I'm going to start this with a little disclaimer.
This is an extremely embarrassing moment for us in our trip, we may not admit to this happening to anyone who knows us in real life. This was terrible at the time, but looking back (even if its only a few weeks) I can see the funny side now.
As I have mentioned a few times we are brand new to travelling full time. This happened at the very first caravan park we stayed at, in Sawtell, on our second day of being there (check out our 3 week recap for more from that week).
We had all had a lovely time exploring at the beach and enjoying the warmer weather. We left the door open to the camper trailer to get some fresh air in, but by this time we had put the annex walls up, so it was fine to leave the door open.
After being at the beach little miss was completely covered in sand, not a big deal but we wanted to give her a rinsed off at the showers and get her dressed into some dry clothes. Luckily for us we passed the amenities block to get back to our site.
I left Jamie and little miss at the amenity block to rinse off and went back to our campsite to get everything we needed for little miss.
When I arrived back something didn't sound right. It took me a few seconds for it to sink in that there was noise inside our camper trailer. At first I thought there was someone inside our camper trailer and I had caught them trying to steal something (we don't have much they could steal other than lots of drawings that little miss has drawn or dried out textas).
When I came around to the door I realised the annex door was completely closed, and the noises coming from inside the camper trailer didn't sound like a person.
Yep you guessed it ( the title did give it away a litte) a BUSH TURKEY was inside!!
If you're not sure what a bush turkey is here's a photo.
I'm not sure what you would do but after walking up the steps to our camper trailer and finding a bush turkey walking around on my bed the last thing I'm thinking of doing is taking a picture, but looking back I wish I had. The stupid thing was trying to get out the mesh window above our bed. Like most camper trailers and caravans we only have 1 door, and there was no way I was touching the bush turkey to get it out.
As I came back down the steps I saw our big mistake. The draught skirt has a zip for the fridge nook, we hadn't zipped it up and the bush turkey had come in through the gap but there was no way it was going to go back out the way it came in.
I went out of the annex and around the back to our window. I grabbed the broom and banged on the window to shoo it back out the door. After doing this a few times I poked my head back in to see if it had moved.
Now it was sitting on the back of one of the couch cushions in the dinette. It was startled enough (and probably relieved to be escaping) to jump out into the annex. I then went through the front door (I'd left the side open) and made a loud enough rarr to scare the bush turkey out the side door.
I'm not going to tell you all the curse words I muttered under my breath as I zipped up the fridge nook and quickly surveyed the damage inside.
I grabbed the bits I needed for little miss and got out of there. I have to admit I was on a bit of a high on the way down to the amenities block. I had managed to get the stupid bush turkey out of the camper trailer without having to go near it, but the closer I got to the amenities block the more I was filled with dread. I was going to have to tell Jamie what had happened and it was after lunch and the inside was going to need a deep clean.
I gloss over the details but let Jamie know about the bush turkey and that there was going to be some cleaning to do. He opts to head back and to start while I sort little miss out.
Knowing what the inside looked like, I didn't rush back. When we made our way back I could hear Jamie dry retching on the inside of the camper trailer.
If you're ever curious on what a bush turkey does when its trapped somewhere (for who knows how long).. I'm going to leave it up to your imagination but lets just say that everything all the way down to the waterproof mattress protector needed cleaning (which was right at the bottom). All pillows that had no pillow protectors had to be chucked (I'm not ever putting my head back on that ever again, just writing about it, I can smell it).
Luckily for us, little miss's bed was spared. But we had the windows on our end open (but not rolled up) so they were also on the list of what needed cleaning. As well as wiping down the couch cushions in the dinette (so glad I packed the anti bacterial wipes).
That day we did soooo much washing, and I prayed that the wind would dry everything. Not everything could go through the washing machine (like our thick winter quilt), so there was a fair bit of hand washing. Luckily it seems, there was only a small amount on the quilt.
I'm sure anyone that saw me would've heard me muttering under my breath how much I now hated bush turkeys.
I was just glad that I had gone to the extra effort to get waterproof mattress protectors pn (a must have item) because it saved us from having to remove the mattress and scrub it clean. Everything just about dried when it was time to remake the bed, there was a small amount at the end of the quilt that was damp, and we put that end down the bottom.
We went to sleep that night not yet seeing the funny side to the story and vowing never to tell anyone.
The next few days I became a mad woman, everything had to be zipped up and couldn't be left for a minute. Little miss was also tasked with chasing all bush turkeys away. We also acquired some water pistols from Kmart ($5 each, and the best money we've spent) and put little miss to task squirting the bush turkeys.
Now for most people they would learn from that very first mistake and not make it again.
But apparently we didn't learn that well.
Jamie was trying to get the TV aerial to work, so was going in and out of the camper trailer. While he was doing that I decided to take little miss for a walk and we came back to hear Jamie's voice. All I could think was who was he talking to. Funnily enough Jamie thought it was me rattling around in the annex and it was me that he was talking to. I could hear he was in the camper trailer and when we came to the door sure enough another bloody bush turkey was inside.
This time it was just on top of the stove. Jamie peeked out the door and saw the bush turkey too. By some miracle I tossed him a water pistol and he caught it. A few squirts of the water pistol with me holding open the door and it was out of the annex. Little miss then chased it away rarring at it.
We surveyed the damage and this time it was a block of chocolate that had peck marks and a loaf of bread.
Although there wasn't anything visible, I thoroughly wiped over the kitchen, table and anything else I could find in the annex.
So there you have it, the biggest mistake we have made so far. I'm just glad that when it did happen that we were in a caravan park, so we could use the washing machines to wash as much as we could as well as the clothesline to hang everything out on (I'm sure people thought we were nutty washing so late in the afternoon). That it was only a bush turkey, that it came out of the camper trailer relatively easily and that it wasn't something more serious. We only had to throw away a few things, most could be salvaged.
Lessons we learned:
- ZIP THE FRIDGE NOOK!!!
- ZIP EVERYTHING!!!
- Bush Turkeys stink
- I hate Bush Turkeys
- Waterproof protectors need to be just under the sheet
- All pillows (even boomerang pillows) need waterproof protectors
- Bush Turkeys hate water pistols
- Water pistols and young children will keep Bush Turkeys away
- Bush Turkeys will go after any food
I should also say, no bush turkeys were harmed during our stay. The water pistols were used as a deterrent from coming into our campsite. Bush turkeys are a protected species and although we don't like what they did to our camper trailer we don't wish them any harm.
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