Arkaroola Trip Report This trip was supposed to be led by Paul F but he had to pull the plug at the last minute for family reasons so he asked me to take the trip over from him. So I phoned up everyone who had their name down and informed them of the situation. Surprisingly enough everyone pretended to be OK with the idea of me leading this trip. We all met up at the Hawker Caravan Park where the entertainment for the evening was supplied by Sonya who was trying to eat some 2 minute noodles while everyone else tried to make her laugh. (She was laughing so much that she had to leave the mess hall twice and eventually gave up on the noodles and went hungry). Saturday we headed off towards Arkaroola via Brachina Gorge and Blinman where they were having the COOK OUT BACK competition. This was a camp oven cooking competition with the competitors all dressed up in different costumes. We wandered around for an hour or so sampling the various pies and drinks. Having stuffed our faces we headed off again to complete our trip to Arkaroola. We arrived in time to set up camp before dark and settled down around the fire for dribbles. The next morning we headed off and attacked the Echo back track. This was a very pleasant drive and between the traction control and the wife control we managed to complete it without incident. We arrived back at camp with plenty of time to spare for a quick shower before settling down to our usual dribbles around the fire. As it was Hannah’s birthday, Ben decided to make her a birthday cake. With a little bit of help from everyone we managed to make a very nice chocolate cake in a camp oven. (Don’t ask for the recipe as it was definitely a one-off). We left early on the Monday with the intention of going to Jamestown as we had heard that there was a show/fair on over the weekend. There were however a few delays on the way back so when we reached Hawker the group split up and everyone made their own way back home. I would like to thank everyone on the trip for making this the best trip that I have ever led. (Also the only trip that I have led, but who’s counting). C Ya Chris Disclaimer : please note Home Page