Mandoon MkII

Friday 30^th October – Sunday 1^st November

Attendees:

Richard & Naomi – Patrol

Penny & Spence – Landcrusier

Debbie, Paul, Becky & Alex – Navara (guests)

Roger & Karen – Landcrusier

Dave & Cindy – Prado

Simon & Jacob – Landrover

Ivo – Landcrusier

Lin – Landcrusier

Don & Jane – Patrol

Shane – Triton

Matt – Pajero

As there was a mix of people who hadn’t been into Mandoon before I agreed to meet at Chequers about 3.30 on the Friday, when we got there Penny & Spence had already had a shandy as it was flippin hot @ 37°. Roger & Karen were having some issues and running late so we retreated to the sports bar where Debbie & Paul found us. Great start to the weekend! At this stage Karen had insisted that we not wait for them and should head off, tbh by the time drinks were finished they weren’t actually that far behind us. So, we set off in a convoy of three cars into the park.

            Setting up was much easier as we arrived in daylight unlike the previous Mandoon weekend back in August .

Everyone selected their spot and got organized for the evening. It wasn’t quite the full moon, but Friday nights moon was pretty cool

It was a pretty cruisy morning as Dave wasn’t meeting the rest until 9.00am at Chequers and bring them in. Once everyone had arrived, we had the usual chit chat, as Paul wasn’t going to be onsite, I held a quick don’t get bitten by a snake speech and we got organized to do the clean-up. We basically split into two groups, one to start from the camp & head north toward the National Park and the other to head east down the valley. I brought the trailer along so we could load all the materials into it

and drive back to the main dump piles rather than carrying the items. Many hands certainly made light work and it is pleasing to see the bush area without all the rubbish strewn through it.

After collecting what we could we headed back up the hill to sort the rubbish onto the piles from our last visit.  After this we then headed over to where the other team had been working, with the guys on the trailer collecting smaller piles of rubbish that had been stacked along the entry track.

            We were directed into the old high ropes course towards the northern boundary of the property, there we found lots of old infrastructure that had been left to rot and in need of removing. Simon rose to the occasion

and again with many hands we quickly had the area a lot tidier

there is still more that needs doing, but I will need to get some more direction from DBCA on how much is to be removed and what machinery will be available for heavy steel items. It was quite pleasing to see the growth in the piles of removed rubbish.

The main part of our original weekend in August was to sort steel items for recycling from other general waste, this will greatly reduce what goes to landfill which costs DBCA a lot of money to dispose of. I plan to have further meetings with DBCA to decide on what further works will need to be done on this site, as it was I had guestimated it would be a couple of hours work this weekend and I was almost spot on.

After a quick lunch break it was play time,

some chose to chill out at the camp whilst a large group headed out into the National Park for a drive. Dave, Cindy, Naomi & myself decided to head down to the river ,

even though this was my third visit to Mandoon I have not driven this track, however I have walked it about halfway which is where there is a large rut that has caught out other members who have gone down it. As you descend into the valley the view is simply amazing and is why I’m so passionate about helping DBCA with this project. Once down the river we all clambered over the rocks as the water level was down.

  After our exploring it was time to head back up and through the rut which both vehicles handled with ease

Dave was quite concerned that there must be Viagra in the field as the copulating Roo’s that they had seen on the way down was still going for it half an hour later as we headed back up the hill!   

            Once back at camp we got the fire restarted as a few people were going to need some coals for cooking, the other group that had gone off into the park exploring headed back in later in the afternoon and everyone seemed to have enjoyed their outing. It wasn’t long before the pyromaniacs built the campfire into a true “whitemans fire” ,

as it would be the last fire for this year, they made a good effort of it. It was a laidback afternoon as all the budding cooks started to pull out various utensils in order to participate in Dave’s MkII cook off. See Dave’s story all the facts, all in all it was a great evening again

and a bit of fun. Scary thing is how good some of our members are at whipping up a simple dish to share!

            In keeping with our track record at Mandoon a little bit of overnight rain turned into a significant downpour, but to be honest couldn’t care less as it is all part & parcel of camping. Everyone eventually came out to cook their breakfast and have a coffee,

before starting to pack up for the very short trip home. I just want to thank each and every person who was able to come out to Mandoon and participate, I really appreciate your support in what we as a club are achieving for DBCA and assure you it is giving the club other opportunities to participate in our community.

All the best

Richard Cooper