Long Weekend Fun

[sheeny (Al)]

Thought I'd post a couple of pics from a great long weekend away camping. It was a great time. We camped at a little private hut which is not so easy to get to in the back blocks behind Peel. A very steep four wheel drive track is the only access.

Great four wheel driving, good friends and family, and a bit of fun on Sunday... we rigged a flying fox... probably a good 70m span across the river. It was great fun! All the kids enjoyed it (big and small). We could've rigged a bigger span but couldn't find the right combination of suitable anchors, clear path and safe loading and landing areas for a bigger span.

I did hope to get more images worthy of posting, but the damn image stabilisation tricked me again... when will I learn to turn it off when taking shots of a small moving object? (The IS just makes the background sharp, hence the subject is blurred instead of a sharp subject with motion blur background). It used to be so easy with the OM-1... new fan dangled things and old operators don't always mix.

Didn't have any room in the truck to take any scopes, but I shot some star trails (see Deep Sky forum) and answered questions and gave a little impromptu tour of the emu, etc to the non-astronomers.

Good fun weekend very much enjoyed. Haven't done a weekend like that in long time.

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Al,

Well, it certainly looks like good fun from the piccies!

I’m intrigued and displaying an Englishman’s poor knowledge of Australian bush cooking contraptions, so please enlighten me on the two articulated arms, metal brackets with nameplates (?) and what appears to be some kind of measuring device fitted to the left hand arm?

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb (Marc)]

Looks like the kids had a ball! Some serious cooking hardware you got there too.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Al,

Well, it certainly looks like good fun from the piccies!

I’m intrigued and displaying an Englishman’s poor knowledge of Australian bush cooking contraptions, so please enlighten me on the two articulated arms, metal brackets with nameplates (?) and what appears to be some kind of measuring device fitted to the left hand arm?

Cheers

Dennis

It was great fun Dennis! I haven't played on rope for a while now.

Inside the fire ring (at the back) is a cast iron water heater - it has a tap out the back for hot water at any time. The frame over the top allows for hanging billies and pots, etc, and the two articulated arms are supports for the spit. The right hand spit support wasn't being used as we weren't cooking anything too big - just a beef roast and lamb roast - so the spit is cantilevered over the fire from the left hand arm.

Also inside the fire ring is a camp oven sitting in the coals, as well as one hanging from the frame and a large billy on the RHS.

Having been a bushwalking camper for most of my life, I still have trouble getting my head around car camping, let alone industrial strength camping like this! The set up belongs to a mate of mine who builds gear for Tuff-trucks in his spare time so its well engineered!

Al.

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Looks like it was a lot of fun. Great looking cooking setup as well, camping in style

[Ric]

That is certainly one serious camp fire Al.