The Queensland contingent met up at Chindera on Friday morning and convoyed down the Pacific Highway to Grafton, then turned inland on the Armidale road. As we approached the turn-off for Kunderang (the Armidale-Kempsey road, we heard chatter on the UHF and there were the NSW contingent - a miracle of timing! We all headed off down the road and onto the final 40km of dirt leading to the campsite. Getting our priorities right, the first action after setting up the trailers, tents, caravan, etc was to get the camp fire going - and with mountains of free firewood it didn't go out until Monday morning! Spent the rest of Friday sitting round the fire and getting reacquainted with old friends.
Saturday we woke up to the sound of rain on canvas, which persisted for the rest of the day on and off. Unfortunately most of the decent tracks on the property were on the other side of the river and the river was too high and running too fast for the crossings to be passable, so we did a bit of exploring on our side in between periods of sheer laziness under the huge communal tarp (thanks J.a.G!) which we had erected near the fire by dint of using every spare tent pole on the site.
Sunday woke us up with bright sunshine and stayed fine all day. The Pipes and Muds went for a trip into Armidale where we enjoyed the market whilst Glend, Frog went fishing (unsuccessfully!) and the others went for a drive to the Halls Peak camp ground - only to discover that as it was in a NSW National Park there was a locked gate halfway down the track. So we all ended up back at the camp where we did full justice to (another) bottle of port and some Bundy rum.
Monday again was a clear sunny morning as we all packed up to move out. Glend and Frog were the first to leave, and their trials have been well recorded. Pipes and Mud went next (Mud wanted someone in front in case he had any trouble with his new caravan up the first steep bit, but in the event he did it easily), followed later by the others. We found Glend and Frog parked up just before the main road fixing the broken spring, and luckily I had a roll of good binding wire in the toolbag. Then off back to Brisbane (via Armidale and the New England Highway this time - much less traffic than the Pacific), arriving home around 6pm.
A good weekend in spite of the weather, and we all vowed to do it again next year.
_________________ November 2006 2.8 CRD manual, CRDSTU front springs, King HD rears, Polyairs, LT245/70R16 Pirelli Scorpion ATRs, DP chip, Airflow snorkel TJM alloy front bar, Ox 9500lb winch, Hella Compact 4000 spots, Complete set Mopar skid plates, Mopar cargo barrier GME TX3440 UHF, Codan NGT HF
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