Imbil Showgrounds who also provided a food service all weekend, starting with a full breakfast at 5.30am to a choice of 3 meals in the evening (and snacks and burgers at any time). Also the Railway Hotel and the Imbil Bowls Club hosted many of the corroboree guests.
A good selection of half day off-road trips were available from Easy to Very Difficult, including one on-road trip (Willy Wonka and the Cheese Factory). More about these later.
Other entertainment included the Lack of Talent Quest which was very funny but the only thing I can remember was some skit about Rindacella and her two ugly sisters called Betty Swollocks and Mary Hinge – everything is a bity hazy after that. Also on offer over the weekend, kids games, inter club games, tug of war, and the NRL Grand Final on big screen and Ivan attended the 4WD Qld country meeting on behalf of the club. Almost forgot the raffle, where Brendan, sorry Julia won an exhaust system.
We weren’t the first to arrive, but we got there on Friday around lunchtime and it was already too hot. We put the camper trailer into a nice clear spot only to discover that it was on a reserved space for another club – turns out that the space allocated to MDORC was pretty small and needed a bit of thought to get us all in and allow us to park next to our set-ups (as we all had fridges in them), unfortunately this also meant that camps already set up were asked to move – long story short – a lot of frayed tempers and more than a few bad words, but eventually some sort of order was restored and we all fitted in.
Friday very hot followed by a freezing cold night (well very cold anyway), trouble is no-one seemed to have been prepared for a cold night so we were all relieved when the morning sun appeared. Saturday turned out to be even hotter but fortunately the night was not so cold, and this pattern repeated – the hotter the day the warmer the night which meant Sunday night wasn’t too bad!
We chose to take trips in the mornings and to chill in the afternoons, so on Saturday we joined the trip to Black Hut which was a medium trip of 43 km. The official blurb says this run takes you through parts of the Imbil Forest and along a ridgeline overlooking Kenilworth Valley. As you wind and twist your way through to Blackhut Rd you will pass through a delightful section of rainforest. … over hill and dale and across several babbling brooks, then through Charlie Morland campground then back to camp.
My notes mention a pleasant track through the forest and a set of creek crossings, some wetter than others and some rockier than others. Signs of the flood damage very much in evidence – it would have been a tremendous sight to see the water causing all this damage. After tea break at Charlie Morlands we had a steep climb with lots of dust, then a gentle drive down and back to Imbil.
On Sunday we opted to take the trip to Mt Buggery another medium trip of 117 km, which almost turned into a MDORC trip so many members opted for this one. The official blurb says "A picturesque drive through deer parks and of a few rocky creek crossings, it is a pleasant drive with some scenic photo opportunities".
My notes say it was a very pretty and pleasant countryside where the deer and the buffalo roam! Yes we saw deer, followed by water buffalo, followed by kangaroos. However the few rocky creek crossings was a bit of an understatement – there were lots of creek crossings! After tea break and on our way back through Wrattens National Park I counted nine rocky crossings but as we got to the more civilized end of the valley we had another nine concrete crossings (this was now private property we were driving though – Harts Homestead I believe). It was all the same creek but a very winding track!