2nd Annual NSW Gathering - Turon River

[Toddyh]

Well the 2nd Annual NSW Meet has been run and won. Big thanks to @Gavo for helping organise and thanks to everyone who attended for making it a great weekend. As far as I know there was no one that got lost this year either thanks to @richardlnsw and his signs.
We decided to keep the same venue as last year for a couple of reasons, not least of which there has been a fair amount of volunteering going on in this area for the last 18 months or so. The forecast for the weekend wasn't great but we were confident the whole time it would be fine. We had light drizzle most of friday with a couple of patches of heavier rain and that was it. Saturday and Sunday were glorious days.

Our friday trek out to Hill End was canned in favour of a more local trip to Capertee Pub for lunch, followed by afternoon beers into he night around a typically small NSW crew fire.
Saturday we had a few day trips. @Gavo took a crew to check out some history around Airlie Village. Another group went to the old Newnes Town site and I lead 13 vehicles through Ben Bullen SF to Blackfellows Hand Cave and the Lost City.
On our trip is was very obvious that there had been a whole lot of rain friday up in the mountains. Bog hole after bog hole. I got badly caught out by one when cruising along a road I've driven plenty of time and coming up to what I thought was a puddle in 2wd. My bonnet disappeared under water and i frantically grabbed the stubby lever. Very close to a wet and muddy interior.

I didn't take many photos and still need to grab some more off the camera but here's a start. Hopefully others can add more.

Fridays Fire




Blackfellows Hand Cave


The Lost City


Saturday Night Camp










On Sunday most made their way home after a slow pack up. I took a small group up and over the Pinnacles to Wallerawang Pub for a feed on the way home.

Another great meet and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The single big fire for everyone has proven itself again.
We had a couple of interstate visitors and they were already talking about making it a week long trip on the way up next year. Similar to what the NSW crew do for the Vic Meet.

Again thanks to all that attended. Once again the area was left spotless. Makes me proud to be a 4x4earther.

 

[bradlaurent]

Thanks to everyone who helped organise the weekend!

 

[axle82]

cheers for organizing and to everyone that turned up. it was a great weekend as usual

 

[jarrahtin]

Ha..... just been told the 200 series has already been washed and will be polished tomorrow....

 

[Spooner]

Great photos , sounds like a great weekend away for all .
Did Luke @Bomber2012 make it up there ok , I haven't spoken to him as of yet .

 

[bugsy]

Thanks for a good weekend everyone

 

[Toddyh]

Great photos , sounds like a great weekend away for all .
Did Luke @Bomber2012 make it up there ok , I haven't spoken to him as of yet .

Yep he did.

 

[Mr DPG]

It was a ripper of a weekend thanks everyone i can't wait for the next trip I'm able to make it to.

 

[richardlnsw]

Yep it sure was an awesome weekend.
I led a small group out through Lithgow to the Glow Worm Tunnel. Even though I have been there a few times I still love this place and for those that are having their first visit all seem to love it just as much.
Here are 2 pics I took, 1 of the bottom end of the glow worm tunnel and the other of the lost city.

 

[richardlnsw]

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend. To Cookie and Bomber for making a long trip to join the event, hopefully more will make the journey next year.
Thanks to Toddy and Gavo for getting the event happening. Look forward to finding out where next years will be!!

 

[Mr DPG]

 

[Gavo]

Oh just to clarify, it was actually the knowledge and expertise of @1 red gu that lead the trip around Airly Village! Thanks for that mate.. Was some serious history going on out there!

 

[RODEODAVE]

Thanks to all that attended had a great weekend as always. Good to meet our interstate travellers hopefully next year we can get some more and show them how too have a fire .
Dave

 

[Mr DPG]

 

[jarrahtin]

ok so i cant remember who i spoke to or even what car they drive but someone said to me they had a dash cam and got some good footage of the 200 series. As it was their first time 4wding i would love a copy of the footage to show them. cheers guys

 

[80lover96gxl]

Nice work New South Welshmen, hopefully next year can get over to one of your meets and meet a few of you crew.
Looks and sounds like a great weekend.

 

[Toddyh]

Few extra photos

 

[Mr Rum]

Firstly, a big thanks to @Toddyh and @Gavo for planning such a great weekend.

And secondly, thanks to everyone else that came along and made the weekend memorable.

A special mention has to go out to @Bomber2012 and @cookie64 for making the effort to travel from interstate. It was great to catch up with you again, and I must say an extra thanks to you both for delivering my sorry arse to my tent on Friday. For those who weren't there, I got a bit carried away on Friday night, and drank all the grog that I'd packed for both nights. As a result, I can't remember a thing of what went on later in the evening, but I'm pretty sure I had a good time.

I slept really well that night, and surprisingly woke Saturday morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead. Initially I wasn't even aware that anything unusual had happened the night before, but then Jen had me listen to a video from when I was delivered to the tent, and WOW!

In anticipation of the rain that was forecast, I'd opted to bring our old tent instead of using our new swag. I thought this would give us an extra layer of protection to keep us dry, but this seems to have been a bad idea. I slept through the storm, so I haven't a clue how the water got in, but we ended up with a small lake inside our tent, and my bag of clothes just so happened to be right in the middle of it. Luckily our bed remained dry though, so I didn't think it was the end of the world. Jen didn't agree though, declaring "as far as I'm concerned, the tent is dead to me".

It was a nice surprise to wake to a dry Saturday morning.

I didn't leave our soggy tent until after the first group had left, so I ended up tagging along with the second drive to the nearby Airly Village site.
I wasn't aware of much of the local history before this drive, so thank you @1 red gu fr showing us around. I'm interested in learning about the area now, and look forward to returning to see more. The makeshift miners huts along the way were rather impressive, and the fact that there were relics that haven't been plundered since the place was abandoned was quite a surprise.

The Track through Airly Village.

What's left of a substantial hut.

More ruins along the track.

The view from inside one of the shelters.

The view from outside one of the shelters.

Shelter littered with antiques.

Looking out of another structure.

Some of the items that were still inside a shelter.

A makeshift bed.

The walk through to a small waterfall.

The small dripping waterfall.

I heard a couple of people discussing what the crate on the corner of the bed in one of those photos could've been for, and after a little bit of research, I've concluded it most likely held cordial. Norman and Frank Ashelford owned and operated a Bathurst based soft drink company that also had a cordial factory in Lithgow. The company was around from the twenties to the seventies, and apparently their products were popular with locals from the thirties, right through to the sixties, where business slowed most likely as a result of Word War II.
Not that it's totally relevant, but history nerds might also find this interesting. I found a DA approval from 2010 for the demolition of the old N & F Ashelford factory in Morrisett Street Bathurst. It has since been rezoned, and now has six residential units on the site.


Getting back to the gathering...
Jen and I had driven in to camp on Friday night the more direct Steep Hill Rd route, so after a late lunch of pumpkin soup and hot chips at the pub, we split from the rest of the group and made our way back to camp via the longer more scenic "soft" option.

When it was time to start thinking about dinner, I told Jen to go and join everyone at the fire while I took care of everything. It was the least I could do considering she'd spent the previous night preventing me from filling our bed with half digested chunks of chilli sausage.
I've been wanting to try a deep pan style pizza in the camp oven for quite some time now, and it was finally time to put it to the test. I've only ever seen thin pizzas done in camp ovens before, and when I've done it, I've always found it a pain to get them in and out of the oven. I thought the pan would help make things easier, and I was spot on. After warming the dough in my still warm engine bay to help it rise, I chucked on the toppings and popped it in the oven. Around twelve minutes later, we had what was without a doubt, the best, camp pizza I've ever eaten.

As I'd drunk Saturday night's booze ration on Friday, I ended up having a very mellow Saturday night. I did end up enjoying a couple of beers after @Axel82 wouldn't take no for answer though, so thank you Alex.
Unlike Todd, I didn't manage to get any impressive starry night photos. The fog rolled in before I got my camera out, so I instead took some candid campfire shots of everyone enjoying the atmosphere.

Sunday morning saw us pack up slowly while we waited for things to dry, and this meant we were amongst the last to leave. After getting a taste of what was on offer in the region, we decided to head to the Lithgow Visitor Information Centre on our way home, and then after not paying attention and missing our turn, we stumbled upon the site of the old blast furnace that we'd been told about in an earlier conversation. It turned out @Wang and @Gavo had just pulled in there as well, and after a quick look around, we tagged along with them as they made their way back to the Highway at Mount Victoria via back roads I'd never driven before.

Checking out the ruins.

Time to go home.

Overall I had an absolute blast, and am now looking forward to the Victorian gathering even more.
Bring on November!

 

[Wang]

nice write up @Mr Rum and sweet photos as per usual.

 

[BarKer]

It was a nice trip.. Thanks to everyone..