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Published: November 29th 2013
Gypsy at Point Peron
The end of year round up, for the Toyota Landcruiser Club of Western AustraliaPoint to Point
Well as you are aware we upped sticks and left Canberra in mid may, looking for adventure, a new job and a new home, and because of this we left the close family of our 4 wheel drive club which gave us huge amounts of fun, back in the East.
The ACT 4 wheel drive club is a most excellent club to be in and in some ways it had spoilt us, as we were now were faced with finding a likeminded club, who in my mind had to be able to at least compare to the high standards we have been afforded with in Canberra or even bettered.
We set about trawling through the internet and locating three clubs that appeared to be able to offer what we were looking for, in essence, when you are “blow ins” as we are (new to the area) a good club, in time will show you all the best places to go in the surrounding area, so essentially it should be an easy transition.
As you are more than aware, Caroline and myself love to be out in the bush and in the ACT,
Jack
In the Sunshine at Point Peron we had the Brindabella Mountain Range, where we spent days camping and even though its fairly close to Canberra its pretty remote, (not even a Telstra phone signal)
I really think we did the ACT proud and went away as much as we physically could, in between our stints travelling around Australia with our jobs.
So now we are in Western Australia and we had already seen the first two clubs on our list, the first one, the membership lady was exceptionally helpful and enthusiastic, but it was about an hour and a half from where were staying, and we considered it to far, once we had done the initial meeting.
The second club, the venue wasn’t too bad, it was nice and local and they seemed to do quite a lot of trips but there just seemed to be something that didn’t click, so onwards we went looking for a good club that had to be right.
Our third look was the Toyota Landcruiser Club of Western Australia (TLCC.W.A) and we arrived on the last Thursday of October and as soon as we rocked up, we were greeted by one of the members “Geraldine” who
asked if we were visitors and instantly pointed us in the right direction,
Now new people in any group stand out like balls on a Bull Dog and this was no exception, and it makes you squirm, but soon enough we were given our host for the evening who was Dennis and it was his job to ensure that we were fully accommodated for, this was an excellent start for us
The evening was really good, lots of people engaged with us and in the 4 wheel drive community everyone wants to know what experience we had and what truck we drove, well as this was the Toyota Landcruiser club of Western Australia, as soon as we said we had a Toyota Landcruiser the scene was set, though they are happy to have any vehicles in the club, and the proviso its an un written rule that you will have the mickey taken out of you if you drive anything other than a Toyota, but its all in good sport and the ACT club was no different, in fact in Canberra at our club meetings if we had new visitors you had to get up and say a
bit about yourself and when it came to what you drove, if you said Mitsubishi Pajero or Nissan Patrol, you could possibly be booed out, but again it was in good sport.
Caroline and myself mingled around the club members and they were fascinated about the fact that we had been a member of a previous four wheel drive club and in the ACT to boot and there was Caroline listing out all the things we had done, topping the list off with the Simpson Desert, pretty impressive to say the least.
On our way home Caroline said “wow that was a long meeting”, it just seemed to go on and on, but I said I thought this was a good thing as they have a lot to talk about as they obviously do a lot which is what we want, an active club.
The rules of this club is simple, they want to see if you like the club and they like you and you have to go on a trip rated moderate to see your capability, so this is what we needed to do.
We were invited to one of their social gatherings, which
Happy Campers
Members of the Toyota Landcruiser Club of W.A was their end of year round up and prize giving at Point Peron, about 35 K’s from where we were, so we decided to go, it was at a school camp that was vacant for this particular weekend and we were only allowed to use it as the club has a member who is on the education board, which helped us secure the location.
We arrived at around 4.00pm on Friday afternoon, pulled in and set Gypsy up for the weekend, and there was a constant stream of TLCC.W.A members steadily flowing in and setting their Camper trailers and vans up, amazingly nearly all of them came over and remembered our names, said hi and welcomed us, it was quite overwhelming.
As usual Gypsy got heaps of attention as she looks so cool and there was a stream of people who wanted to look over her.
We had been given the itinerary and at 5.30 there was a sundowner on the beach, this is where everyone takes their chair, beer/wine/nibbles and sit on the beach to watch the sun go down and if you felt inclined you could even go in the sea, if the mood took
Point Peron
Setting up for the film night you, though you need to be shark aware (VERY SHARK AWARE) only last week a surfer had his arm and leg bitten off by a 5 mtr Great White which was in the news all around the world and if Caroline had been bitten I didn’t want the animal to get food poisoning.
I absolutely hate sand, I hate the feeling of it on my bare feet and even worse, If I do go in the sea, which is a rarity, I hate getting sand on my wet skin.
Anyway we sat on the beach, eating drinking and just having a good time and everyone did their level best to make us feel part of the group.
When the sun had gone, everyone went back to their respective trailers and did their evening meal as at 7.30 It was a movie night under the stars, as a guy from the historical film society had come along to run some really over movies, of the likes of Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, the Keystone cops and other early cinemagrahic greats, it was a really good fun evening and it was lovely sitting under the
Piper
Having a piper, pipe us to our supper was amazing, when he put his bagpipes down they ran off stars.
On the Saturday we woke to a lovely warm morning and the sounds of the ocean was just great, the day was on its way to being a scorcher. A walk had been planned by some of the girls at 9.00am and Caroline was game on for this, so off they went.
When she returned it was time to go and have a refreshing dip in the sea, there was a small pod dolphins about 50 mtrs out, one of them was showing off by having its tail in the air, as if it was trying to balance on its nose, we are told if dolphins are present then sharks are not as sharks usually chase dolphins away, but we don’t know how true this is.
The water was cold but once you acclimatised to it, it was nice, until I had to get out and get covered in sand, very yuk, it’s funny, how you scan the water just in case you see that black dorsal fin that fills you full of terror, but thank god we didn’t.
Some of the fella’s went and help move some of the furniture ready for the evening
and it was nice to interact with some of the guys, as usual when the blokes get together, all the latest jokes go around, which was a good laugh.
As soon as these chores were completed we went back and had some lunch then Caroline and I decided to get another swim in the sea as the day was about 38 degree’s and the day was baking.
The rest of the afternoon was sitting around in the shade under the gazebo’s until we had a 3.30 organised event called Sip, Lick and Crunch, which had been laid on by the club, it came from the railway days when one of the member as a little girl they used to go on outings run for for the railway workers and on these picnics they always gave you a bottle of Ginger beer (Sip) and Ice Cream (Lick) and a slice of Melon (Crunch) what a lovely way to cool down on a hot afternoon.
So eventually it was time to get ready for dinner and we all assembled where we had previously had our afternoon treat and down the hill coming towards us was the sound of the
TLCC W.A Point Peron
The food was amazing, it was great to be there bagpipes.
A piper in full highland regalia arrived and we all followed him as he piped us to the dining room, which was absolutely excellent.
We all stood behind our chosen seat whilst the piper finished playing, and on a beautiful warm evening, over looking the Indian Ocean we both agreed how amazing it was
The food was truly amazing, there we BBQ’d meats, sea food and salads and about six different deserts, it was a really well turned out event with 72 club members and visitors (us) and the evening went well.
The nature of the evening was the TLCC’s yearly prize giving and after dinner, the Trip Leaders (Brendan) job was to award trophies and medals for certain things, like 20 years membership to the club or the best trip of the year, amazingly Brendan announced that this year the club members have run 51 trips, be they social, long or short trip through out the year, so with nearly one a week the club really is busy.
Once all the end of year formalities were done, it was time for some of the members to do a skit and it was Goldilocks
and the Three Bears, the vice president was Goldilocks and the three bears were just a wow, as you will see by the pictures.
We had had a terrific evening, everyone just went out of there was to make us feel welcome and we certainly did, as usual all good things come to an end and it was time for bed, so after such a full day, it was a pleasure to get in to Gypsy and drift off to sleep.
We woke to a very warm sunny Sunday morning, but soon the clouds had started to roll in and it looked like rain, so I was straight out of bed and packing up, just in time to have everything away before the heavens opened.
Once the down pour was done, the sky cleared so it was on with breakfast, bacon and eggs, morning tea was been organised by the club and we used this morning review as an opportunity that thank everyone for letting us attend and being so warm and welcoming.
Once all the thankyou’s were done it was time to hook up and leave, what an awesome fun filled weekend.
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ThePass
Australia 2008
Balls on a Bulldog
Andy, you do know how to turn a phrase, don't you. And I am a bit surprised that you are still alive, after the comment about a shark getting food poisoning!! Nice to have you back on the blog. I do get to keep track of you folks on Facebook which is nice. Hope all goes well on the job hunting and with your new 4wd club.