Annual Cup Week Trip 2018 : Moruya NSW
Nineteen members gathered together in beautiful Moruya on the NSW south coast to celebrate cup week.
Attendees; Ian Blake (Defender), Ross and Sue Howell (Defender), Ted & Shirley Allchin (Discovery 2), Rod & Loris Catchpole (Discovery 3), Alan & Tonee Harlow (Discovery 3), John & Heather Kerr, Jan & Colette Parniak, Greg and Loris Rose, Alan & Helen MacRae (Discovery 4s) and Terry & Barb Heskey in their new Jayco motor home.
Once again Rod and Loris Catchpole outdid themselves in organising a fabulous trip that included interesting bush tracks to drive, a river cruise, and local markets. Special shout outs to Heather Kerr for introducing all to her own special version of dominoes, to Ted and Shirl for their Trivia Quiz night, and Alan Harlow for his ever-inventive new takes on running the cup sweep.
An especially hilarious evening on the final night for the remaining 16 of us, when an impromptu game of Charades developed, shall remain ever memorable.
Here are the daily reports…
Arrival: Wednesday 31/10 & Thursday 1/11 Jan and Colette Parniak
We set off from home at 7.30 am to meet John & Heather down on Narracan Drive. The four of us then set off to the next rendezvous to meet up with the rest of the contingent at Flynn.
The four of us were the first there, followed by Ross and Sue, Ted and Shirley, Rod and Loris, Alan and Helen. At about 8.30am there was a phone call from Terry and Barb informing us that we should head off as they would be still ¾ to 1 hr away. Now it was all 12 of us heading off to our next stop
We bypassed Sale, straight through Stratford, and as we drove through Bairnsdale we veered left and onto Bruthen for our morning coffee and cake at the local bakery.
All finished, the 12 of us headed onto Cann River for lunch and a top up with either petrol or diesel. Our next stop was planned for Genoa, and with approx 90kms to go all 12 took off at a leisurely pace to arrive there at about 4.00pm, with just a short wait till beer o’clock time, this is when Terry and Barb caught up with us.
Now all 14 of us are on our final leg of the trip to Moruya. Leaving the Genoa campsite, most of us turned left except for Ross and Sue, John and Heather. Ross turned right to go back and have a look at Old Township and John followed, thinking that Ross was following the rest of us…
Ross was quite a distance in front of John, so when he turned into town after crossing the river, John didn’t notice, and consequently was heading to Cann River. Not sure how far they continued before it was obvious to John that they had gone the wrong way. After leaving Genoa the morning coffee break was at Bega. Somehow the group was split up again, due to unforeseen circumstances. The two groups were only 500 metres apart but far enough to not see one another. Rod, Loris, Ted, Shirley and ourselves, Jan and Colette, took off and while crossing the bridge over the Bega River, there below us was the rest of the gang… They gave us a royal salute and with horns blazing passed one another.
From there-on, plain sailing to Moruya to meet up with the Harlows. It wasn’t long before all the other parties arrived, set up camp, and … you guessed it…Beer O’Clock Time.
The following day the Roses arrived and also Ian.
Friday 2/11/18 Ian Blake
On Friday afternoon, members travelled 17km to Mogo - a small town with lots of small gift-type shops, book shop, leather wares, haberdashery and a large display of historic sewing machines, bric-a-brac, ice-cream and lots more.
The original Gold Rush Colony 1850 Pioneer Town, and a yard with rusty tractors, trucks and cars.
On the return trip, members drove the tourist drive along the beach back to camp.
(Editors note: the beach stop enabled the viewing in the latest of briefest swim wear, causing Shirl to call “Don’t look Ian...!!!!” to the delight of the rest of us…)
Saturday 3/11/18 John & Heather Kerr
Today we awakened to a very windy day. The Moruya Market was the morning attraction. Most of us walked across the bridge from the caravan park and had to hold onto the rails and each other as the wind howled across us. Having reached the market we wandered around the many stalls. Some bought books (Ted loved them), clothing (the ladies hunted the bargains), and plants (Ross purchased 8 tomato plants for $10, or was it 10 for $8 and it was a bargain. Hope you’ve planted them Ross). Tonee, Heather and Ross enjoyed a free foot massage as well as advice on their health. Coffee and lunch topped off the morning before we battled the wind and returned to the caravan park.
Our afternoon was for doing as we pleased. Some played farmyard roundup which Heather indoctrinated several people into during our stay. The game was played on several nights and you could tell by the noise in the camp kitchen that people enjoyed it.
At 6.00pm a courtesy bus picked us up and took us to the Moruya Bowling Club for a scrumptious dinner (tea if you are old fashioned) and an enjoyable social occasion.
Sunday 4/11/18 River Cruise Greg & Lois Rose
Clyde River Boat Cruise - Batemans Bay to Nelligen and return.
The weather was superb for our boat cruise; warm, sunny and very little breeze across the water. Just like in the 1960s T.V. show “Gillian’s Island” it was to be a three hour cruise. Fortunately our outcome was better than that suffered by Gillian, the long suffering skipper and the unlikely group of passengers of the “Minnow”.
Our own cast of colourful characters left Moruya at 10 a.m. for the half hour drive north to Batemans Bay. Plenty of time for a coffee prior to boarding the “Escapade” at 11. Alan MacRae made a new friend at Innes Boat Shed. The young lady behind the counter saw Alan Harlow’s club clothing and said she needed a paint number for the restoration of her father’s 1972 short wheel base Land Rover. Alan MacRae promised to look at his 1972 shorty and email the paint code. That resulted in a platter of prawns being delivered to the boat. Alan, not being a prawn eater, shared them around; yum.
We had reserved seating on the 60 tonne cruise vessel. The boat motored into the bay which gave us a chance to look at some impressive real estate and even more impressive pleasure craft in the marina.
Our boat captain had a great commentary for the whole trip, lots of history facts. Interesting that the tourist industry has filled the local economy gap left by the ending of the timber and commercial fishing industries.
The boat turned around and headed to Innes Boat Shed, the famous fish and chip cafe in the Bay and picked up our delicious lunches. The lift span bridge had to be raised to allow our boat to enter the Clyde River. That bridge raising halts all the highway traffic. Sadly the wonderful old steel bridge is soon to be replaced by a modern high level concrete structure. It will be much more efficient but not as unique as the old bridge.
The voyage upstream to Nelligen was superb. After feasting on our fish, chips and salad people sat and chatted, ventured up to the bow and up to the wheelhouse deck for better views. We passed the extensive Sydney Rock Oyster “farms” and travelled through superb National Park bush land.
At Nelligen we had half an hour’s shore leave. There were ice creams to be eaten and historic photographs to view. We also looked at the remaining stump of the huge tree the Clarke brothers, murderous bushrangers, were chained to before being transported to Sydney and ultimately hanged for their crimes.
The return to Batemans Bay was notable for the small power boat that inexplicably decided to cross in front of the Escapade’s bow twice. The skipper first slowed then had to go into reverse to avoid a collision. The skipper incidentally was a massive Land Rover fan having used Defenders extensively in the U.K.
While most of us had the river adventure Ian Blake toured Tilba Tilba and checked out some sights he had missed at Mogo.
The highlight of the day’s post cruise Happy Hour, apart from the nibbles provided by Tonee and Heather, was the sampling of Alan Harlow’s very spicy pickled onions.
Thanks to Rod and Loris’ research we have had excellent river cruises two years running as part of the Cup Weekend.
Monday 5/11/18 Alan & Helen MacRae
Day trip to Araluen, Majors Creek and Braidwood
Promptly, at about 9.00am, five vehicles left the park to commence the climb to Araluen via Larry’s Mountain Road. After Mogendoura the road became a dirt track which narrowed as it wound up to (you guessed it!) Larry’s Mountain. At the intersection with Ridge Road we found a water truck and grader taking a rest. That explained why the track condition was pretty good.
We turned right at the intersection with Araluen Road (still a dirt track, with occasional short stretches of bitumen which usually coincided with a house. Clearly the residents don’t appreciate dust.) We followed the Deua river for quite some distance, passing the Dry Creek and Deua River camping areas after which the track condition markedly improved as we approached the old mining town of Araluen. This area, which previously boasted to be the richest source of alluvial gold in Australia is now best known for its fruit. In its heyday, the area boasted 28 hotels, 5 police stations and 8 schools, not to mention a significant number of alluvial gold dredgers. Today there is one pub which was shut. It being only 10.30, one vehicle nearly drove past the morning tea site at the hotel, wrongly assuming that the message to stop at the hotel was a joke. Even though the pub was shut, the Publican was happy to let us use the picnic tables and toilets and would probably have poured us a beer if we had asked. Araluen is not actually the centre of the universe, so had the publican and us done a deal, it would probably have been a red letter day in the recent history of the pub.
After morning tea and arranging to look after an abandoned camera, we set off along the now sealed road towards Braidwood. Of course travelling a sealed road would have not been seemly, so in short order we turned back onto dirt and commenced the climb up the mountain to Majors Creek.
We stopped at Clark’s Lookout, which affords a fantastic view over the Araluen Valley. It was at this point that the rightful owner of the camera realised that he no longer knew of its whereabouts. Once reunited, a group photo was taken and we hopped back in the cars to recommence the climb.
Seating arrangements were subject to agricultural musical chairs and it was discovered that one vehicle comprised only hens, and another only roosters.
At the top of the climb, we intersected a bitumen road and proceeded through Majors Creek to Braidwood. A short tour of the town ensued; short since most of the interesting shops were shut for the day. A few of us managed to liberate a number of model cars. Land Rovers and another obscure brand that ensures one of our members has multiple interests from “Car Models of Braidwood” which fortuitously was open.
Most of us took lunch at the Bakery, much to the chagrin of the group photographer who had visions of a more salubrious lunch. I say most of us because the multifaceted model car collector and partner partook of the fare at the second hand book shop/café on the other side of the road.
After lunch we departed independently down Kings Highway for home via Batemans Bay. The record for the slowest trip home (and probably the most circuitous route) was set jointly by one of the Discoveries and the only non Discovery in the touring party.
Note: The names of the guilty have been withheld on the basis that “What happens on tour, stays on tour”.
Tuesday 6/11/18 CUP DAY Ted & Shirley Allchin
The chicken, salads and pavlovas having previously been ordered, were collected by Rod and Loris this morning. Chicken platters were prepared and the pavlovas filled, while savoury scones were being baked in preparation for our Cup Day luncheon in the camp kitchen and recreation room of the caravan park.
After lunch Alan Harlow conducted an auction of the horses surplus to the number required in the sweep, which lead to some very keen bidding, and drew the sweep.
The business matters being completed, we all settled to watch the big race and see whose investments paid dividends. The lucky people were, Helen with the winning horse, Loris with the second horse, which was also the leading auctioned horse, and Alan MacRae the third runner.
We lazed away the rest of the afternoon, and dined on the remainder of the chicken, salad and desserts for tea. After tea Ted and Shirley conducted a trivia quiz, with the group divided into three teams, resulting in a three way tie for first place, consequently three first prizes were awarded.
This concluded the day’s activities and we drifted back to our camps.
Wednesday 7/11/18 Canberra Ross & Sue Howell
At 8.30am a convoy of two cars with Jan, Colette, & Alan Harlow, Ross, Sue, John & Heather left Moruya CP. Travelling North of town to Bateman’s Bay we started the ascent of Clyde Mountain via Braidwood to Canberra. As it was reasonably early the visibility on the way up was poor due to low cloud & fog so the trip slowed for a while with no views. Arriving at the New Parliament House car park at 10.45am was considerably easy with the aid of Google maps. We decided we needed morning tea so we headed to Queens Cafe on the 1st floor of Parliament House. Following our coffee etc. we were lucky enough to be given a private tour by Alan as he had very recently been to Parliament House. This tour included a display of knitted & crocheted poppies arranged in columns on the walls of the 1st floor annexe. There were also hundreds of poppies laid on the ground at the entry to the front door of the house. Even in the pouring rain these sopping wet poppies really sent a message of remembrance. They looked stunning against the white columns of Parliament House.
The next part of our trip was to negotiate the route to the Australian War Memorial on the other side of Lake Burley Griffin. This was done by driving over the bridge along Commonwealth Ave. & Anzac Ave. to the Car Park of the memorial. The view of the 62000 poppies in the ground on the western side of the War Memorial was breathtaking.
There was one poppy for each Australian soldier killed in WW1. The poppies were supplied & arranged by the 5000 Poppy group. The poppies came from all over Australia plus from all over the world. It was an idea started by the group in Melbourne for the 100th Anniversary of Anzac in 2015.These poppies have been reused here for this 100th Anniversary of the signing of the Armistice.
We had lunch in the Poppy Cafe in the grounds of the memorial followed by a quick look at the WW1 display & the shop.
Finally we arrived home at 6.45pm after a very rewarding trip.
The remainder of the LR club members had started dinner in the common room of the CP having leftovers from Cup day.
After dinner we split into two groups & played Charades, acting out movie titles. Wow! What a show! A few budding actors, some R rated themes among the movies. We had such fun with a lot of laughs but I better not give too many details of the sex acts. Imagination only & the rest to remain in our memories.
Editors footnote
Most members made their own way home, in their own time due to various personal commitments.
The Harlows, Howells, Allchins and Parniaks circled their wagons together (free camping) at Cann River on the Thursday night. The cicadas greeted us in fine form (drowned out the traffic noise and the nearby generator!), and the cute possum in the nearby tree managed to provide both Shirl and Alan with a wee shampoo experience…
We sat around a wonderful campfire till 11pm; a fitting end to a wonderful week away together.
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