Team; Shelley, Eric & Bonnie (Woof, Woof), Jill & Bruce, Tony & Sandra, Perry & Debb, Shazza & Graeme and Jane, Jasmin & JC
Departure
Rather than meet at Munno Para we all left separately and made our way there at our own pace. I left Friday with Jane bringing Jasmin over on Saturday morning.
My departure had some shades of John (Ned) Hill in it as at a very inconvenient time my caravan power mover decided not to stop and tried to put me and the van through the neighbour’s house. Fortunately it didn’t and with the help of the Metropolitan Fire Service (from my station) my caravan was soon rescued unscathed. After receiving some first aid and a lot of humorous comments from my mates (Jane was in severe shock as I almost scratched her van) I was on my way.Arrival & Happy Hour
When I got there Eric, Shelley, Jill and Bruce had arrived set up and were relaxing. In minutes I was also doing the same this caravanning isn’t that bad if you soften up a little. Jill & Bruce and Shazza & Graeme soon were down on the beach fishing with little result as it was a bit to windy.Soon after Sandra and Tony arrived followed by Shazza and Graeme then it was into the serious stuff, happy hour and of course my story of near tragedy and heroic survival. This followed by me showing the group my wounds and bruises.
Saturday at Balgowan
What a beautiful day we woke too, while we waited for Deb & Perry and Jane & Jazzy the fishing fleet cruised down to the beach as the weather conditions seemed much friendlier.
By lunch time everybody who were coming had arrived and after lunch we were going to inspect rubbish sites but because we had been here the year before we decided it was back to the beach. Tony set up his shade and the serious fishing continued with Graeme catching a lovely flathead and of course Jill catching some nice whiting.Fishing seems to usually create some conflicting stories and get again we had another interesting one. One version was Graeme caught the flathead on Shazza rod which was in left while she was socialising or being called to nature.
Of course Sharon disputes this she says that when the fish was hooked she was unfairly felled by a cowardly hip ‘n shoulder from behind which caused her to drop her rod with Graeme claiming he picked it up after she stumbled tripping over a sea shell and landed the catch as he was concerned it would get away in the confusion.About mid afternoon Paul and Barb dropped in for a visit had some drinks and some in-depth discussion before leaving just as quickly as they had arrived getting ready for a big day’s fishing in their boat the next day or so they said.
Off-Road Bocce’ Heats
These were fiercely contested with last year’s winner automatically going in to the final due to lack of numbers of contestants, we had several of our number carrying season ending injuries.
The finalists were chosen all was ready for Sunday morning sudden death event.Sunday, what a Huge Day
We had breakfast then the Bocce’ final (read the results in the Off-Road Bocce’ article) was finalised. Then we tackled the clean up starting at the Balgowan lookout continuing north along the coast including several unnamed sites with the sites where camping wasn’t allowed as bad as the ones where camping was allowed.
As usual the clean up was tackled with great enthusiasm and at the end of our collection we had gathered about 250kgs of rubbish.
The following is an overview which was sent to CUA & SA4WD Association.Site/s Balgowan and campsites on beach front north
Quantity of Rubbish 15 bags of approximately 250kgs plus 2 bags of recyclable bottles and cans (monies will be donated to Royal Flying Doctors)
Notable Items broken bottles, about 15kg of steel wire from burnt tyres, car bonnet, 2 wheel trims, plastic bags & containers, allsorts of paper products, a quantity of cigarette butts, a AAMI Junior Training Camp Top and a couple of tent pegs in a no camping area.
Location of where Rubbish was disposed The Arthurton Transfer Station which along with the sites of collection is arranged through prior consultation with Stephen Goldsworthy Waste Collection Manager of the Yorke Peninsular Council.Heading Home
To soon it was time to go with everyone agreeing how nice Balgowan was and saying to visit it again soon.
To all of you thanks again for your efforts and company it was a great weekend.
JC
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