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CUP WEEKTRIP TO OMEO
31/10/19 & 1/11/19 Ian Blake
Thursday morning, the following members met at Flynn – John and Heather Kerr, Ian Blake, Alan and Helen MacRae, Terry and Barb Hesky, Rod and Loris Catchpole, and Ross and Sue Howell. A couple of vehicles stopped for fuel in Bairnsdale, all stopped for morning tea in Bruthen. Continued on to Omeo, arriving at 12.30. The afternoon was spent setting up and relaxing. Friday morning some members walked into town for coffee and cake. On returning, explored a creek diversion tunnel. After lunch, we travelled to Victoria River Falls; site of an early hydro power scheme. Returning to the camp ground, we stopped at Kosciusko Lookout.
2/11/19; Sue & Ross Howell
A beautiful sunny morning as we all set off at about “10 ish” for around trip through the mountain forests led by Rod & Loris. We headed out from Omeo on Birregun Rd, on our way to the famous “Dog’s Grave” in the Spring Creek Conservation Reserve, Baldhead Phipps Forest towards Dargo. It took us a little longer than expected so we had lunch here. A pioneering history of a drover’s dog having been poisoned with wild dog bait marks the forest gave us stunning views of the mountains afar and the distant bush tracks. We then progressed onto Jones Rd. towards Swifts Creek, with everyone looking forward to coffee & cake at the local bakery. Surprisingly the bakery was closed - on a long weekend too. Homeward bound, we settled for a cuppa around a cosy fire back at the caravan park. This was short lived as the rain set in so we all abandoned the fire to get ourselves ready for dinner at he “Golden Age Hotel”. A very satisfying meal & drinks was had by all. A great evening! Sunday 3/11/19; Rain, and more heavy rain! Lightning, really loud thunder & hail! What do you do on a cold, cold day like this? Some played Mexican Trains, coached by Alan H, in the camp kitchen, while others stayed warm in their caravans. The roof leaked in the camp kitchen right above where we could have sat around the slow combustion heater. Alan H& Jan found some special silicon in their tool boxes and plugged up the holes. Heather & Colette lovingly cleaned the kitchen prior to this as it was considerably dirty & greasy. After lunch the weather cleared a bit so some of us went into town for a coffee & cake and others went to the courthouse & museum. Sue H has some close family history in the area so she was lucky enough to obtain copies of pages of relevant history from a local historian offering his services at the court. The local cemetery was of excellent value also. Following this the remainder of us met at the local bakery for coffee & cake as the nice cafe was closed. Back at the caravan park we all met in the camp kitchen with the fire roaring for pre dinner drinks. An early night was had by all. 4/11/19 Mark and Eliza Broadbridge
Monday 4 November: We awoke to clear skies after thunderstorms the previous day. A perfect day for a drive! After our briefing, we departed the caravan park at around 10.30am. Rod & Loris were in the lead car with Mark & Eliza as Tail-end Charlie. There were five cars in our convoy. After a couple of false starts, where Jan &Colette followed the wrong convoy, & Rod & Loris followed the wrong road, we were away! Thankfully the previous day’s rain settled all the dust on the dirt roads, making for a dust free convoy. We headed up through the clouds up Mt Nugong to Washington Winch. A huge steam powered engine attached to a giant winch which was used to haul huge logs up to mountain to awaiting logging trucks. Many of the male members took great pleasure in pushing & pulling all the levers on the engine! Then we drove a short distance up the mountain to Moscow Villa Hut; a beautifully restored mountain hut on the Bently Plain. This hut was built by Bill Ah Chow,who was a fire spotter in the summer, who built this as his summer home. The hut is complete with a loft for a bedroom & large fireplace. It is very spacious. This was our lunch stop. While everyone was still finishing their lunch, Mark & Eliza walked the Douglas Reserve walk, where they saw huge mountain ash trees & a walkway that was taken out by a giant tree recently, forcing them to make their way around the debris. It was a beautiful walk taking you through pristine forest & crystal clear creeks. From there we headed back down the mountain, with a slight detour to have a look at Mackenzie Track campground, before deciding on a stop at Ensay Winery, where members did some wine tasting and enjoyed the views from the slope of the hill the winery is on. From here the group split up with some deciding on going to the bakery in Swifts Creek for afternoon tea and others going to Little River Inn at Ensay for a quiet drink. We all arrived back at the caravan park at around 4pm, when wood was collected out of the back of people’s cars in preparation for the communal fire pit that Alan lit in time for happy hour and everyone appreciated when the temp dropped in the evening. Then the rain came that forced everyone back inside their vans!
5/11/1 CUP DAY John and Heather Kerr
Whata great Australian traditional day. Parties, BBQs, sweeps, bets and a jolly good time! We awakened to the smell of a spit beef roast cooking under the watchful eye of Master Chef Rod Catchpole wearing his chef hat. Our neighbours packed up and left such was this alluring aroma. The camp gradually stirred and readied for an eventful day. A number of willing helpers cleaned tables, chairs and benches and set up for the auction of horses later. Everyone dressed up in some way or another. It was too cold for most ladies to wear dresses or skirts but Sue Markham was dressed in a lovely dark blue dress with a black hat. Most ladies wore a fascinator in their hair. President Alan looked resplendent in his “dickie” suit with black bow tie, Mark Broadbridge looked like Dr Livingstone in his pith helmet, braces holding up his trousers and multi coloured bow tie on his white shirt while John Kerr looked posh in hi stop hat and tails, horse racing shirt and multi coloured bow tie. Drinkies started early as everyone gathered in the camp kitchen for President Alan and Secretary Tonee’s horse auction. Bidding for the 3 and 2 horse pack was frantic as Alan extracted every possible dollar from bidders, even trying to fool bidders into going higher. Ross Howell was top bidder at $63, with Sue Howell complaining she wouldn’t have any grocery money for the next week. All members attending contributed to receiving at least one horse in the big race. We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch of roast beef, salads and fruit. Plenty of chatter, laughs and excitement with the Cup coming up. Then off to the Games Room to watch the race. Winners of the two sweeps were –
1st$100 Ken & Sue Markham and Mark and Eliza Broadbridge
2nd $60 Ron & Dot Prince and Sandi& Lou (caravan park operators)
3rd $35.50 Ron & Dot Prince and Jan & Colette Parniak
Last- Alan & Helen MacRae and Jan & Colette Parniak.
We then gathered for a “team” photo in the children’s playground (quite apt!) followed by fellowship outside the camp kitchen. Helen, Tonee and Colette looking like 3 little blackbirds with Sue Markham reciting her original “off the cuff”
Three little blackbirds sitting on a wire
Perched behind the fire
The flames are missing
And so is the kissing
After a tea of “leftovers” we ventured to President Alan’s campfire for drinks to finish what was a most enjoyable day.
6/11/19 Jan and Colette Parniak
On Wednesday morning the forecast was going to be over cast with showers throughout the day. Nevertheless we set off at 9.30 on an experience like never before. Ross, our trip organizer, mentioned it's a round trip with a morning tea stop and be back at lunch time. Into the hills and rugged mountain ranges of Omeo; five vehicles, 1 defender and 4 discos with 14 members, on board set off. Ross and Sue lead the contingent with Rod and Loris being tail end Charlie. Setting off we headed north towards Benambra. First stop was at McMillans lookout with some magnificent views of the vast farming plains surrounding Omeo. Continuing on, we travelled still north, viewing the Hinnomumjie race track and rodeo oval and drove around Omeo lake, at this time the lake bed was dry and covered in grass with cattle grazing, beautiful view had by all. Driving past the lake and climbing the ranges we stopped at a peak called Blow Hard Lookout. The 360deg views of farm land and rolling plains was magnificent. Up so high we could see the historical trestle bridge across the Mitta Mitta River (aka Hinnomumjie ( Mitta ) bridge. From here on the road turned from bitumen to gravel, with several gates which had to be opened and shut as we travelled along Kelly's road. The further we got into bush land and steep valleys the road turned into a track with deep wash outs on the track surface. It looked like we were lost at one stage, when at a "Y" intersection one track was leading straight up to heaven, another around a bend and narrowing and third leading down to hell; we took the third leading to hell . At a slow pace we continued eventually coming to another "Y" intersection at which point Ross saw a person doing some cross country walking from Canberra to here so far. Talking to him he advised we should turn right as he had seen a4wd sometime earlier going down that direction which leads to Taylor's Crossing on the Mitta Mitta River. At Taylors Crossing there is a magnificent pedestrian swing bridge but for vehicles it's a river crossing. With all the rain in the past couple of days the river was a bit high. After some thought, Ross decided to drive across the river. The water level came up to the top of his fender arch. Seeing the water level so high on Ross's defender, made the rest have second thoughts, due to the fact some of us didn't have snorkels on our vehicles and the water would have been too close for comfort to the diesel air intakes. Alan Harlow thought if he walked the crossing and prodded the depth, he might find a shallow crossing but it wasn't to be, so after stripping to jocks, walking the crossing and being unable to part the waters for the rest of us, Alan came back with Ross in his Defender, a little colder than most of us. After morning tea (which was lunch time by now!) we headed back the same way we come. The narrow track was windy, pot holed, slippery including step descents and a small stream crossing. At one point climbing out of hell, crawling up the track it looked like the shire council was here digging trenches ready to lay water/sewage pipes. As we edged our cars up trying to negotiate the deep ruts, one vehicle slipped off the top and slide into the rut, bottoming the belly of the car and wheels spinning in free air. Ross decided he’d try and pull the disco out, and so reversed his defender down, only also to slip off the slippery edge and now we have 2 vehicles in dire straits. This is what 4 wd. is all about, so we got to work gathered bits of wood, stacked them into the ruts, and with a shovel dug some, to free up the bottomed out cars, and with the use of Ross's winch we proceeded to get the cars out. Wasn't too long before we hit the better part of Kelly's road and then onto the other 2 decided we would go into Benambra. We are now off the bitumen and back onto the steep gravel road heading past Blow Hard Lookout again and instead going around Lake Omeo we decided to drive across the bed of the lake and save a km or two. The Lake bed was very dry and kicked up some dust while driving crossing it. At Benambra we had coffee and chips at the local store and arrived at camp at 3.30 in the afternoon. That's it, for a short round trip to be home by lunch, it turned out to be a full day which I'm sure we thoroughly enjoyed even if it at times it seemed like going to hell and back. Thanks heaps to you Ross for an unexpected, surprising adventure; we all had a great time. Those who went on the trip Ross & Sue, Rod & Loris, Ron & Dot, Alan & Helen, Alan & Tonee, John &Heather and Jan & Colette.
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