Author: Sandy Gorman
It nearly didn’t happen. We’d never been there. No-one had any idea what the area was like. It was too long a drive for a ‘weekend away’ to suss it all out. Numbers committed made it touch and go as to whether it would be worth it.
But the club pulled together. Brian and Kaye as usual made the effort to get it all organised and it happened. And boy, was it worth it!
We were officially arriving on the Tuesday and staying until the Monday of the Labour Day long weekend. But as I hate to be late, I planned on leaving on the Monday to arrive a day early. Clare Murray and Lou left the Sunday to stay overnight at Ensay and head in on the Monday. Brian sent his horse off with Kim then headed up Monday too.
Following the directions Brian sourced (with a choice of options to head in) I was first to arrive at the campsite with a huge sense of relief that I had found it! I was alarmed at one point on my way in when a horse ran in front of the car and led me down the road a few hundred metres. Initially I wondered who’d lost their horse – but quickly realised I’d sighted my first BRUMBY! I set up my horse yard, my tent and relaxed with a glass of wine and a packet of Twisties. Idaho and I shared the Twisties (not that he actually liked them, but he does have a fear of missing out on anything I might be enjoying) while we waited for the rest of the gang to arrive. The campsite was large, there was no-one within coo-ee and the weather was spot on. A relaxed evening as everyone set themselves up and enjoyed the peace and quiet before the TRV SET UP Day Tuesday.
Weather was again perfect as Tuesday dawned and we pottered around getting the camp set up and waiting for Kim and Julie to arrive. We had to auger our own hole for the thunderbox as we were far from any long-drops. Brian’s choice of storage for the lime was amusing – what else would you have next to the dunny to keep things “composting” well but a bucket of CHOC FUDGE…..ewww. The water/pump set up, toilet, shower, pony wash, kitchen, storage drum were all set up before Kim and Julie finished their long trek to arrive around 4.30. Julie’s 6.30am start was perhaps the longest drive of any of us TEN HOURS – but in fairness the car also played up. Just the tarp to set up and we were organised. Jobs done, tomorrow we RIDE!
Brian pored over the map and we decided on the direction of our first ride. Poor Lou’s Billy was put out of action in the days before the camp, but thankfully Clare came to the rescue and she was able to ride Thomas for the camp. Brian, Kim, Julie, Murray, Clare, Lou and I all saddled up to head off with our directions of left, left, right, right…. Whatever comes ride! We had GPS – thankfully! We ended up left, left, left, right and didn’t quite end up the way we thought. The tracks were stunning, nothing too hilly or rocky. There was plenty of shade (who’s a happy girl!) and although we didn’t realise until later in the week, the third left we’d taken took us to within 50 metres of our camp (no, we didn’t notice the floats!). Once we worked out we’d short looped ourselves, we found a place to lunch and then found another track to swing back around. No-one was happy with the decaying brumby we needed to pass and it was a relief to get past it. This was NOT a highlight of the trip. We followed brumby tracks, we doubled back when we couldn’t get through, but we had a wonderful ride on some great tracks. Brian had Murray cantering along the tracks, and it was a happy group that made it back to camp around 5-5.30 that evening. Day one – success! Dinner, drinks, campfire – what more could you want? Chrissy. We wanted Chrissy, but we’d got reception today and the news that Chrissy was unlikely to make it. We understood, but felt for her.
Thursday was Day 2 of riding, with Kirrilee expected to arrive in the afternoon. Clare’s horse hadn’t pulled up great after the previous days riding, so she decided to relax back at camp. One rider short, we planned to head off through the back of the camp opposite us. A fence required an adjustment, and after a battle with the creek and the Friesian, we made another adjustment and headed towards Nunniong Plains. Amazing wide open spaces, with wooded areas either side. We spotted brumbies in groups of three to 8 or so today. We found an old hut and stopped for lunch. Great photo opportunity! Today the tracks were minimal, so once we hit the trees it was follow our noses to keep heading in the right direction. It was a great “poles” class with plenty of fallen trees to traverse, low branches – everything that makes Trail Riding the experience it is. We then found another beautiful track to cruise along and confident we were heading back in the right direction to camp. Kirrilee had arrived and was set up by the time we returned to camp (a little earlier today) and the gang was all together at last. Stories were shared around the campfire and brumbies were again a topic of conversation. Kirrilee couldn’t wait to catch her first glimpse on the ride tomorrow.
FRIDAY – day 3 of riding. Clare & Murray decided to leave today as they had a family function Saturday (and it’s not like it was a short drive home!). Lou left with them as she needed to return Thomas with his friends. We were now five riders with a wealth of choices as to which direction we may take. There was a short track heading off past the Thunderbox… and this is when we realized that we’d taken a track directly behind our camp two days previous. We took it in the reverse direction and headed off. The tracks undulated and were two-three horses wide most spots. We had lovely long lopes and relaxed through the beautiful trails. We followed our GPS and came across Ezards track first that was headed back to complete our loop. It may have meandered around, it may have been direct and therefore a “short” ride. So we ignored it and continued on. We found a camp of some description at Paddy’s Plain – perhaps a scout camp or school camp. Three cabins, lunch hut, great set up. We used the tables and chairs and enjoyed our lunch. Our loop required us to head “right”. We continued on our path, and took the next “right” track. We were high in the hills with views across the peaks. Stunning country. Our right hand track meandered. A lot. Lots of Lefts on this right hand track. It would eventually head right… but it felt like we were doing a very BIG loop. We found a beautiful stream. Another photo opportunity. We eventually headed towards camp, and found the road our camp was on…. About 16 k’s from camp. A cattle grid and no way over – don’t tell me we need to U-Turn! No, there’s a log fence we can use. Not very well, but we got the horses through and the fence (mostly) back in position. We were starting to get a feel of the area though, and the ride today was great. Almost 35 k’s in just under 7 hours (or probably about that if you count our lunch break! ) Very happy riders (mostly as we didn’t get lost) settled the horses back at camp and again spent a lovely evening by the fire.
SATURDAY – riding day FOUR. Kirrilee was woken by some brumbies in camp – of course I chose this morning to fall back to sleep and snored through the visit. Bugger.
Today we again decided to try heading out through the camp opposite and see how we would go. All ponies across the water and we found our way onto Nunniong Plains track. We headed back towards the Plains – and were surprised by the number of campers since we were last through. It was the long weekend! We found other riders and decided to change our plans based on their thoughts. Our plan was “steep and rocky” – but I guess they didn’t realise where we would usually ride! It would, more than likely, have been fine, but any ride was new to us, so chose to go left rather than right after lunch. We criss-crossed a little of Thursday’s ride, but found more tracks and our first snake! We came across some bike riders on our return (it’s okay that one of them was from work and didn’t recognize me – apparently he was too busy keeping his eye on the “big black horse in front that wanted to kill him”. Idaho, you scary bugger!) Heading back towards camp we found a better spot to cross the creek and a brumby track that headed up from there. Thank you brumbies! We came out just up the road from camp. Do I sound like a broken record when I said we spent the evening relaxing around the campfire with dinner and drinks? We are camping, it’s what you DO!
SUNDAY – riding day FIVE and final (Monday is pack up go home day). This morning we were all woken with the brumbies in camp. They came in for the meagre bits of hay left from Clare & Murray’s yard – and they were stunning. We watched them for a good 15 minutes before I realised that it wasn’t Kirrilee that had woken me and I best get her out of bed to see! They hung around for another fifteen minutes and we just watched them and the sunrise. What I found amazing was how quiet our horses were. We heard the brumbies as they snorted, but I don’t recall any of our horses answering back. They watched in silence. Ahhhh.
Today we headed off through the brumby track we came in on last night. We thought we’d hit Nunniong Plains track and head in the opposite direction for a loop. The loop was smaller than we’d thought and we weren’t far from camp (thankfully) when poor Bluey got caught in stray loose wire. Very scary and tense ten minutes that I’m sure we’d all rather rewind and re-do without the incident (especially Kim). We stopped for lunch and let Bluey relax and be tended to. We headed back to camp. Bluey’s cuts didn’t seem too deep (thank goodness the wire was thicker rather than thin and slicey). Kim was happy for us to continue on, and Kirrilee decided to stay as the rest of us continued on. Julie chose to go back (their horses had been yarded together and Bluey was in need of a friend). Brian, Kirilee and I continued on out the back of our camp and unfortunately came past the decaying brumby again, the stench a killer now. We did part of the track we’d done the first day, and spent a little time on training. Kalani DOES NOT like to lead and with a little coaching (and swapping of reins to give some length to back slap) Kirrilee had Kalani facing her fears and indeed, mastering them! It was a little funny watching Kirrilee struggle with 7ft reins (and I had to make sure I held onto her shorter pair). Note to all – having clips on the end of your reins at the bit makes for really easy swapping! Our great track we had Murray cantering on was Kirrilee’s favourite and we had an awesome ride. Some kind soul had even cut the tree that sent us bush earlier in the week and we didn’t need to go around today. The other advantage of knowing where we were meant we chose to take a track rather than the road back and the entire ride was just beautiful tracks, lots of canters, change of lead riders (getting Idaho and Kalani better at having horses up their bums/passing) a ripper ride. We returned to Julie and Kim and Bluey’s leg had barely swelled, so all looked bright.
We chose to pull down the tarp Sunday afternoon. Julie and Kim wanted an early start, so getting this job out of the way seemed a good plan. The weather was still fine and we had no need of the tarp, so great job out of the way. It was a sign that the week’s camping was coming to an end, so a little sad.
WHEN the rain started about five am, my first thought was to save the tea bags that were no longer under cover. A quick run down to the trailer in my nightie to stow away anything not weather resistant. Back to bed and thoughts of packing in the rain were admittedly keeping me there longer than I should!
We plodded through the pack up – getting as much done while Kim and Julie were still about to help CAN I SAY I DON’T LIKE POP UP SHOWER/TOILET TENTS??? Fine on set up… pack up however….
Kim and Julie left by 9.30-10.00, leaving Kirrilee, Brian and me. The rain didn’t let up. It was between a heavy drizzle and rain, with short breaks. Not ideal, but considering the weather we had had for our stay, we’d been very lucky. We finally got everything sorted and Brian took the loaded trailer home about 2pm. Kirrilee and I took to her float with a book to sit it out. We planned on heading home Tuesday morning, and I only wanted to get my tent packed up today and sleep in the float for the night. Didn’t think I’d manage to get it packed up dry, but we read for a while until the rain gave way to slightly bluer skies. We managed to get a fire lit – but the wood was very wet and my pyro Kirrilee struggled with the lack of flame. Wine, cheese & bikkies. Pack up what we could. A relaxing afternoon with loads of reminiscing on the week. A quiet night in the end, it’s rather sad when it all comes to an end. The weather had even put the thoughts of one last ride out – didn’t fancy getting all the saddlery wet on the last day!
We managed to pack up and be gone by 9 the following morning. We chose to head home through Buchan and it was a simpler drive out. We’ll take that route next time. Because there will be a next time. Five glorious days of riding was worth the travel. The camp spot was quiet. The weather could not have been kinder to us. The people were wonderful (well, it is a great club!).
This is only my second Club Camp. I don’t think there could be a bad one. I loved it. I’m in for next year. Bindaree or Nunniong?? Oh, the decisions. Speaking of decisions.. time to reflect and put in your nominations. Can you think of a stand-out for the ‘Best Comment’ award? The ‘horse’s arse’?
Hoping that Bluey is almost healed by the time I’ve written this.