Read on for a little bit of what we got up to at Newnes......

Club members guilty by association: Brian, Jodie, Bailey and Jasmine
Mark, Nicole, Aaron and James
Bob, Rhada, Robbie and Madhu
Trevor and Irene
Peter and Cheryl
Ron and Yvonne
Jenny Mcleod (no not from Drovers run)
Red Belly black snake

A beautiful crisp morning saw us heading up Bells line of Rd. For something completely different we decided to meet at Lithgow MacDonalds. I still can't work out how they are allowed to call that place a restaurant? Still, it's convenient and the kids love it.
Of course no club trip is worth going on unless it starts with a fire!!!!!!!
Pulling up at chew and spew, Bailey shouted out fire.
A road maintenance truck had pulled up in the trailer bay and parked with its bitumen gas burner right under a pine tree. Flame and trees make a good combination.
Thankfully they had a fire extinguisher on the side of the truck and just as I was about to grab it they came out. Luckily they knew exactly what to do. First question was how doI get it down. This of course was followed by, "Does anyone know how to use it?"
Obviously we were not dealing with firemen here.............
Thankfully after much deliberation and confusion it was aimed at the tree and the flames went out.
Breakfast was as tasty as expected...............thank goodness the coffee was hot and the kids were happy. Jasmine poured the hotcake (why are they called hotcakes, they are always stone cold?) syrup all over mummies jeans. Oh the joys.

A quite scenic drive through the Wolgan valley past the site of the new Emirates' resort saw us pulling into the carefully select spot Trevor, Irene, Ron and Yvonne had found earlier. Great weather and a large paddock full of grass. Tents were setup and then we had the difficult task of collecting firewood. Normally this is easy, but in the national park where both chainsaws and firewood collection are not permitted is was quite difficult.
Had we have been naughty we would have just pulled over with Bobs trailer. Mark would have jumped out with his chainsaw and we would have loaded up quickly for a healthy sized fire. Of course this would never happen, so we drove all the way back to Lithgow and bought some firewood from the ACME timber company.

The kids played and we had a little drive around and just enjoyed the pleasant day and even better company. The toilets were nearby and quite handy. Trevor did however meet a friend on the way. The company he's keeping these days is a bit questionable. This friend of his was a bit slippery looking, a bit of a shady character. The old Joe blake was not far from his feet when he noticed it. We grabbed our cameras and with the kids at a safe viewing distance watched the snake for a while. Happy hour was of course several hours long before we had some dinner. One by one the kids were settled to bed with Mark being the first. Lots of humour and antics around a gorgeous fire made for a very nice night.
With the kids being up early we enjoyed the glistening sun slowly warming us and drying out the tents. The discovery of the 9 km walk to the glow worm tunnels saw us changing our agenda. Thanks National Parks.
Jenny and the Douglas's wanted to brave the trek and headed off, while those of us less brave decided to do a small walk to the old oil shale ruins. It was certainly a nice walk albeit uphill!!! Thankfully the way back was downhill.

I felt quite rejuvenated afterwards, no hang sorry that should have been "exhausted"
Carrying Jasmine for 4 km's is quite hard work. She had a good time thought and I'm sure the hernia won't cost much to fix.
After a very relaxing, pleasant weekend we slowly packed up and started to head off.

The journey home proved to be an adventure.
I got a call over the radio from Peter and Cheryl. Their car had made a loud noise and then stopped. Turning around proved to a bit difficult, as we had the trailer on. We had to continue on about 3 km's before we found a spot to turn.
When we got back we tried a quick diagnosis and realised that the engine had no compression .O.K. all we have to do is turn around a 3 tonne truck on an uphill camber on the road and head back to the Newnes hotel to ring the NRMA.
A 3 point turn in a patrol with no power is not easy. Why don't we just winch it round.
Well of course my winch decided not to work, that's why!!!
We ended up having spotters up the road to stop traffic while we snatched it round and then Bob towed it back the few km's to the hotel.

At this point I would like to make a special thanks to the members of another well known 4wd club who just drove past us without even so much as a wave or a question. I hope to see you all sunk in river sometime down the track..............................
We managed to get Peter to the hotel and now it was just a case of ringing the NRMA.
Of course as Murphy's Law clearly states.............
All the phones in the valley were dead. The very kind proprietor of the hotel even drove home to check his phone. No luck. We ended up driving almost all the way back to Lithgow before getting phone signal on the mobiles. I love digital and 3G. Its so much better than the analogue system that pretty much worked everywhere. It just didn't give Telstra as many data options to sell to their customers. Profit before people or is that people before profit?
Oh what do they care their share prices rose.

So I don't bore you all to death I won't go into details, but we got Cheryl home while Peter waited for a tow which eventually got him home in the early hours of the morning.
I was grateful for the pleasant company, the good weather, and the way the club pulled together to help. Despite the turn of events we did enjoy the trip and all had a good time.
It was only the trip home that caused a bit of a hiccup for the Wards.

We hope to see all of you again on another trip soon.
Brian, Jodie, Bailey and Jasmine