TRIP REPORTS
We were all ready for a great day planned by our leader
Ron Reed. I have no idea of which way or where we
went, and that was very obvious to David, my fishing
buddy, who was using his mapping system how they are
meant to be used. So all I could do was use the CB and
sit back and enjoy the trip in David's new vehicle.
Today we were doing the Landsborough Ridge run,
along the top of the Pyrenees Range, which is part of
the Great Divide.
We travelled back to Avoca and the Vinoca Rd, before
picking up the dirt and travelling past the old Pearcydale
Historic (gold) area.
We picked up Fraser Track and climbed up and up and
even more "ups and ups". I checked my altimeter and
we were around the 880 mtr mark. And I thought to
myself, “Holy snapping duck bills” now we have to go
down. It then became the steepest down hill I had ever
encounted. My palms began to take deep breaths and
my brow began to sweat like I'd turned on a tap in my
terry towelling hat.
This was the best part of the adventure for me. David
was safely guided down by Ron over some very
interesting terrain. All of the convoy made it safely to
the bottom of the track.
We stopped for a morning tea break where Fraser met
Ebling Track.
Back on the road ,we continued to the Waterfalls area
but no water running. We picked up Waterfall Track
for some easy travelling and then Schmidt and Gallop
Tracks. We then picked up the Main Break and this took
us up to Mt Avoca, but also no views from here.
We turned off onto Cameron Track. Some good
climbing and descents and by the time we got to the
bottom is was nearly 1 o’clock. We stopped beside the
creek (bed) for a well earned lunch break.
After lunch we picked up the Old Kingtree Track and had
been travelling along that for just on 20 minutes. Terry
was up front when suddenly the vehicle stopped and
was unable to move in any direction. He had turned
right up a bit of an incline and just stopped. He had lost
a belt that ran a fairly important part of his vehicle. I
have no idea what it ran, except to say, without that
belt being worked on by most of the group, Terry may
have had to miss fivesees. Yet with all the “hands on”
people getting involved and Ron plotting a quick exit
and a short cut back to camp, everyone came together
and enjoyed each other’s company around a couple of
tables filled with “the good oil” and snacks fit for all Club
members. Huge thanks to Ron and Carol for all the hard
work in the planning and the success of the entire
Easter break and for inviting the Easter Bunny to drop
off eggs to each of the camp sites.
Damian Mahon 1391
{Ron: Terry dropped an alternator belt which in turn
knocked off the aircon belt. The car stopped completely
but we were able to move it back to a safer place off the
road and with 100 & 1 mechanics on the job managed
to make sufficient repairs to enable Terry to limp back
to camp – it was great to see the teamwork, and the
camaraderie came out of that, in getting Terry back on
the road. Well done everyone}
Sunday 21 st April - Day 3
Relaxed start this morning although the Easter bunny
had been visiting.
Intentionally, this morning was a relaxed start. We had
arranged for a visit to Moonambel Olives to see how
olives are grown and processed and headed off at 11:00
and came back for lunch.
After lunch we had two teams headed off on a navrun.
For this you didn’t need a GPS, the run instructions told
you how far to travel on each leg, name of road and
which direction to turn. But then the power of
observation came into the picture and our intrepid
travellers had to answer questions and locate the “find
me”, these being photos of signs or items of interest.
Our intrepid competitors returned in time for fivesees
and the results were revealed during fivesees. The
event was won by Shaun & Margaret by 20 points.
Once again everyone socialised and enjoyed their
fivesees so much that it continued will into the evening,
in fact dinner was in the dark around 8:00.
Alas, the shire put a lid on having fires late Thursday
afternoon, but that only applied to the rec reserve.
Outside the reserve there were campfires at every
campsite ! But we made up for it. These trips are
about socialising. David brought along a wonderful
drop of Benedictine, and it was like a wonderful
overcoat ! ☺ And something which certainly kept the
conversations going well into the night.
Ron Reed (963)