Kerrisdale Camp Out 22 & 23 May 2021″The Valley of 1000 Hills”- Photo’s

It was decided in 2020 at a Club meeting that Scott and l would have a weekend, which coincided with a general meeting, at our farm in Kerrisdale, Victoria, but COVID got in the way in 2020.

The weekend was set for 22 & 23 May 2021. for a three-day camp out for those who wanted to come along and to be honest we never expected so many members would want to come along to our shack on the mountain.

The prep work for us started as soon as we knew it was game on, where there were numerous weekends prior we spent stocking up fire wood mainly.

The challenge for us was how do we have so any people at one place with no power at the property, but as usual being the great team Scott and l are, we conquered this too.

The lead up to this the list of attendees just kept growing and l must admit l was slightly panicked about how much flat ground we had v’s how many caravans were coming, but slapped myself out of that, when l looked at the situation and thought “most of these fella’s have probably had greater challenges parking trucks in varied spots over the years, than for me to worry about how they will level up a caravan of truck”.

We had a few helpers on Thursday show up, which we were happy to see, so thanks to Margret, Dick, Terry, Marg and Rob and Ruth for the logistical support. A big thanks to all the women who baked for the weekend, seriously you out did any Country Women’s Association stall!

Old and new mates came together on the Friday night, where l still can’t believe l actually cooked for approx. 50 people. With homemade lasagna, chow mien and beef stew on the menu, it was a menu that would make a vegetarian’s hair curl! All the fire pits were burning pretty good, with layers of people around one fire pit and just a whole lot of pretty happy people.

Breakfast for everyone saw Scott’s new toaster get a work out. I thought and said to him “you are mad for wanting to get a commercial conveyor toaster, why can’t you just get a push down standard toaster”. You members as my witnesses, l am publically retracting my comments Scott, the toaster was awesome!

On the Saturday morning Scott had organized a trip to Kerrisdale Mountain Railway, which is pretty unique. This place pretty much started with one couple and love of trains and stationary engines. They put in a train track on their property and created a station at the top of the mountain, they took everyone for a train ride to see the awesome views from the station. The owner being an engineer and building his own train, certainly put a lot of love into this place.

On Saturday afternoon, Scott and l took the members into the Tallarook State Forest to see the old reservoir. Traawool Reservoir was built in the 1890s to supply water to Seymour and the nearby railway. The 350-foot-long, 23-foot-high granite ashlar masonry weir. There are only a couple of ways to get in to the reservoir and only one way that is 2-wheel drive. Despite all the planning ahead Scott and l did to map out the directions for people, there were only approx. 12 sheets of directions printed out for all the vehicles, as you would just think we would all follow each other. There are a lot of 4-wheel drive tracks in the forest some tracks way scarier than others, so one minute you can be fine, and a wrong turn can see you in a bog hole.

The convoy started to the reservoir, we were lucky enough to have Lindsay, Shelia and Whiskers in our car and when l asked Scott where the directions was, Lindsay thought l was joking, but it turned out l most certainly was not joking and next thing we had 10 vehicles behind us. I thought this was hilarious, talk about the blind leading the blind.

Some vehicles made it to the reservoir like the top effort Jeff in his Pontiac, others got lost all together and it turns out l may have incorrectly altered the directions anyhow! Some saw the reservoir others saw other parts of the forest, but a great time was had by all and no one really knew where we were going, even us!

Saturday saw more members turn up and the dinner was catered for in the romantic setting of our shed lit up by the generator on the Saturday night, which saw approximately 75 members fed. There were numerous fire pits lit up and a bon fire in the paddock, which we saved for the occasion.

The meeting on Sunday was held in the shed and we even saw a few of the founders of ATHS Australian Chapter Inc. attend the meeting, Ray and Peter, it was good to see them. This was followed by a BBQ for lunch along with a mass exodus in the afternoon.

Sunday night was left overs, around the fire pit with Dick, Margaret, Terry Marg, Rob, Ruth Heather and Alan, where the whisky with honeycomb, was the highlight yet again.

It was great to see so many people laughing and catching up, we just scraped in before yet another lockdown, there was no windy days (which is rare) with the weather even kind to us!

So, after a great weekend, we would really love to thank everyone who turned up, with a cheer’s to old friends and new!