A Feast at Port Douglas Carnivale – or how to avoid the bitey things
In Tropical North Queensland in Australia we are heading into ‘winter’. What that means is that our daytime temperature rests around the 26 to 28 degrees Celsius mark, and the nighttime’s could plunge to around 15! It really is a good time of the year and several events and shows take place around this time. Last weekend was one of the Port Douglas Carnivale weekends so we hooked up the pop-top and headed up the road to ‘Port’.
We found a good spacious site at the Pandanus campground there, and after some superb reversing by yours truly (yeah right!), we set up the rig and decided what we would do for the next couple of days. After lunch we grabbed our bicycles and took advantage of the good cycle paths to have a healthy 10 km ride. When we returned to our rig, it was then I discovered ‘the beasts’. Now I am not sure if it was the green ants, or maybe some sand flies around, but they really made a meal of me. Now don’t get alarmed. The place isn’t crawling with nasties but there are some around. I think I attract them from miles around. I seem to emit a body odour or something that screams, “Mealtime boys!”, and they all come scrambling to take a bite or two.
You would have thought I would have learnt my lesson over the years because I have always been allergic to the love bites of all insects. On one camping trip close to the Gulf of Carpenteria one year I made the mistake of sitting on the beach photographing the Pelicans taking flight into the sunset. Little did I know what was happening at waist height; by the next day I was a mass of red itchy sand fly bites from the waist down. As I entered the pool that evening one of my fellow campers greeted me with, “Here comes Amos – Amos Quito!”
Anyway, back to ‘Port’, after applying a liberal coat of insect repellent I also took some ordinary barrier spray and sprayed the perimeter of our site slab. Next thing I did was to spray everything that touched the ground from our camper – the tyres, the power cord where it rose from the ground, the water hose, the sullage hose, the camper leveling jacks, etc, etc. This did the trick and we had no more problems. Following that we had a great time. The weather stayed fine;. we had more bicycle rides; and we spent a very pleasant afternoon relaxing by the sea listening to the Blues Festival event before diving into a good steak dinner.
So the tip is to always be prepared for insects that love the outdoors as much as you do. Make sure you always carry insect repellent and some antihistamine treatment should you get bitten anyway. When you are sitting outdoors either light a Mozzie coil or citronella candle nearby. Carry some barrier spray and in suspect conditions spray the ground contact areas of your rig. Make sure that no overhanging foliage touches the roof or sides of your rig too.
What are your remedies for keeping the midges away, or even treating the bites after they have had their lunch? How do you keep the flies away? Share your experience and help the unfortunate ones by leaving your comment below. To find products that help, just go to the CC Store page and select the Personal Care category.
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Filed under: Camp Site Tips, General Tips
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