Peach Trees Camping Weekend

After arranging to have a day off on Friday, we were ready and departed at about 8.30am, and arrived at the Peach Trees camping area about 11am, only to find that our area was already more than half full, as 9 sites were already occupied. We set up, had a quick lunch, and then of to recce some new tracks that Ken wanted to show me. We had an interesting afternoon, followed by an interesting night around the fire, and a good night’s sleep. On Saturday, we had a “quick” trip around in the morning, until I heard the new arrivals arriving, so headed back to camp, had lunch, and then out for another drive around the hills with those ready and willing. As there were already more cars than our permit would cover, we split up, with most on the Clubs permit, some on personal permits going for a trip to Mt Kilcoy winery courtesy of Kevin Snell as trip-leader, with the remainder going out to do more surveying and lantana cutting. From all reports, all three activities were well received. My group even managed to find Ken and the lantana cutters, and as they were just finishing clearing a track that we had looked at the day before, we then all drove through it. At this stage I was starting to get a little worried. You see, the day before I took out 9 cars and only came back to camp with 6, which even I would admit is a little careless, but today I took out 9 and came back with 11, so at least now I was only missing one. Before going back to camp, we stopped at the Jimna Fire Tower, and once again, about half the group climbed to the top, with most of those remaining deciding that discretion was the sensible option. There was of course the odd one or two panicking mother who were horrified at even the thought of their babies climbing it.

Saturday night saw the usual happy hour followed by dinner and the Norman camp-fire activities, but we also had a mystery parcel game which hinged on correctly answering trivial pursuit questions, and once again I was staggered at the lack of knowledge the group exhibits. We did, however, find in the club a potential “Who wants to be a Millionaire” champion, and this is something I think we should pursue. Sunday morning saw a couple of very early arrivals (they must have left home before 5am) and they joined us for a trip to an old fire-tower, and return via Jimna Township, and the bush tracks to camp. This trip had the full compliment of 15 cars, which does make it a little slower, but nonetheless was very enjoyable. We arrived back at camp for lunch, and most people started packing up, but the new arrivals wanted to go play on some big hills, so I took them out to the “Big Hill Spot”. None else came, so I guess they had had enough. When we got back to camp, it was deserted except for the Christos, so we packed and left. I had a really good weekend, and hope everyone else did too. Thanks to all those who attended, and heavy fines will be levied on those who said they were coming but didn’t.

Gordon Bishop,
Trip Leader