Pre Safaris training

[BRICKBURN]

You actually walk out onto that ice on purpose????
I would just end up there if I started climbing that mountain in the background, lost my footing and slid all they way onto the lake.

You would have loved the pressure releases cracking right under your feet.

 

[Velo Dog]

Yours truly fell through the ice only a few days ago (not my first time either).
Refer to my photos / the one entitled "Wet Feet @ -4 Degrees Fnht".
It really is not that bad, as long as you have no brain cells or, at least no synapses actually connecting your brain cells when you hear that sickening and quite loud cracklesplash sound, just as you go through like a bomb - LOL.

 

[bluey]

bloody oath velo , that would sober you up quick smart , hey.
hope it was in a lake so there wasn't any currant ,mate .

 

[TokkieM]

-29!!!Dont think I will survive!!Sat in a European pig blind in -16C and that was the closest I came to hell freezing over

 

[BRICKBURN]

-29!!! Dont think I will survive!! Sat in a European pig blind in -16C and that was the closest I came to hell freezing over

At least I had a heater to take some of the chill off. Without it I am sure there would have been some significant exercise going on to keep warm.

 

[Velo Dog]

bloody oath velo , that would sober you up quick smart , hey.
hope it was in a lake so there wasn't any currant ,mate .

Oy Bluey,

Nosir, it was over a small creek that I know well (have to cross it to get to my little weekend cabin).
The deepest place in it is not over about 3 feet in winter (beginning to middle of May snow melt though, it is a raging death trap so, I just stay home in the city and drink beer until it recedes).
Yours truly has just enough brain cells still connected to the main frame that I will not walk across unknown waters on the ice, unless very specific conditions are present.
The list is long but the highlights are - no tidal waters (rise and fall under the ice is deadly, especially with salty water), no deep rivers unless very slow current.
Main thing no matter what other conditions are met, is that the temperature must be extremely cold for a long spell to greatly thicken the ice well ... I repeat myself, no matter what.

There are other markers but those are the main ones.
In your corner of the world, no doubt you know what to do and what not to do, in order to avoid snake bite.
Most of us cold weather types might be struck on day one of footing about in bush Australia.

Happy new year mate,
Velo Dog.

 

[bluey]

yeah mate , hope you have a great new year also .
the only iced water I really see is up high some mornings when the puddles have a thin crust of ice on them ,
although yesterday morning we had unseasonable hail storm out here at sea ,in late December , bloke ive spent every December since I was 14 at sea ,im now 45
and cant remember ever seeing a hailstorm in December .
as for walking over a frozen river , im thinking I don't have the ghoulies for that one .
im going to have a go at ice fishing one day in the not to distant future in Canada ,on a bloody lake tho.
the snakes are just starting to rut ,at present so this is when they wont back away , so a little caution needs to be observed in the bush for the next 5 or 6 weeks
most of the you only see the back end of them or hear them getting out of harms way .
15 hours to go till we welcome the new year , better winch up and point the old girl towards home
have a good one fellas