I
t was the second last night of an (to that point) en-
joyable and successful three month trip to the East-
ern States competing in sheep dog trials with my
Border Collies. I thought I was being ultra careful ind-
ing suitably safe campsites for my working sheepdogs.On this particular aernoon in late October 2017 I started
searching early for a suitable site. It is diicult to ind a totally
safe site to run dogs while crossing our large Australian con-
tinent. he site had to be well of the highway for safety from
traic, and well away from public parking places. Unfortu-
nately and disappointingly the signed and publicised layovers
and parking places across our wide brown land are littered
with all manner of disgusting and dangerous things that dogs
love to eat or roll in; from chicken and chop bones to used la-
dies’ sanitary items and human excrement. Additionally there
is always the unseen danger of 1080 baits. here is intermit-
tent signage but it is very small and its diicult to know how
current the signs are.I found a signposted layover many kilometres from the last
1080 sign, I got out of the car and had a good walk around to
look for human waste and anything the dogs might get into.I watered my dogs in their kennels on the ute and was soon
inundated with a swarm of bees looking for water in the dog
bowls in the back of the ute. I thought I had parked near a
hive so moved the vehicle and caravan about 100 metres along
the layover to a diferent spot where I once again walked and
inspected my new site. It had crossed my mind to travel fur-
ther along the highway but I was worried I might not ind
somewhere suitable before dark and I was conident the bees
wouldn’t follow me when I moved the ute and van. I breathed
a sigh and thought I had le the bees behind.But this time they crowded into the eight water bowls in the
back of the ute, they spread over the dog beds where the water
had spilt and they were lying around in the kennels where
the dogs were snapping at them. here was nothing I could
do except tell myself to stay sane and handle the situation one
small step at a time. I was in the middle of nowhere with no
help for miles. I decided to walk the dogs and hoped that the
bees would be gone from the kennels when we returned. We
walked out for about 10 minutes with my dogs in sight and
under control at all times. he bees were still in the kennels
when we returned! I put some of my dogs inside the cab of the
ute and in the caravan. Others I put in a down-stay where I..on the Nullarbor
Horror...
By Jenny Whitelock
Photo by Jayde McMurtrie.54 AWSDM http://www.stockdogs.com.au