strange, Mysterious, and Downright Terrifying
Phantoms & Monsters: Strange Encounters
Weird Australia: Real Reports of Uncanny Creatures, Strange Sightings & Extraordinary Encounters
Weird Encounters: True Tales of Haunted Places
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