Victorian High Country - Christmas 2011, Day 2

Christmas day!!

We woke to the sound of birds chirping ah the wind had stopped and on taking a peek out the door oh man what a cracker of a day.  Almost no clouds in the sky a gentle breeze and birds happily flying about camp.

I laid in bed and read while James made coffee and then he spotted my Christmas gift from Santa.  Santa had left me 3 baby Emu’s they were right there 100mtrs from camp having a drink from the lake.  I decided that I really didn’t have room to keep them so I just took pictures instead.

We had a slow and relaxing morning having a cooked late breakfast then opened the gifts we had got each other and one from mum.

It’s now nearing to midday and we are just sitting back watching the world go by.  We wish each of our Families and Friends a Very Merry Christmas and we hope you are all having a super spectacular day.

Us2Martins relaxing through Christmas at Blowering Dam.

Victorian High Country Christmas 2011, Day 1.

Our tree so Santa finds us.

The first set up.

Camp under the trees.

Heading off!!!

We got packing just after we got up and were finished and showered and ready to leave with coffee in hand at 11am.  It was a little later then we had hoped but it didn’t matter not one little bit cause we were now in holiday mode.

Our first stop was to drop a little gift to Linda, Chris and Buzz they were not home so we left it on the door with our well wishes and headed for the Hammo’s place.  We were lucky they were just pulling in the drive as we did so we handed over our little gift said our final farewells and hit the road.  From here we stopped at Bundanoon servo for fuel and a sambo for lunch and pushed on.  We then did another quick fuel stop at Gundagai as we were not sure when our next fuel would be.  We pointed out nose south east from here and headed for Batlow.

We pulled into Batlow about 4pm and headed straight through cause we could now feel the joy of setting camp settling in. It takes only about 30min of dirt road before you get to the start of Blowering Dam, from here it can take another 30min to drive to the other end of the camping areas. We were surprised how quiet each of the camping areas were.  We looked around at a number of different spots but alas ended up almost in the exact same spot as last time.  Under beautiful big trees, flat grassy spot with views of the lake and mountains.  

It didn’t take long to set camp and there was a lovely breeze blowing keeping us cool. I even got time to set up our little make shift Christmas tree (just for you Mum).  As we cooked dinner the wind died off and it was still.  We decided to put up more shelter as off in the distance there were clouds.  Just as we got it up the wind turned and boy did it blow hard?  We battened   down the hatches secured everything got our things organised in the tent for we thought it was going to dump down. 

We sat out and watched the storm rolling in there was lightening and the clouds were very dark but slow moving.  I don’t know if I have ever camped in such strong winds it was blowing and hard.  As it got too dark to see we made sure everything was safe and headed to bed.  As we got in it rained just a little but the wind blew hard for hours.

Us2Martins at Blowering Dam.

Sculptures By the Sea 2011

Bondi Sculptures by the Sea 2011.

Hunter Valley Christmas Lights

We met Rhys and Effie our fearless leaders or maybe just partners in crime in Broke mid afternoon. We enjoyed a beverage or 2, set up camp and then our trusty designated driver took us into see the lights around 7pm.

We arrived and walked straight through with our tickets being prepaid it was easy. Then after picking up a slushy to cool off we took a walk through the gardens just on dusk. After having a good dose of red or blue sugar we decided to have a Tea party with Alice and a few other familiar friends.

We passed many fun nursery rhymes and this one in particular made us laugh. James just had to make up the missing sugar bowl so there was a full set.

Down past the Light tree, and onto the lake with the glorious waterfall we progressed.

It was a fairly long walk around the gardens so a rest with the reindeer was needed.

Once we finished we decided anther cool drink and light dinner was to be had while sitting watching the biggest Christmas tree in the grounds.

Now it was dark and there was about an hour till closing time we made another loop of the park to see the lights in their full glory.

Hmmmm nothing much to say but aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh how sweet

This was one of my favourites.

While I had my back turned Rhys and Effie decided Humpty needed a push,

Luckily James was there to catch.....

BUSTED!!!!!!!

After making sure Humpty was ok I moved the “kids” on past Santa’s workshop.

Back past the light trees.

From here we headed back to camp for a cool beverage before bed and to finish off the weekend we enjoyed breakfast in a cafe then hit the road for home. It was such an enjoyable night we will be doing it again next year.

Khanafari

We recently went to a Khanafari which is another Clubs annual competition.  I have used Troy's trip report to explain the weekend. Thanks Troy :)
 
Khanafari is the first funkhana event that the club has competed in for over a year. It was good to get back out amongst the poles and bunting. Another great thing was that this would be the first trip that there would be four LJ50s. It must be the late 80’s since it last occurred.

Matt, Grant and I all did the hard yards and drove the 2 strokes out to peel and back while Hammo decided to tow his newly registered LJ50. Probably a wise decision seeing that has not seen any lengthy trips and many years.

Saturday was turning out to be a great day weather wise although I did have to resort to wearing a jumper and using the heater on the way which was much easier then fitting the roof and doors.

Grant and I turned up around 10am thinking we were going to be late, but the 9am start time didn’t occur till almost 11am. This gave me time to have a stretch after the long drive and set up camp. On arrival my LJ decided it didn’t want to idle, which meant that I may need to use the spare carby which I brought along for Matt who had idle problems on Friday.

The events were similar to the ones which we run at Zukana, but different as they didn’t time any of the events. All the events were designed to be tight for a Land Rover proved to be a walk in the park for a Suzuki and even easier for an LJ50. There were the normal clover, blind fold and water bowl events as well as some more challenging events driving through wash outs and over the side of hills. These were good fun. The more challenging events offered some harder options for the more adventurous. Hammo took his LJ50 over the bridge in one of the events only to loose some of the paint from the freshly painted bumper (don’t tell David) and ending up being pushed back up by a few of us.

After a warm day in the sun competing we got the all clear for a fire as there was a total fire ban.

Saturday afternoon after a morning of engine trouble Matt decided to try and fix his carby. Several blow outs with the compressor later and it was running like a clock. I cleaned out my carby on Sunday morning finding the same piece or rubbish blocking the same jet as Matt’s, look out Hammo and Grant.

On the way home we stopped at Lithgow only to find that Grants fan was a little loose. On an LJ50 when the fan is loose it means that the main crankshaft nut is loose. Out came the radiator in the car park to find the nut finger tight. That was a very timely find.

We took home all the Historic vehicle trophies and a few others. In all it was a great relaxing event and we are all looking forward to next years event where we want to take home all the trophies! Thanks to LROC for inviting us.
 

Camping October School Holidays 2011

I am being lazy and I took Alaina's trip report.  Thanks Alaina.

School Holiday Camping

Day 1
On Monday the 26th of September
Amy, Ben, Emma, Will, Eddy,
Di, Maggie, Emma,
Leah, Holly, Tara,
Amanda, Jordan, Patrick and me, Alaina went camping at Upper Colo Reserve near Putty road. We meet at Morgan’s Rock Reserve under the bridge when we all arrived we headed off. We drove along Upper Colo Rd to Wheeny Creek to have a look, when we drove back to Upper Colo Reserve where we stopped under a big tree. We thought this was going to be our camping spot but changed our minds & we moved to a flatter spot. After we had set up the tents/campers, us kids started to play. We soon found a new friend called Nathan, soon after that some of us kids started to climb a big gum tree. After then we started to get fire wood. Jordan and Patrick started the fire so we grabbed our chairs and got a spot around the fire. Soon dinner was ready, burritos were on the menu and they were so yummy we ate them in a jiffy. We waited a while until the adults had finished their dinner we brought out the marshmallows; we saved some for the adults. When the younger kids went to bed the rest of us stayed up for a while talking and eating more marshmallows then we went to bed.

Day 2
The next morning we got up at around 7’o clock and had pancakes and cereal for breakfast. Jordan & Patrick were still asleep in their tent but then got a wakeup call by Maggie and Emma shaking their tent. We got out the craft things for a while then we got our swimmers on to go down to the river, as we walked on the nice warm sand an adult yelled out ‘look at that snake in the water’. When we heard that, us kids that were in the water nearly jumped out of our skins as we ran out of the water and didn’t go in the water till we saw the snake was on the bank on the other side of the water and then we got in the water slowly after Jordan & Patrick started to jump and flip in the water. The water was cold, most of us built sand castles while the adults sat on the sand watching us play & talked. Then Jordan picked me up & put me in the water, I kept saying ‘cold, cold, the waters cold’ then ran out of the water. Nathan brought his blow up boat to the river to play with. Amy took photos of us playing while Holly & I built a sand monster while the others buried Nathans legs & made a mermaid tail for him & also for one of the Emma’s. Just before we left Jordan face planted into the sand trying to do back flip. After our swim we headed back to camp & had lunch. We then played with the craft stuff a bit more & then set off to find more fire wood. When Holly, Emma & I came back from getting fire wood we helped Jordan & Patrick move their tent away from where we were camped so they could have their beauty sleep without being woken up. For dinner there was tortellini and spaghetti, after we had finished eating we sat around the fire when Nathan & his mum came around to join us by the fire. We shared the marshmallows around & us kids played games, like one person says one word then the next person says another thing to make it like a story & we made up some pretty strange stories. After the younger kids went to bed, Nathan & his mum went back to their camp. The rest of us stayed up a bit longer & ate more marshmallows, when we finished them we sat & talked enjoying the fire before we went to bed.
Day 3
The next day after breakfast, it started to rain so we put rain coats on so we could still play. Amy had got bubble sticks out & we made lots of bubbles. We blow bubbles till lunch time & by then the rain had started to clear. After lunch us kids started to play charades until it started to rain again so we went under the cover to play more charades. When some of us got bored the younger kids played with the bubbles. Ben & I played chess; Ben won all three games played. Soon the fire was lit & the rain was now just sprinkling & dinner was on its way so we all found our marshmallow sticks again making sure they were ready for after dinner. We were soon on our seats having dinner, plates in front of us with either burgers or roast chicken legs which soon disappeared by hungry mouths. We were soon back to sitting on our chairs near the fire playing more games & making up stories or trying to figure out the word in hangman while the adults ate beef stroganoff cooked by Amy. Then the kids went to bed including me. Mum told me that when I was asleep it started to rain so much that the fire went out.
Day 4
That morning was so busy because as soon as we had breakfast we started to pack the tents/campers up which was very hard. We were trying to get the tents/campers down fast so if it did rain our tents/campers wouldn’t get wet again. I was told to take all the kids under the shelter & stay there; I tried to keep all the kids busy. The adults drove over to the shelter & they made us some sandwiches for lunch. When we had finished our lunches we played around on the rocks while the adults made their lunches & then put the lunch stuff away. After that we hurried to say goodbye & jumped in the cars because big dark clouds which we knew were more rain clouds. Just when we got in the cars the rain started to fall so we headed out the gate following each other til we drove off in different directions. It was a fun camping trip that we’ll remember forever.
By Alaina Vella