May | 2011 | Thompson Life & Travels

A few of us were having birthdays in May and why not go somewhere, camp and celebrate. I had my birthday last year at Red Bluff in Victoria so it was decided to go again.

Friday night had many camping at Pinnaroo with an impromptu Dinner at the Golden Grain Hotel followed by some planking in the Main Street.

A group of 18 vehicles descended Saturday morning to tackle the Border Track. The convoy looked impressive with a few Nissan Patrols, Toyota Landcruisers & Hilux’s and even a RAV4 and Suzuki Vitara. This was the Moderately Old Farts Birthday Bash which was to be my 5000th Geocache find.

The new Patrol tackled the sand dunes with ease compared to the Frontera last year. Conditions were a little different with a lack of rain this time round, which added to the fun. Not all made it over the dunes and many of the chicken tracks were taken (but not me :-)).

After 6 hours on the Track we arrived at Red Bluff (it was even in daylight). Camp was set up quickly – afterall I was camping in my roof top tent.

It was time for the next event – Moderately Old Farts Birthday Shindig. With the campfire going well from all the firewood we had brought and the beverages starting to flow combined with clear skies, the night was a great way to celebrate the many milestones.

The party wound up late when the clouds arrived from the west and it started sprinkling.

Sunday morning and the group split up with some heading south and west while I joined up with a couple of vehicles and headed into Big Desert Wilderness and Wyperfield National Park. There was more sand driving and also some mud as well.

After geocaching for the day, we finally stopped at the Hales residence in Dimboola for a BBQ and bed for the night.

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Todays 12 of 12 started wet, continued wet through the day and ended wet. Winter is here and three weeks early. There has even been 25cm of snow at Falls Creek.

Had a couple of pickups this morning with a new mouse GPS to connect up to the Netbook when out on the road, then a couple of fluoro jackets for the Scouts Rally SA.

The Police HQ building behind the Fire Station is still being built but is looking closer with a lot of the external hoardings and scaffold being removed.

We then did an audit on our satelitte phones checking they worked and replacing the sim cards that didnt work. That was in between the rain showers.

You can see from the pile of paper on my desk, that I will never be short of something to do at work, but still had time to listen to the Geocaching Podcast live.

It was then lunchtime and of course it was still raining. Dropped off the jackets to the Rally Office then back to work to find a venue for some work meetings. I had been trying the Richmond Hotel for a couple of days but had no reply.

Tried a couple of Scout venues but they were unavailable but ended up booking the Maxwell Cooper Room at the Coopers Alehouse.

It was time to knock off and grab a couple of Geocaches on my quest to make 5000 finds by the Moderately Old Farts Birthday Bash on the Border Track on the 20th and with 8 Days to go and 34 caches to find – should be achievable ….