10 June 2007 - A really, really, cold morning this morning, Steveo points to a thermometer hanging up which is showing -2 degrees and the dogs water bowl has almost completely frozen.
A few new faces at the campfire this morning, but we cheated this morning and cooked the bacon and eggs in the van.
Puppy has so far has been having a great time playing with the kids and other dogs and couldn't careless about ourselves and has now successfully turned herself from a Golden retriever into a black one. Caitlin is just starting to play with the other kids today and Meg who's a little under the weather with a Cold is getting very cross with puppy because she keeps running off and playing with the German Shepherds and not her.
Today is the big day for the Upper Jamieson Hut working bee which the AULRO group has just been nominated as caretakers of, thanks to Gavin (84RR) who has been working with DSE and Parks Vic to make this happen.
Connor and I headed out to the Hut with the plan to car pool from the top as the track and the river crossing can be a little tricky depending on conditions. But when we reached the sharp turn off and steep track down I enquired over the UHF "If I would be okay?" and was replied with "Yeah". Reaching the bottom of the track I was confronted with the river, now they don't call me "Soft" for no reason but Connor said "Come on Dad!" so off we went. (There's one thing being soft and another being soft in front of your 14 year old son!) So without anymore hesitation and no issues we made our way across the river and promptly notched up our very first river crossing.
Reaching the hut we found 2 groups of families camping at the hut who presently found themselves inundated with AULRO members. We all chipped in, installing guttering, digging drains, laying gravel, replacing a window and raking up leaves and debris and burning it all. Connor took the task of keeping the fire alight which was burning the gathered debris.
Once again I had to be centre of attention and managed to lock my keys in the Disco at the hut!
I had intentionally left my keys in the ignition as I was paranoid at the thought of loosing them whilst working on the hut. I wandered around to the tailgate to open it to get some wipes to clean up I found that it was locked, so I promptly wandered around to the passenger side and opened the door and hit the door lock release on the dash. Shutting the passenger door and wandering around to the tailgate I found it still locked, so once again I made my way back to the passenger only to find that it was locked too!!! What I had done was hit the button on the dash and not unlocked the doors but instead I have locked them.
Now what?!? There's no mobile phone coverage so I can't ring Cath to see if she has her keys and I have a nagging suspicion that they are in the console of the Disco anyway.
Well prising the trim up from the window we tried poking a piece of wire down the glass into the door to find the door lock mechanism and even though we managed to move the door lock release up the door it would not unlock. What now?
Cutting a long story short (I'm getting tired of typing) and a few false starts, Shane (shags) and I managed to open the Disco by prising open the door and feeding a length of hooping iron in and pressing the door unlock button on the dash! Ignoring the fact that there was no mobile phone coverage, I still wander what would have happened if I had rung the RACV to get my keys out of the car?
After the above little adventure I have had enough excitement for one day and am ready to head back to camp so following Ray we made our way across the river and up the slippery track to the top. (I was later informed that I should have stopped on the other side of the river to allow water to drain from the vehicle so as not to make the track all wet for all those following behind) Woops!
On the way back to camp I tried to take some pictures of the views but every time I stopped I would have a string of cars backing up behind me and unfortunately the pictures Connor took going through the river also turned out to be just as blurry as mine.
Back to camp I found the girls and puppy are off playing with the other kids and Connor and I recount our stories to Cath and then refill the tank in the van from the river.
Our last night tonight and with Cath and the girls off in bed, Connor and I stay up very late (or early) around the extremely large Camp fire. After more than a few beers and whilst waiting for Dim Sims to cook the conversation has turned to comedy with such business ventures being discussed as "Roadkill Souvlakis" on that note we finally made our way to bed.
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AULRO - Sheepyard Flat, Day 3
Slideshow
10 June 2007 - A really, really, cold morning this morning, Steveo points to a thermometer hanging up which is showing -2 degrees and the dogs water bowl has almost completely frozen.
