Just What Have We Been Up To? 

Skiing At Perisher: Day 5

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Thursday came & even though it wasn’t a great day, we skied, you needed goggles to see as it was a tad bit breezy. Brendan went into lessons for the morning & we would pick him up at lunchtime. The first ski of the day &  we went down Mt. Perisher. I wasn’t too keen on this, the legs were shaking a bit but I made it down in one piece .I made it down to the bottom only to find that I had to go back up again

& do it over.I wasn’t very happy with this development  but kept it together even though by this stage  my legs felt like jelly as they had worked overtime coming down the first time.we got towards the bottom & I refused to do it again .I didn’t spit the dummy only just said NO, luckily Uncle Fulv loves me.and we went towards Leichardt (David was in the lead & he & Raychel took a wrong turn ..oops.. they had to do a bit of walking  – David’s favourite past time ! We made our way over to Blue cow , at the top of interceptor we took some photo’s ..two very nice ladies who were passing also joined in. We made our way over  towards my nemesis "the rollercoaster" I have fallen every time I have attempted this run, big deep breaths & we are off.yahoo I made it.

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As it was approaching 11.30 we made our way back to pick up Brendan from his class, he had a good time. We had lunch at the pub & took a load off for a while,while we waited for Andrew & Linda,by the time they got back we were ready to go out again. This time we went to the top & made our way down & over to jump city which was like skiing in a small creek bed. Brendan really enjoys this area, so we did that a few more times.  we met up with Andrew, & Brendan went with them to

find some more jumps, David & Fulv did a few fast skis from top to bottom (this is hard to do with me tagging along as I prefer to go at the safe turtle speed !) & Raychel & myself went to the pub for a hot drink.  The weather had started to close in..all the lifties were saying that tomorrow was going to be a horror..oh joy ! By the end of the day everyone was buggered, no cooking tonight..we ordered pizza.

Skiing At Perisher: Day 4

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My husband is a sadist.another early morning, but today the weather report is bad. When the radio actually says low visibility & high winds – check lifts before buying tickets ,you know it cant be good. We made the journey up the mountain, you couldn’t see halfway up front valley, we donned the goggles & went inside for a hot drink while waiting to see if the weather cleared up. I found this nice shop which sells hot chocolate with marshmallows topped with whipped cream.mm yummy.

After about an hour or so of waiting, the weather was getting worse – raining  & miserable, we decided that was enough & would go back to town. We looked around the ski shops as Andrew & Linda were looking for skis  & ended up at ESS where Mark, the salesman,  checked our boots for us. Linda needed special inners,and had to stand on a special machine which created a cast for the mould I bought some more soles for my boot which should help more with the aches of my poor feet – & was told my boots were too big. David bought a new pair of boots – new wider ones for his fat feet!  Raychel arrived safely after driving down from Wollongong & we organised to have meatballs for tea. Andrew & family came over to the lodge for  drinks & a chat before tea.

Skiing At Perisher: Day 3

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Another early start,and we were away at 7.30. Today we park at Smiggin’s.no more walking for me.a couple of quick runs & head over to Perisher. I could feel my muscles as soon as I put those blasted boots on again,hopefully I would loosen up & all would be ok…Ha, once we were on the t-bar I thought I would die.I said to David ” just get me to the front so I could sit down & take them off”.

So I went in side & did just that- sat there with my nice bright pink socked feet elevated up on a chair. About 45min later I had to visit the ladies..Which of course was up the other end of the complex, so I put the boots on and was crippled again, gathered up all of my gear and set off – losing my spot in the process. Once I made my way back I went in to the ski shop  & asked if someone could help, I spoke with a nice guy named Shawn who listened patiently to all my ailments, he had a solution. He put a wedge in my boot which lifted my heel more.oh the difference already, paid a well deserved $10, & went out to ski again. Where was everyone? I put in a call to David – who couldn’t believe that I was actually going to ski again ! and then they came  & got me for a few more runs.
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The weather had turned bad, so we skied back to Smiggin’s, & had a few runs before I was cleaned up by a pesky snowboarder. I wasn’t hurt but it was my first fall. David & Brendan were going along the tracks in between  the trees & looking for jumps. We called it a day as you could hardly see in front of you. We headed back to Jindy for lunch, bought supplies for tea & went back to the lodge for a few drinks.

Skiing At Perisher: Day 2

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What a terrible night, even though we were on the bottom level, I thought the roof was going to blow off. The wind howled, the smoke alarm battery kept beeping,

sticks were flying .. David got up for first shower,turned the heater on so the room was a bit warmer, and I snuggled down further into the sleeping bag, hoping to become one with it..so David couldn’t find me..I must have dozed back off to sleep, cause I woke to David telling me that there was something wrong with the hairdryer & getting the evil eye..like I did something to it! Brendan & I gingerly got up & we

went upstairs for breakfast & to listen to the weather report.The power was off (see i didn’t do anything to the hairdryer) & the weather report was not favourable (would have been good if i was still in bed- could of slept in) high winds & low visibility – could it get any better!
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We decided that we would have breaky & go for the drive & see what it was like. Ok,no power, the gas stove needs electricity  to light it, no one was a smoker..no lighters or matches.David McGyver to the rescue, he lit a piece of paper on the cars lighter & carefully bought it in & viola .hot water.

We loaded the gear into the car & went to see Andrew & family at the station resort. We eventually found them having breakfast ( David decided to have bacon & eggs as well, $26 later..) we walked to their room & had a look around.Then made our way up the mountain..it was still..we couldn’t believe it.. such a difference from Jindabyne. We were skiing today. We layered all the clothing, put the beanie & goggles on & made the painfully long journey across the car park,dodging cars & being careful of the slippery ice that was on the ground. What seemed like an hour later we bought tickets, met up with Andrew, Linda, Kyra & Hayden and hit the slopes.

Ah yes, I remember those muscles…I had on my new boots and even though I had worn them in at home, skiing in them was much different, only after about 1/2 an hour my legs were killing. We skied front valley, happy valley, Leichardt , pretty valley etc. Was a bit hard to see- couldn’t really make out the bumps – & this was with my new contacts( didn’t want to fall & break my glasses again this year !) We stopped for lunch at the pub & had coffee & hot chocolates to take the chill off – the breeze was COLD. After a afternoon of skiing , I was like Scotty in star trek – could not give anything more, so when I heard the words “lets go! ” I was off. I slowly made my way back to the car & couldn’t wait to get those nasty boots off.ah heaven. My calves/ankles killed ,no way was I cooking tonight. Once we got back to the lodge & unloaded everything- I could hardly make it down the stairs!, it was the shower for me..then I had a date with my friend MR deep heat. Uncle Fulv cooked dinner – sausages, baked beans & potatoes, anything tastes good when you don’t have to cook.

Skiing At Perisher: Day 1

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It was a beautiful sunny day in Wollongong, and we were headed south, to the cold.to the SNOW! For David this was fantastic, for me .well,one of my worst

nightmares. I’m a cold blooded  creature who loves the heat.

We packed the Patrol with all our gear , parkers, beanies, gloves..(I wasn’t allowed

to take the electric blanket!), boots,skis etc. We knew Brendan had had a growth spurt as we had to buy new ski gear, but as we packed the car & put our big thick jackets in, Brendan tried his on, and you guessed it, it was way too short, Nothing we could do but stop at Canberra and try to find a new one for him. Fed the animals, locked up and hit the road, even though we were going to ” the cold place” a holiday is much better than  work.
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We arrived in Canberra, had a look around – and were disappointed – there wasn’t anything there to buy and no jackets for Brendan.we had a quick bite to eat & headed back out. Jindabyne wasn’t cold! We got Brendan kitted up with skis & boots, dropped the gear of at the lodge & went into town to have a look around. I bought a new “Heidi” beanie to go with my new jacket. Back to the lodge & cooking Spag Bol for tea. Had a nice long HOT shower to warm up before bed and have an early night as we have to get up early.Yahoo just what you want to do on your holidays!

Pigeon House Mt 4WDing Weekend – Day 2

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( Click Here for Day 1 of the Trip )
As we were heading off again at 9am we set the alarm for 6.30am again only to wake to..you guessed it ..more rain. David got things organised, out side, for breakfast while I started to pack up the sleeping bags & bedding with Brendan supervising from his sleeping bag which he refused to get out of! We had hot pancakes lathered with golden syrup while Brendan ended up eating sausages over at his friends Sam’s tent.  We packed up the dripping wet tent and our gear, checked out the creek area near the campsite, took a few photo’s and were away on time. 

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In convoy we made our way on slippery muddy tracks towards Yadboro Flat, sometimes getting a sneak view of the Castle & Pigeon House mountains, we didn’t see any wildlife but the front car kept radioing about the abundant amount of animals they were seeing. We arrived at Yadboro Flat camp site which is a large grassy flat located on the banks of the Clyde River, well maintained & had toilets. We stopped for a coffee/ toilet break for 15minutes this also gave the kids another chance to play even if it was raining!. There was only 1 trailer camping there at the time & they told us that the next 10kms were pretty hard..something to look forward to.

On the road again we were radioed by Sam, Phillip & Janes son, for Brendan to play wireless DS games – every one thought this was cute, we manoeuvred in behind their car but were still to far apart to stay connected, but they made up for this every time we stopped.

The roads didn’t seem too bad, but then, we were going up hill not coming down with a trailer on the back. We had a couple of steep ascents made worse because of the mud – hard packed clay with a slippery top which stuck to your wheels leaving gouges in the road as you went by leaving no tread on your tyres, we slid a few times but nothing to serious, and a few steep down hill corners were interesting.

Julia in the first car radioed that a Hilux was coming & he was going very fast, as we past him he had slowed down but was sliding around in the mud a fair bit, we then heard Dave Mosses on the radio- 4 cars behind us – say that the Hilux had just rolled over the embankment, every one pulled over while we waited for the others to assist. Ken 3 cars behind us went back to lend assistance.

About 10 minutes later, Damien’s & our car were also needed, we gingerly turned around and made our way back to the others. The Hilux was over the side of the road on its side with the 2 occupants still inside ( for safety reasons, as it was feared the truck would roll over if they moved around, too much), only an old fallen tree was stopping it from fully going over & falling meters further down the hill, the guys had a winch extension strap going thru the windows of the car with 4 people hanging on to it so the car didn’t fall any further while winches were attached.

On the first attempt while we were there the Hilux recovery point snapped ( Apparently the bolts were not High Tensile, and so snapped off). They then tried a few different ways, Ken’s car kept sliding so they attached a snatch strap to Damien’s Toyota to anchor Ken, Damien was sliding as well, so they then attached

a snatch strap to our patrol for extra security, but guess what.. yep as they tried again we all were still sliding – and as I was in the drivers seat ( David was up in the thick of things) with the hand break on & my foot on the break as hard as I could feeling the car being pulled down the hill ( was probably only 1m or so but it felt more at the time !) was not a great experience, So with 3 cars not being able to pull the Hilux out safely they tried a few other tactics until around 3 hours later .success..  The Hilux was pulled out with only minor damage.congratulations on a job well done.
(For more recovery pictures Click Here )

After various photos, we turned around  & continued on our way thru the mud with no other incidents. Our end destination was the Rainbow Pie shop in Milton, where we had a late lunch, said our goodbye’s and made our way to the nearby service station where David got thoroughly drenched putting air back in the tyres. We safely arrived back home at around 5pm. We had a good weekend, bad weather and all.

Pigeon House Mt 4WDing Weekend – Day 1

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YES !, finished work for the week & am looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.sleep in, curl up on the lounge & read a book, nice & cosy, while the weather deteriorates outside..yeah right..get home only to go back out again to the shops to stock up on supplies for the weekend, get tea, do all the washing so its ready for Monday & start to pack ready for our weekend 4×4 down the coast, so there isn’t too much to do in the morning, & still wanting to get an early night sleep as we have to leave early although we don’t meet until 12.30.so far this doesn’t seem to resemble  the relaxing weekend I had dreamed of !

6.30 comes all to quickly.we do all the usual morning things & finish packing the patrol, David’s being optimistic about the weather, but we still packed extra clothes & socks..just in case we got wet or muddy..hmm this is sounding more & more like a boys dirty weekend !.It’s cold & raining..nope I’m going to keep the ughs on! We hit the road at 8.30 and made our way down to Batemans Bay where we had plenty of time (due to David’s thinking that it was a 3&1/2 hour trip not 2&1/2 !) to have morning tea at the local bakery while being entertained by the parking ranger giving out fines to the cars out front, the owners come out from the woodwork at remarkable speed. The rain has stopped for now but is still looking sinister.

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We made our way to Nelligen & to the meeting place, where 2 other families had already arrived. Brendan made friends with the other children & they all had a grand time running around while waiting for the other cars to arrive . The remaining families of our expedition  arrived at 12.30 ( in total we have 10 cars) after the introductions we let the tyre pressure  down on the tyres to around 20psi .and were on the road at around 1pm.finally !

After a few minutes we are on dirt (kings highway ) & put the car into 4×4 mode, it’s drizzling & damp but the scenery is nice & green. We then turned, right, into River Rd / Shallow Creek crossing where we crossed the creek, nice & easy, as it is a large concrete causeway. The roads then started to get a little bit steeper & had some very large erosion humps, we bottomed out on 1, a few cars behind us had a camper trailer & had a few attempts to get up  the hill but ended up being winched & snatched up , this took quite a while. Once everyone was back on track we had another creek crossing ( Bimberamala River crossing ), this one wasn’t too bad, but getting out the other side, which was steep & now wet, was a little bit more fun & challenging, we all came thru ok except the small Suzuki which has to be snatched up at the end. We made a stop at the crest of Mares Hill where there is a look out – viewing the mountains & valleys below, it would have been spectacular except all we saw was mist & clouds, but we still got the cameras out & took some shots. Around a few bends and over a few narrow wooden bridges later we came to a nice flat stretch of road which had some very large pot holes – more like small swimming pools- filled with mud & water -some of the smaller kids loved walking thru them in their gum boots- there was a steep track going off to the left which vehicles could try to conquer if they wished.most of the kids, & a few adults taking photo’s, climbed up the track as 1 car – Ken-  made a pretty decent attempt to get up the top but failed to make it all the way.

As it was now fairly late and getting dark we quickly made our way to the camping area ( Blue Gum Flat ) & set up for the night..yes in the rain.

After fighting off the local leeches for land rights the tent was finally up – with no thanks to Brendan, who was out of the car and playing his Nintendo DS games in an old shelter  with the other kids as soon as we stopped – we put a tarp up at the end of the car so we could have a cooking area under cover – a brilliant idea from my husband! I had cooked chilli con carne & rice on Friday night so all we had to do was re heat the food & our meal was done  – we trialled the new portable mini gas stove .which worked well. After we cleaned up, we went over to the shelter which looked like an old farming shed, where we all sat around the crackling fire & the kids had marshmallows, while were we having a few drinks & dodging the drips which were steadily coming thru the old corrugated iron roof, after a while part of the wooden beam, which  David & I were sitting near, fell, landing on our shoulders & whacking me in the head, luckily it wasn’t too big to do any major damage, but it was filled with sawdust – not very comfortable in your hair & ears.

Ok, that was enough for me, I went to bed, with Brendan, leaving David to talk with the others and bring the chairs back to the tent when he was ready.

It was cold and, even though we had warm PJ’s, socks & beanies on, I still woke during the night shivering, only to find my better half sprawled out half naked with his sleeping bag practically off – he was hot .
( Continued on Day 2… )