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Published: November 21st 2005
I went camping with Don, Lucky, Marrika, Malik, Klauss, Michael & Sarah at the end of September. We wanted to camp by the sea but realised that no campsites along the coast allow fires, and you must have a fire when you go camping so we got a tip from a guy at Port Lonsdale and drove for another hour and half to a campsite inland at Stevenson's Falls, north of Apollo Bay (on the Great Ocean Road). It was already dark when we got there and it had rained earlier so I think it was about 3am when we finally got the fire lit! And of course we had to stay up for a few hours to make the most of it. Yeah, it was a bit of a late one. We were awoken early in the morning by an idiot riding round on a motorbike - in the middle of a National Park!! He went away for a bit but then came back as we were dropping off to sleep again, grrrr! So we gave in to waking up. We had hoped to go and look at the Falls in the morning, but a fellow camper had informed us
the night before that they had washed away?! We cooked up a great brekkie and then took the day to drive home, stopping off at Apollo Bay. The more adventurous ones in the group took a dip in the freezing water!
It was my birthday in October (thanks for all the happy birthday wishes) so a few of us went to Manchester Bar in the city.
A couple of days later we went to the Barley Banquet with some friends of Flo. It was in a black tie ball in marquee in a barley field outside a small town (population=800) called Rupanyup, near the Grampians. We were all very curious about what it would be like, and I can report that it was great fun. It was on from 12pm-6pm which was a little unusual, but everyone piled into the pub in the Rupanyup afterwards. We had a nice meal, lots of wine and there was dancing too. They even had a plane fly by to take some pictures of us! Met plenty of country folk.
The following Friday the International Rules game (Ireland vs Australia) was played in Melbourne. I took a couple of friends along
to it. And despite the violence of the Aussie players, which you probably saw reported at home, there was a great atmosphere at the game. There were quite a few choruses of the Fields of Athenry sung, and even Ole Ole.
Afterwards we went to an Irish pub where they were showing the game and I got to see myself on TV waving my flag😊. It wasn't too late a night though as we decided at the last minute to go to the Derby Day races at Flemington (part of the Melbourne Cup/Spring Racing Carnival).
We arrived at the races around 12pm after catching one of the packed trains from Flinder's Street. After waiting in the ATM queue for at least 1/2 an hour the party finally started. We had champagne and hotdogs on the grass before braving it and heading to the betting ring and attempting to see a race. I got a tip from a guy who was behind me in a queue - I bet $5 and won $50! I was delighted. That was the only race we actually got to see, on a big screen through a huge crowd. There were about 115,000 people there
so it was far too much of a task to get a good view. We went back to the grass, chilled out and danced to the music of some band. It was a great day, although I did lose my hat😞.
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