Caravanner's fear after unexpected encounter at outback campsite: 'Nothing like this'
Michael Lennon, 77, told Yahoo News the ground started to shake while visting Curtin Springs in the Northern Territory recently.
A camper has described the scary moment he feared he might be trampled by a herd of camels after they appeared from nowhere and "thundered" past him, metres away from his campsite.
Perth man Michael Lennon, 77, and his wife have travelled extensively around the country throughout the last decade, driving through the red centre at least five times alone with his caravan. They've seen a wide range of Aussie wildlife and even been chased down by bushfires, but nothing quite compares to the moment feral camels shook the ground beneath them at Curtin Springs in the Northern Territory recently.
"We were using the campsite as a base... a lot of other people used it as a base, and one day, early evening we were backed up to a boundary fence," he told Yahoo News. "I heard this sort of noise from the scrub behind us and the next thing, this herd of camels came thundering past."
Panicked campers had no idea what was happening
After the camels "came from nowhere", generating a large amount of noise in the busy but relatively peaceful campsite, Lennon explained there was a moment of panic while campers tried to figure out what was going on.
"The noise of their hooves on the ground certainly got many campers out of their caravans and motorhomes to find out what was happening," he said. "The campsite was very busy; there would have been at least 50 people camping there... there was a fellow from the vehicle next to us who saw them at the same time as we did. He didn't say much, just sort of watched them in disbelief."
The camels seemingly "disappeared" as quickly as they arrived, leaving Lennon to question if it even happened at all. "The camels just came charging through the bush and went on their merry way," he said.
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It's not the first time camels have made a surprise appearance at an Aussie campsite, with one woman and her family in shock to spot large footprints in the red dirt of their campsite recently.
There are over one million feral camels in Australia and that population is estimated to double in size every nine years, according to the Northern Territory government.
"On our travels, we've seen camels in paddocks and even one time on the road... but nothing like this," Marshall said.
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