More Skerretts Creek and more Kittyhawk wreckage.
Today’s mission mirrored last week’s bush bash, with one key difference. While I was joined by one of the party from the last trek, this time he carried a metal detector. The plan was to revisit the same locations and investigate a spot where the other party in the last trek identified as the possible burial site of a plane artefact.
We drove to the top of Sunny Grove and followed Skerretts Creek up towards McKerrow Ridge. As before, we passed the Kittyhawk engine, the metal tank, the propeller hub, and the wheel strut. Those landmarks were familiar, but they were not our focus. Our aim was to sweep the detector across the area said to contain the buried item.
On the way, we tested several similar looking spots, but the detector stayed silent. When we reached the location and began scanning, we finally got a clear signal. Something metallic was buried there. We shifted a few rocks and scraped back the soil to reveal a shaped piece of metal, beaten into form, possibly once wrapped around part of the aircraft. Traces of military green paint were still visible. It was not large, but it almost certainly belonged to the plane. We also thought it had to be placed here as the creek wouldn’t likely have washed it here as it seemed too high above the river bank.
We continued scanning the surrounding ground without further success, then pushed further up the creek and hillside, checking other promising areas. Still nothing. Eventually we reached the first waterfall where I was stung by wasps only the week before and climbed past it, then arrived at the largest waterfall in the creek. In a trek some years back, I had descended down the creek and vowed never to tackle that waterfall again. There is a section with nothing to grip, and a slip would mean a hard fall down steep rock.
However, the creek had changed after recent storms. The flow line had shifted and there were new trees offering handholds. We climbed carefully within the watercourse, but near the top we encountered another exposed and dangerous section. We decided to turn back, agreeing that a future top down approach to the waterfall from the ridge would be a safer and more logical option.
The descent demanded concentration. At the lower waterfall, I briefly considered climbing down the waterfall route itself to avoid walking on a wasp nest there, but it was too risky. Instead, I retraced the bank and hoping for the best. It was tense, but uneventful. Moving downhill along a slippery creek bed with tired legs is when accidents tend to happen especially since your momentum is working with gravity. We both slipped more than once, and I managed an impressive roll over the rocks. My friend had a heavier fall, striking his forehead and nose. He cut his head and feared he might have broken his nose, but fortunately he had not.
Then came the final mishap. While rechecking the area where we found the plane part, I stepped on a new wasp nest. I only realised when I felt several sharp stings around my lower hip. A wasp had flown up inside my shorts and I was being stung on my lower leg by another wasp or few. I then ran into the bush and had to drop my shorts to free that wasp, and saw two wasps attacking. I killed one as it landed and stung me again, and managed to shake off the other. My friend later said he saw at least five wasps around me initially when I first stood on the nest. By the time it was over, I counted roughly nine or ten stings in total. So that was now two nests in two weeks and this is a record I am not keen to extend. I am now reconsidering my options and what protective gear to wear on future trips.
We reached the car at dusk. It was a relief to change into dry clothes and footwear. Driving home, the sting on my hip throbbed, though my leg felt okay. Reflecting on the day, we did not uncover the specific artefact we were searching for, but we did recover another confirmed piece of the aircraft. Despite the slips, cuts, and stings, it was a productive outing with solid exercise to match.
