A Quiet Weekend
the Sprite Car Club Way
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A Quiet Weekend
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The invitation in Sprite Torque had said: "Bill and Barbara McLennan have graciously offered the Club a weekend at their beach house at Berrara. Activities include swimming, sailing, bushwalking or doing absolutely nothing." Having just come back from that weekend I can tell you the only thing we didn't do was "nothing"!
Saturday morning arrived and the weather was cool and clear, magic open top weather. Louise and I packed the camping gear into the Midget and headed off for the Crossroads Hotel meeting point. We arrived 7 minutes late at the Crossroads and were greeted by an empty carpark! Surely the others hadn't left on time??? That would be so unusual for our Club! After waiting alone for another 15 minutes the doubt started to set in. Did we have the correct time, couldn't have been Parramatta Park, that wouldn't make sense, surely we had the right weekend???
I normally have some old Sprite Torques in my car for those times when passers by show an interest in our club (which happens regularly). As it turned out they were definitely "old" Sprite Torque's so we couldn't verify where we were supposed to be. Thankfully Louise has a mobile phone so we tried phoning the Gibbs residence who I knew lived somewhere nearby. As it turned out, they were still packing their car. What had happened, when this weekend was first suggested back in December, Louise and I had definitely said we'd be going. Closer to the event we forgot to re-mention this. In the mean time, due to the low numbers the meeting time had been put back a little later. Ian invited us around, literally just around the corner, for a cuppa.
We then headed back to the Crossroads Hotel to find Avis Fowler in the carpark alone wondering where everyone else was. A few moments later Bill McLennan arrived as well.
The 2.5 hour drive south was very pleasant with almost no traffic. First activity on the agenda was a visit to the beach for a refreshing swim. To get to and from the beach involved a waist deep wade across a creek. Although the word creek doesn't seem an appropriate description because of its width it actually took several minutes to cross. Bill pointed out some of the coastal landmarks with the townships of Bendalong and Manyana just to the south.
After lunch Bill took us all and three of his sail boats around to Swan Lake. Everyone was encouraged to have a try, either on their own if they knew what they were doing, or with someone else for people like myself who had absolutely no idea of what I was doing. Ian and David provided some entertainment when they capsized their catamaran.
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Back to shore David and Scott decided to walk up to the local shop. On the way up following the long way along the road, on the way back however deciding that through the park and across a small creek would be quicker. We stood and laughed as we watched the two walk deeper and deeper into the creek. Scott trying to keep his shirt dry by pulling it up around the top of his chest, but gave up as the water eventually came up to eye level! Avis could only join us for the day so set off home.
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All sailed out, we retired to Bill and Barbara's beach house where we finished erecting tents and blowing up air mattresses. Thankfully I can't repeat some of the crude comments that were made about the noises my air pump makes in a fine family magazine such as this one.
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The perfect day was finished off with a BBQ dinner. We were later joined by a pair of possums who did a thorough job of cleaning off the scraps on the BBQ plate (by then cooled off). They then joined us at, or should I say on the table, but started to extend their welcome when one tried to have a sip of Bill's port. The possums weren't the only wildlife. This area is so remarkable, by the end of the weekend we had all gotten used to seeing kangaroo's hopping up the street or through the backyard!The perfect day was finished off with a BBQ dinner. We were later joined by a pair of possums who did a thorough job of cleaning off the scraps on the BBQ plate (by then cooled off). They then joined us at, or should I say on the table, but started to extend their welcome when one tried to have a sip of Bill's port. The possums weren't the only wildlife. This area is so remarkable, by the end of the weekend we had all gotten used to seeing kangaroo's hopping up the street or through the backyard! |
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Early Sunday morning we were greeted by the relaxful/dreaded sound of raindrops on the tent. However by 9:00am the rain had gone and we were in for another nice day. First activity for the day was an easy bushwalk to Fishermans Rock where we were joined shortly afterwards by John and Liz Roberts who had driven down in their Bugeye that morning. After a while one of us decided to read the nearby Information sign and realised that the rock we had all been sitting on for the last ten minutes was covered in old aboriginal axe sharpening grooves.
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Back to the beach house and the choices of what to do next were too much. The Gibbs family with David Lucas decided on fishing, while the remainder chose to go looking for fossils. When we walked down to the beach (via the dry route this time) we found a high tide separated us from the rock shelf and fossils. The choice was to get wet feet or follow Bill's lead and edge your way around a rock outcrop above the water hanging on with your fingers and toes. Once on the rock shelf the fossils were everywhere! We continued to follow the shelf, and then walk along the next beach, eventually coming out near Swan Lake where we'd been sailing the previous day and where the Gibbs family were fishing with some success.
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We continued our walk back to the beach house via a series of trails through some very scenic and unspoilt bushland.
After a late lunch it was time to pack up and head off home.
Without a doubt it really was a great weekend and we would all like to thank Bill and Barbara for their generosity and the effort they put into making it so.
Eriks Skinkis
Reprinted from Sprite Torque - April 1999
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