Hi All, I must be getting old but I cant find in the trips/gatherings page wher to add in the trip treport, I am SURE it USED to be there somewhere.... Anyhow here it is:
This years
Pyrenees Gathering was a really
well supported affair, with a few extra surprises thrown in.
The Friday evening saw most turn up
well before daylight snuck behind the sky. We also had Mick O turn up in his
well prepared V8 Toyota although HeatherR was warned not to look out the window at any time of the night! Lots of new members that I had not met yet, and it was good fun catching up with them as
well as the other great friends made thru EO.
Friday night around the campfire was a great affair, with Mr Mad Cowz doing the warmup for the main event which was a very relaxed explanation of the plan for the weekend and that set the tone for the whole weekend.
Saturday started early and although it was very early for some, we setoff later than normal and drove up North Glenpatrick track, and wasn’t that a
test of man and machine. Our newcomer AndrewB just smiled as her drove past and up the quite gnarly
hill, as Muzbry was heard to say, this
hill was a sphincter tightener. The recent storms approx. a week ago had deposited many trees across tracks and we drove around lots of them. After safely negotiating that and regrouping at the top on the helipad, we ventured around and down New Emery track back to base for lunch, where we found that Mandrake had turned up! Great chance to see some solar panels and setups.
Unmember Lucy finally arrived, officially redefining the term “late” and managed to faff about setting up for an interminable period while we had our lunch. After a lovely relaxed lunch we headed off (umm late – I mean relaxed - again) back up Old Emery track and down Mill track and turned right at the bottom along an unnamed track which wends its way along a creek, there we encountered not one, not two but four huge trees across the track at varying distances, and as we crested a particularly tough bit faced off number 5 only to see a huge clutch of trees further up followed by three others within sight. Whilst cutting this one off the track, two intrepid scouts took to the track on foot and came back breathless and weary with the joyful words “Theres more of them around the corner too!!” OK time to turn around, which was not such an easy thing to do on this track. We picked our way back to
camp and after a smile and a sit down, and seeing that Eric Experience had turned up also we got the GPS comp into full swing. Strategies varied from the highly questionable “Drop the pen from 1.4m and circle the result to some people who actually know how to read and interpret a GPS. Two entries were EXACTLY correct –
well done Murray and Peter!
The Saturday campfire was wonderful fun. HeatherR ran a trivia competition with JohnR dismally failing on his knowledge of Australia and all our knowledge increasing, especially the information of the Red Haired Nut Cracker, a recent inhabitant of
Canberra. The festivities concluded with a raffle draw and a standing on one leg competition for the kids which went on much linger than the organiser expected even tho Little Wez tried to knock everyone down!
Another quick drive around Sunday and back for lunch and wave everyone goodbye for another year. A nice donation to the Glenpatrick Reserve Committee and when a short drive
home!
Thanx to all who came along and enjoyed what I reckon is the best weekend of the year!
Major Prize GPS Comp - Lifetime
membership and
membership package - MurrayR
Runner up - PeterB (newcomer) - Ironman LED light
Guess the washers in the Box Quiz - WATCH THIS
FORUM FOR WINNER
EO Shirt - Trivia Quiz Prize - MurrayR (yes I know - lucky guy eh?)
EO Shirt - Raffle Prize - CaseyB (
young-'un)
EO Shirt - Raffle Prize – Mr Al (of Al&Mrs Al fame)
EO Stubby pack - HeatherR - (old-'un)
EO Stubby pack - WilliamR (
young-'un)
FYI the other winners were:
Dirtiest Engine – JakeB (Part of Oldspark family)
Water Tank Refiller extraordinaire - Marcus T
Most Enthusiastic newcomer - GeoffS
Longest Setup – UnMember Lucy
Newcomer "I'm sure it'll be alright" - Andrew and Donna B
Cya next year!!
GWBonz