The Austrailian Camper Trailer Group Eleventh National Meet 2015

When I bought my little camper trailer in January this year I did a search on Facebook and discovered that there was a large group of people who had similar interests in camping which best summed up below.

I immediately joined the group.  I tried to join them at a South East Queensland Meet in February but the tail end of a cyclone prevented that but I did get together with them in June.  I was encouraged to join them at their National Meet in a little town called Gulgong in NSW about 1100Km from Tewantin.

The route was similar to the first three days of the journey to Mansfield for the Bike Friday in April this year:

http://briedw02.blogspot.com.au/2015_05_01_archive.html 




My house sitter let me down at the last minute so Louis had to go in kennels much to his disgust.  I left  on Wednesday 23 Sept after dropping Bettie of at her optometrist and stayed overnight at Millmerran where I had camped before. I had an enormous meal at the local tavern.

    

Camped at Millmerran

Pork ribs and porterhouse steak with a 200ml glass of red

The next day I drove to Narrabri where the Caravan Park put on a free sausage sizzle for dinner.

On the Friday I cut across country on minor roads to Gulgong where the group were meeting at the local show ground.  I set up my camper trailer with its awning but left the walls off.  The weather was dry and mild, about 25C.  There were about 100 camper trailers and caravans with 250 members of group camped there.  That evening groups of campers had fires burning brightly and the temperature plummeted to 1C.  I was cooking a steak for dinner  but because of the wind it took an hour and a half to cook properly.  I got thoroughly chilled and went to bed wearing my track suit over my pajamas.

We needed the campfires at night.

The next day I put up the walls around my awning so I could cook in and eat in the warm.

My Jazz in front of my little CT between two big CTs

I had camped on a non-powered site and hoped to manage with out power for 10 days using my solar panel to charge up my battery and keep my refrigerator going.  I managed OK and had enough to have my home made LED lighting system on as well as keeping my phone and tablet charged.

Charging our batteries.  My panel is the small one.

 The first day in camp, Sunday, I took it easy as my AF had made me very tired but I was able to join in the activities on the other days.  These officially started on Sunday evening and the full details are given here:

http://www.campertrailers.org/gulgong15.htm

There are lots of photos at this link but I have successfully avoided being in any of them.

On Monday morning I went to the presentation and tour at the Prince of Wales Opera House which is owned by the Gulgong Musical and Dramatic Society (MADS).  Gulgong was an 1870s gold rush town and at one time had the second largest population in NSW after Sydney.  The Opera House literally put on operas.  It was very interesting to hear how Gulgong went fro zero to 50,000 in a few months and is now back at 1,800.  It has over 180 listed buildings. Even the supermarket is hidden behind the facade of the  old provisions store.

The Prince of Wales Opera House 

The famous Australian pianist Roger Woodward has played here. They have their own Steinway Piano and hold a Roger Woodward Piano Competition each year.  Even Dame Nelly Melba sang here.

Monday afternoon I attended the talk on batteries and solar panels.  I didn't go to the auction as I was too tired so went to bed after buying a Thai takeaway for dinner.

My Thai takeaway

Before retiring I took some photos of my living room.

My kitchen

My larder and fridge

My lounge and dining table

M front door

Tuesday morning I attended the talk on 12 volt wiring and in the afternoon went to the Henry Lawson Centre for a talk on Henry Lawson's life.

Henry Lawson is probably Australia's best known poet and author who was born on the goldfields near Gulgong.  He featured on our $10.00 note when they were paper back in 1966 along with pictures of Gulgong's main street.  The old Salvation Army Citadel has been converted into a museum covering Lawson's life which, as he was an alcoholic, is ironic.  It was an interesting talk.

In the evening I took part in the trivia night and made up a scratch table of 10.  We did OK coming in the top four tables out of 20. It was great fun.

On Wednesday I had breakfast prepared by the Gulgong Show Society before spending the day at the Gulgong Pioneer Museum and exploring the old town.   In the evening we had a special MADS production at the Opera House,  Lawson's Mates.  I had dinner in the hotel next door beforehand and we had a damper supper afterwards. It was a good performance with bush musicians, poetry and play.

Fish and chips at the hotel

Thursday was spent finding out about camping first aid, free camping in the bush and looking at other people's campers before looking at 12 lighting. 

Friday I learned about traveling with dogs but you really need a person with the dog at all times so Louis will stay at home.  In the afternoon we ended the official meeting.

Saturday was the Gulgong Chinese Gold Festival Day.  It was the first and probably last one.  The parade was a fizzer with the fire brigade and one float.  Sunday I drove into Mudgee where I had camped with my Bike Friday Club in 2014.  I had lunch at a swank hotel where they served lunch om a wooden platter.

Posh Fish and Chips

On Monday I packed up and made the three day drive back home without incident.

It had been a good couple of weeks but I was happy to pickup Louis from the kennels and be back in my own home.

This link shows that I did sneek into one photo.

Brian in the background

A Difficult Few Months

I had debated with myself about posting this blog as I normally carry on about cycling and camping plus my general reasonably happy life.  There were clouds on the horizon concerning my good dog walking friend, Bettie's, health.

When I got back from my Winter Madness Camping and Cycling get away in June I began to experience continuous Atrial Fibrillation (AF) episodes which after even quite mild exercise, like walking Louis, caused fatigue and mild dizziness.  My GP carried out an ECG which showed that my heart had decided to abandon Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR)  and enter the chaotic world of Permanent AF.

I have had Paroxysmal AF for some years and it caused my stroke in 2011 but its affects had been controlled by medication (calcium channel blockers) to control my heart rate and anticoagulants to prevent blood clots.  AF is not a fatal decrease if the medication works but one feels like crap when having a session.

I was referred to a cardiologist who, after checking my heart over 24 hours using a holter monitor,  confirmed that I was in permanent AF.  My resting heart rate was 82 but when walking Louis it went to 150 plus.  He said that there was no real cure and that I should try new medication and replaced my calcium channel blockers with beta blockers.  I had some improvement for a couple of weeks.  I was still in AF but the beta blockers kept my heart rate under control.  After about four weeks I began to experience the full AF symptoms but was told to give it three months.

I decided that I would go to Australian Camper Trailer Group annual meeting in country NSW in late September early October which I will cover in a following post.  I had a couple of bad days but enjoyed meeting other mad campers.

Before I left Bettie had nearly completed her second round of chemo for lung cancer and the tumors had shrunk.  On the day I left she had an appointment with her optometrist and, as she was having eye drops, dropped her of in Noosa.  I received a phone call the following night in Narrabri, where I was camped for the night, from my other dog walking friend, Jo.

Bettie had spent two days having medical test and scans.  She had used the local bus service, which is infrequent, to go from her eye test to her GP, then to have a CT scan and then back to her GP for the results.  They were disastrous.  She now had a couple of tumors on her brain and the spot on her spine had developed to when it was causing pain.  She didn't get home til 6.00pm having left home at 9.00am.

Next day she caught the bus to Nambour, 40Km away, to see her oncologist who said that chemo should be stopped.  She got home and stopped to see Jo to get help.  Her brain tumors we preventing her from being able to dial telephone numbers.  This is when Jo phoned me as Bettie needed somebody to help.  I had, at home, the phone numbers of Bettie's old friends, Denise and Ben.  Jo walked-to my house and used my emergency keys to get in and found the numbers in my study.  Denise and Ben phoned me later to say that Bettie was OK and a roster of friends were looking after her.

After my camping trip I took over taxi duty and took Bettie on several GP visits and a visit to the oncologist where her treatment options were outlined.  Basically palliative care and maybe radiation to minimize the pain from the spinal tumor.  I sat in on all the consultations as Bettie was worried that she would forget things.  I also took her little dog, Bella, for walks with Louis.  Bettie walked to the end of her short street with me, about 100 metres, before returning home.  Other friends fed her and checked her medications, all painkillers.

Last Sunday, 25 Oct, Bettie said the she couldn't remember pouring a beer earlier in the day and that, with another incident, made me think that she had blacked out a couple of times.  After my walk I said that I would look in next day after having another holter monitor fitted.

Next day I got a phone call from Denise.  Bettie had had a blackout overnight and woken up in terrible state on the floor.  She had used her emergency call service to contact Denise,
 who asked me if I would call in and pick up Bella as Bettie was worried about her.  I was lucky enough to just see Bettie before she was taken off in the ambulance to Nambour Hospital where she died on Monday 2nd November, my birthday.

Bettie's little dog was seventeen and a half, deaf and nearly blind and Bettie had been advised that she would be unhappy to be re-home even with me.  Yesterday at 12.00noon I took her on her final walk with Louis around the park and dropped he off a Bettie's house where a vet was waiting to put her to sleep.  This ended a 14 year friendship.
 

Bella before her last walk with Louis

Winter Madness - Part 3

It rained most of the night and the weather forecast for my destination for the day was pretty awful.  I managed to pack up in the dry but had a very wet tent to fold down and my annex roof was saturated.  I'd had my normal breakfast and was ready to roll at 9.30am.  I decided to take the direct route to my destination, Kenilworth, even though it has a narrow winding section over the range.

The bit between Woodford and Maleny was very twisty and foggy

I stopped at Kilcoy for a coffee and a sandwich and also bought some prepared wiener schnitzels  and a steak for my weekends dinners.  I made another stop at Woodford for a comfort break before tackling the twisty road to Maleny.  This stretch of road was also very wet and to make things worse there were patches of dense fog which limited my speed to less than 60KPH in places.

After Maleny, another favourite town of Margaret's.  the road to Kenilworth was very narrow at times but dry and in sunshine.  I arrived at our campsite in the Kenilworth Showgrounds to find the other Sunshine Coast Bicycle Club members already set up.  It was about 2.00pm.  They were amused that I was all rugged up against the cold as it was bright and sunny in Kenilworth.  Apparently on the coast it was pouring with rain and a few members had called off their camping weekend.

I set up next to a power pole. My sister tells me that this glamping not camping.  I decided not to use my annex walls.  The rest of the SCBTC members were evenly split between glampers and campers.

Set Up near the power pole

The camper van and tents are camping

The camper trailer has solar power and are half and half the caravan is definitely glamping with air conditioning, toilet and shower.

The RV is definitely glamping but the camper van is camping.  Note the bags of firewood and fireplaces.

Soon after I set up the weather changed and we had some rain which cleared up by 5.00pm and we soon had two big fires going.  I cooked my wiener schnitzel for dinner with some salad and I opened a cold bottle of Chardonnay.  After dinner we all sat around the fires and chatted before another shower forced us to bet about 10.00pm.

It was bright and sunny when I woke up so I got dressed in my cycling clothes and after breakfast set up my folding mountain bike for the ride organized for today.  It was still raining on the coast but we had a lovely day for a ride.  It was just a short ride of 25Km over a hill and along a creek until the road run out.  Them we retraced our route towards home.  We were nowhere near a cafe but to our surprise as were rounded a bend there was a "pop up cafe".  Terry, Jenny, Dennis and Kerri had driven out early and hidden a table and all the necessary things for a coffee and cake stop beside the creek. It was a great surprise and lovely stop.  The cafe was dismantled and hidden again and were continued our ride back to the campsite.  I accompanied Henri in his 4WD back to the coffee stop to retrieve the table etc and also took a couple of photos of the view.

Our "pop up" cafe site

Looking the other way.

Back at the camp we lit the bonfires, there were three of them and sat around chatting and sharing snacks and nibbles.

Snacking and drinking around the fire

I had my steak, onions and salad for dinner and sat around chatting and drinking red wine until 10.00pm when I went to bed.

 The next morning most of the group went for a long walk.  I stayed back in camp as I can't walk very fast.  I ended up doing a short walk around Kenilworth and having a coffee break in town.

After lunch everybody except me packed up and went home.  I had arranged my house sitter to stay until Monday so I stayed an extra night.  I walked into town to have a meal at the pub but it wash shut!  The whole town appeared to have closed down but fortunately the was a pizza shop open.  I ordered garlic bread and a small Kenilworth pizza.  I walked back to my CT and ate under my awning washing my meal down with beer.  It was the best pizza I have have in years.  I watched a TV program on my tablet before going to sleep.

On Monday morning I packed up another wet tent and drove back to Tewantin.  I was home by 11.00am. 

My lonely Camper Trailer

My drive home

Louis gave me a great welcome and was happy to go to bed early.

It had been a really good 11 days.

Good Night

Winter Madness - Part 2

I made my goodbyes to the Camper Trailer Group just before lunch.  I had no firm plans for the next few days before I met the Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club at Kenilworth on Friday.  I had originally intended to camp in different places each night but really just wanted to go some where quiet and "veg out" for a few days.  I headed north from Atkinson's Dam and parked my rig a Esk  about 35Km north and stopped for lunch.

Margaret and I had camped at Esk in 1999 in our caravan.  We were in a Caravan Club and joined them for a weekend get together and took our big black standard poodle, Pierre.  We enjoyed the place.  I walked up and down and looked in at the local caravan park where we had stayed.  I was tempted to book in for a couple of nights but finally decided to move on.

About 80Km up the road was a little town called Yarraman where we had also camped back in 1999 and I remembered that it had a quieter caravan park about 2Km north of town.  Margaret loved it because we had our own "en suite" shower and toilet facilities.  Yarraman was the base for the construction of a large coal powered power station and the caravan park was the workers  camp.  It had blocks of four shower.toilet facilities with workers cabins in between.  The cabins had gone by 1999 and caravan sites set up instead.

My route for the day.

I arrived at the caravan park about 3.00pm and checked in for two nights.  There were relief managers in place as the owners were taking a break but park was still in the same hands and was much as I remembered it.  I decided that I didn't need my own facilities and was given a nice powered site near the camp kitchen.  As I intended to only stay two nights I set up my tent trailer and put up my annex roof but not its walls.  I intended to use the cap kitchen for cooking.

As I set up a large caravan towed by a four wheel drive pulled in on the adjacent site and began setting up.  I called out to the bloke setting up that he was giving my little set up an inferiority complex.  He introduced himself and his wife.  They were from Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast and were just away for a few days and would be staying three nights before moving on.

My set up without the annex walls

At about 5.30pm the managers lit a bonfire in a fire pit just across the road behind my set up.  I sat there for a while chatting with my neighbours and having drink.  At about 7.30pm I cooked my dinner on the camp kitchen's barbeque.  Sausages and onions together with boiled potatoes, peas and brown gravy cooked using the camp kitchen stove.  I ate my dinner under my tent awning as I was only about 10 metres away from the kitchen.  Of course I accompanied it with a nice South Australian red wine.  I was tucked up in bed by 9.30pm having warmed up my tent with my  electric fan heater.  Ah! the luxury of a powered site.

I had a comfortable night and had my breakfast under my awning.  My normal breakfast of orange juice, toasted fruit loaf and a cup of tea.  I had brought my electric kettle and toaster with me.

I decided to walk into town and took-the foot path along the Old Yarraman Road which ran parallel to the new highway.  It was really overgrown and quite steep.  I had brought my walking stick with me and was glad I had.

The old Yarraman Road

There is the original white line!

I had morning coffee and a custard tart at the local bakery before exploring Yarraman and returning back to my camp.

I decided that I should have lunch in town and drove down the highway for a big steak smothered in sauce and covering my chips and salad at the Yarraman Hotel.  As I was driving I had to wash it down with diet coke:(

The Yarraman Hotel

My T-bone steak.  It actually tasted great

After lunch I had looked around the local historic house but was not impressed so I went back to my tent for a snooze.

I had beans on toast for dinner with a white wine.  My neighbours were away for the night so I sat in my little tent and updated this blog about Life With Bella before going to bed.

I had decided to stay in Yarraman until Friday and had paid for another two nights.  I really like the caravan park and prefer my annex without its walls.  I have to close the fridge locker's lid at night in case it rains but can sit beside it against the tent in quiet windy wet weather.

The next day, Wednesday,  I took another walk into town via another path with more open views of the area.  I had coffee and another custard tart at the bakery,  they make lovely custard tarts, before walking back to camp via a longer route.

Yarraman's water tank just above the caravan park

Looking down on Yarraman

 I drove about 30Km north to the town of Nanango where I bought lunch and explored the town on foot.  It is a much bigger town than Yarraman and actually had a set of traffic lights.

Back at camp my neighbours had returned so we had another bonfire with drinks.   The weather took a turn for the worse.  We prepared our meals in the camp kitchen and ate them under the veranda of the community room.  There were power points so we had our fan heaters on under the tables to keep warm.  After dinner, I had cheese sandwiches and white wine, I sat rugged up under my awning watching the storm.  I was quite dry but was glad that I had my heater to warm up the tent.

My neighbours packed up and moved on today.  I decided to take a forest drive to see if I could find the huge open cut coal mile which is nearby and perhaps get as far a the power station. I got to the edge of the mine but a new fence stopped me taking any good photos.  The road got too rough and rutted for my little Jazz so I had to turn back.

The local coal mine and power station. I was over the back.

I continued on past Yarraman to the little town of Cooyar where I stopped for a bun and a coffee.   Then it was across country via the Cooyar to Mount Binga Road which had a long gravel section and finally ended up in Blackbutt.  This was 40Km of isolated road but quite drivable except my little Jazz was covered in red dust.

At Blackbutt I had lunch at the Bunya Nut Cafe, a local meat pie and chips.  Then it was back to Yarraman.  I had a snack for dinner before going to bed.

Tomorrow I start Part 3

Winter Madness - Part 1

The title of this post reflects the opinions of most of my friends on my camping trip being taken in June.  This is, of course, close to midwinter here in Australia and can get quite cold.  The Australian Camper Trailer Club's South East Queensland's group had organised  a camping weekend from Friday June 5 until Monday June 8 at a place called Atkinson's Dam about 230Km from Tewantin.

Coincidentally the Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club had organised a camping weekend from Friday June 12 until Sunday June 14 at a place called Kenilworth about 50Km from Tewantin.  I thought that it would be a good idea to combine both weekends with a bit of solo camping in between.  I checked with my house/dog sitter, Jenny, if she was available over this period and she was so I signed up for both weekends.

I had made some improvements to the battery monitoring system in my camper trailer as Atkinson's dam would not have any power or water at the campsites and I would be relying on the battery for lighting and keeping my fridge going.  I do have a solar panel to top up the battery during the day but was worried that I would run out of power.

On Friday morning I fed Louis and set off for Atkinson's Dam.  This an Australian Scout's Association Camping ground on the southern side of the lake caused by the dam.  It is about 12Km from the nearest village and about 2Km from the nearest road. 

My route to Atkinson's Dam

As you can see the dam is inland from Brisbane and on the way to Toowoomba a notoriously cold place about 200m above seal level.

I arrived just after lunch and drove to the lake's edge and setup my CT to the right hand side of some early arrivals. Lindsay, one of the camp organisers came to great me and said that I had picked a noisy spot next to the family campers with young children.  I said that I would just take out my hearing aids.

My campsite

Set up - solar panel at work

 After setting up I joined the other campers around the camp fire.  I had brought 40Kg of wood in Noosa to help keep it alight.  We sat thought the afternoon getting to know each other - rather the others getting to know me as the new boy in the group.

I sat too long without a top coat and got very cold so retired early to my CT for a bowl of soup and a hot drink cooked on my little stoves. I clambered into my track suit and got into my sleeping bag and soon got warm.  I had good night's sleep.

Next morning I was up at dawn (just after 6.00am) and rode my bike to the primitive facilities. There was a concrete block building with an iron roof divided into to areas for male and females.  The toilets were actually dark grey but were clean and had seats and doors which shut.  The showers had side partitions and tatty shower curtains so one had to forget modesty as the only place to change was in the open area.  The good thing was that the showers were hot!

I prepared my breakfast and went for a walk around the lake.  We were camped on the shallow side of the lake with the dam wall on the other side.  The lake was very low and where we camped was under water the last time the camped here.  One of the campers, Rick, was out in his kayak fishing.  The family camped next to me was riding bicycles with mum, dad and the four girls from about six to fourteen years old joining in.  Later the girls were sent to gather kindling for their bonfire.

At about 11.00am the older campers gathered for morning tea/coffee aroung the campfire.  Most had prepared snacks.  About 1.00pm I drove into Lowood to get some supplies and got completely lost.  My 24Km round trip was extended to 50Km but I saw a lot of the country.

The camp fire

The other campers to the left

I am on the far right

 We gathered fora drink and chat before dinner.  I was asked what I as having and I said I was cooking Scotch Fillet steak and onions accompanied by coleslaw and potato salad was down by a good red.  There was some skepticism about my ability to cook steak on a small butane stove as they hadn't seek the grill plate I had before.  I took some photos to show them.

Cooking dinner on the second night

Dinner is served

After dinner we sat around the fire chatting.  Several people had their dogs with them including one couple with three German Shepherds who were beautifully behaved.  It is a pity that I could take Louis but you can not leave a dog on his own.

Sunday followed much the same and some campers packed up and left in the afternoon.  There was a smaller group around the fire that night.

On Monday it was time for me to pack up, thank  Lindsay and Robyn our hosts and say farewell to the other campers.  I especially said farewell to the families camped next to me which had grown to about nine kids plus parents.  They were a lovely group.  There was no TV or computers just cycling, kite flying, kayaking and even card playing.  It was a pleasure to camp next to them.

My battery held out and I had had a great time.

Life with Bella

At the end of my last post I had just taken care of Bettie's little dog, Bella, while Bettie made a trip to visit her sisters in Perth WA.

Bella is 17 years old and a little senile. The first night with me I put her in her kennel on my back veranda as instructed but she was having none of and began to whine and yelp.  In the end I brought back in and finally settled her in her basket in the lounge.

She only slept for a little while before waking up and wandering though the house making little yelping sounds.  In the end she settled on her cushion in my bedroom!  Louis was not impressed as this is his domain. Over next few days we went through the same thing.  Bella also, like most old ladies, needed to go for a pee during the night so I hand to leave the door to the back garden open.  Most nights she made it but occasionally I woke to find a puddle in the hall.  Thank God for hard floors.

Feeding Bella was also a problem.  She eats like horse once a day. Louis eats sparingly twice a day.  Bella has to be locked outside while Louis eats but has to be bribed with a biscuit to get to stop yelping.  They both bolt their food and when I open the door rush out to see what the other has eaten.  Bella has a mixture of raw meat, meat loaf, tinned food and hard food.  Louis has diet tinned food and hard food as he gets pancreatitis on a normal diet.  Bella will actually steal Louis food in preference to her own.

After three weeks and two days Bella went home and happily slept in her kennel again.  In the mean time I bought Louis a mattress to go under his wool rug.  Unfortunately he had to wait until Bella went home to use it!

Bettie has returned home in a much more reduced state.  She has embolisms on both lungs and her original tumor has grown. She is going to have another and final chemo session which has a 50℅ chance of delaying things. If not I have promised to provide Bella with a home.

This blog is being written while I am away on another camping trip which I will write up soon.