GLEESONS LANDING

Most of the crew headed over to the Yorke Peninsula on Friday afternoon or evening. JC went up early and went to the local council to let them know what was going on. A nice campsite was found and all set up.

The next morning Lee, Nicky & Sam arrived at Gleesons just as everyone was finishing breakfast. After sitting down & chatting for a little while JC suggested we all play a game called Boche. Each person (8 in total) took a coloured ball (blue, red, green or yellow) & we had to throw it as close as possible to the main little ball. It became very interesting and tricky due to the ground surface being very uneven. The balls would hit a rock & bounce off in the complete wrong direction. Lee & I decided it was time to set up camp. While we were doing this Rick & Cindy arrived. When we had set up camp the Boche game was finished & we all sat down for morning tea. Sam was delighted when the Gingerbread man gave her a gingerbread man to eat. Afterwards a few of us went out to check out the prospect of 4WDing. While they were gone Deb & Perry rocked up. They could have been there earlier but they had gone to the Caltex at Bolivar & were waiting for Rob to go with them. Little did they know Rob had driven up the night beforehand. We all rubbed this in a great deal.

When all were back at camp it was time for some lunch. After lunch we set out to do some four wheel driving. Leaving camp we headed in a southerly direction. The road led us through the dunes along the coast & down a sandy hill onto a beach which had relatively hard sand. The only way off the beach was the way we came so back we all went. Passing our campsite we picked up a few we had left behind & this time headed in a northerly direction. Someone had told JC that after driving through some sand dunes in this direction that it led to a beach you could drive along easily. It would then go back into the dunes where you could drive back behind the dunes & beach. We all stopped to let our tyres down before heading into the soft sand. JC took off followed by Tony & then Paul. Paul had a minor amount of trouble on one hilly corner due to not enough momentum. Next was Lee followed by Rick, Cliff and then Perry. JC stopped before going onto the beach to the rest of the convoy could catch up. This took a while as Perry had a little bit of difficulty with one of the hills. When we got him unstuck and after letting down his tyres a bit more we were all off towards the beach. It was when Lee drove onto the beach that things started to go wrong. We started to lose momentum so decided to stop and let some more air out of our tyres. Rick and Cindy went around us & so did Perry. It was then that most of the 4WD’s began to stop left right and centre. More air was let out of tyres. Meanwhile the tide was rushing in at an alarming rate. We all turned around & left the beach as quickly as we could.

Back at base it was then that Rick pulled out some info he had got chatting on the net. They had informed him of the fishing prospects & that heading north on the beach was not advised. Now he tells us. Much ribbing was given to our leader for taking us onto such a beach.

Evening rolled on & a few people tried unsuccessfully to catch some fish while the rest of us enjoyed nibbles and refreshments. After dinner the alcohol consumption by most was going very well. One person, who wishes to remain unnamed, had many offers of help to get her back to her tent. The offers did not include help with visiting the bushes first, so off I went alone and wobbling.

Most of us were out of bed by 8am even if we weren’t functioning very well. Breakfast was eaten & it was time to start our cleanup. JC talked to us and we filled out registration forms before connecting up the trailers & heading off. The materials we collected included rusty car parts, an old motorcycle, vehicle tyres, general camp rubbish, food scraps, old clothes and lots of broken glass. The trailers were looking full so we left it at that. Camp was dismantled and we set off for home in groups or alone. Those with the trailers went to the dump at Warooka to unload. A good weekend was had by all and Gleesons Landing is now a bit tidier.

Nicky