Caravan dad left gagging after 'nightmare' camping mistake
There are plenty of things to love about caravaning around Australia. The vast landscapes, incredible sunsets, awe-inspiring wildlife and wide open spaces are just a few of the reasons why so many people are quitting their jobs, selling their houses and hitting the open road.
But just like life back home, there are jobs that you don't want to do. One such task in the caravanning world is emptying what's affectionately known as the "devil's suitcase". When the caravan toilet is filled with waste, it must be emptied at a designated dump point.
But it doesn't always go to plan, with regular instances of the dirty task going awry. One caravanning dad learnt the hard way just how wrong it can go when he dropped the lid down the dump point into piles of human waste below.
While some may simply accept their fate and give up on the lost item, determined dad Ashley Moy, who was staying in Alice Springs with his family at the time, told Yahoo News it was too "important" to leave behind.
"If you don't have the cap, you run the real risk of your waste sloshing out of the cassette," he said, describing that scenario as "yuck".
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Ashley told Yahoo the family of five, who are doing a 12-month lap of the country, had just arrived in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory when they realised their caravan toilet needed emptying. He sarcastically said it's a "very common but enjoyable chore" all caravanners must undertake.
"We found the local toilet dump site and began emptying out the waste from inside the casette," he said. "The casette has a great lid that screws onto the casette, you unscrew the lid when emptying it."
When he was finished, he packed away the hose used to clean out the cassette, and "knocked the cap into the dump point hole" and into the septic tank down below.
Armed with a pair of tongs, the Aussie dad attempted what many would simply refuse to do and put his hand down the dump point. In a clip shared online, the dad is seen gagging while his wife Rachel cackles in the background as she films.
Incredibly, after gagging a few times, the dad manages to get the cap out of the septic tank by putting his entire arm down the dump point hole.
Some viewers described the scene as their "worst nightmare".
"I'm dry heaving just watching this, I can't imagine doing it," said another.
Luckily, the dad was able to retrieve the item and avoided the risk of human waste sloshing around in his caravan.
But if you're wondering what happened to the tongs after the deed was done, Ashely said: "Let's leave the tongs up to people's imagination".
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