Arrivals, Departures & Other Things ....

Arrivals
These are my observations of some of the comings, goings and events of the Gleeson’s Landing CUA weekend.

JC - This was one of the very rare occasions that I, JC was ever likely to be first to actually have my camper setup before anyone else. To achieve that I had to get to Gleeson’s Landing 5 days before any other club member arrived. From Thursday at 10.30 am till Friday midday JC was there with me, myself and I. This certainly re-enforced the fact that I am not a solitary creature. It was lonely and dead boring, with me not drinking wine and going to bed at 8.30pm.

Andrew & Sarah - It was great to see them when they arrived early Friday. Erecting their camper was a very interesting project because at the time it was blowing a gale. With Sarah and I hanging on for grim death, Andrew hastily pinned and guy-roped the structure. It flapped & strained like crazy but it stayed there.

Bruce & Jill - When they opened up their caravan light fittings and several other internal fixtures had either fallen off or were hanging by a couple of turns of a screw. So it was out with the toolkit and Bruce’s maintenance refit commenced.

Rick & Cindy - At about 9.00pm on Friday night in rolled Rick and Cindy. After a quick conversation with we the brains trust, sitting under the marquee they proceeded to drive in never ending circles all around the bluff for quite some time until at long last finishing up roughly where they had started. While they were doing this you could hear Rick muttering, "Not here because it will be to close to that noisy generator and not here because there will be either too much snoring or farting" so on & so on. I felt quite giddy & I was only watching, sipping my medication at the time.

Paul & Barb - It wasn’t until early the next morning that Paul and Barb arrived and after some discussion between themselves they settled on a location quite close to Rick and Cindy on the shelf not far from the cliffs edge. Out with the tent pegs but first one then another and then another wouldn’t go into the ground. In fact they were twisting and turning instead of going into the ground they ended up with a pile of badly bent pegs. Paul then moved backwards and forwards a few times running over some of their camping gear.

Superlatives and dummies were flying thick and fast and even phrases like "It’s all your fault Barb, that’s it I’m going home, I’ve had enough!" were clearly heard. Rather than going home they decided to straighten their tent pegs and try another location. This time they were successful.

Other Things
JC’s Generator & Micro-wave - Both my generator and micro-wave came in for some attention from some quarters. But with battery problems and being able to prepare most of my meals in about 5 minutes they both proved to be very useful for me.

Campervans - When I first got my campervan there were very few and usually no other ones on any of the club trips. Now with the exception of Fred (getting rid of both his caravan and camper) a lot of other members have succumbed? At Gleeson’s there were 6 campers, 1 caravan, one member slept in his vehicle and 4 tents (2 of those were visitors’ tents). Even Paul and Barb were in a camper it’s good to see we can still have our pioneer spirit while being comfortable.

The Off-Road Bocce Championship - It was a closely contested nail bighting competition with the best team rising to the challenge. (You beauty!) Ricks raucous heckling during the final certainly was very uplifting and increased our determination.

Turbulent Campervans - This will be of interest to all of you who have been away on a trip with Paul F and experience extreme tent turbulence when going to bed early. Maybe it was the influence of the camper, the sea air or maybe the promise of things to come. But it’s true that on Saturday night Paul and Barb after making a vague excuse were one of the first to go to bed? As most of us had done in the past they had parked their camper on a very turbulent camp site.
It was pay back time!

Towing Rubbish Trailers - Rob Roy was quiet impressed by Paul C’s skill in turning our CUA rubbish trailer in sandy conditions.

Departures
JC - With all my useful camping paraphernalia of course I was last and with a gusty zephyr blowing from the south-west did I need assistance to make up my camper? What do you think?

Comment - This trip was another marvelous experience thanks to the participation of all who attended. Thank you all for your company.

JC



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