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 Australian CamperTrailers Group
3rd national get together 2007
Copeton Waters State Park
photo by Rob
The Australian CamperTrailers Groups 3rd national get together was once again
held at Copeton Waters State Park near
Inverell on the northern tablelands of NSW during the week of Monday 1st to
Friday 5th October. There were 57 camper trailers, caravans & tents attending,
with 150 people, making it an impressive sight.
The camp grounds surrounding Copeton Dam has everything that
members require for a successful gathering. Fairly level sites, flushing septic & sewered toilets, hot
showers, power & non-powered sites adjacent to each other, fire-rings with wood
supplied as well as dogs under control.
Members arrived as early as
Wednesday the week before in anticipation for the week long activities. The
majority arrived on Friday, Saturday & Sunday. As each camper trailer arrived
they were greeted by Rob & Kevin who showed them what campsites were available,
so members could choose a suitable spot to their liking. There was water views galore despite
Copeton Dam being at 13%.
Copeton Dam holds 4 times the water of Sydney Harbour at full capacity. It
must be an impressive sight when the encatchment is going over the spillway.
The weather was fantastic
& we could not have asked for better from the camper trailer gods. There
was some of the best rain makers gathered in the one place, but despite
that, we only received a few spits from two passing afternoon thunderstorms.
The temperature during the day was about 5 degrees above average in the
low 30's. Overnight it dropped to around 4 degrees making for a restful
nights sleep & cooking on the campfire. We had two total fire ban days.
It was great to once
again camp with members from past national meets & state get togethers, as
well as putting more faces to the typing in the group.
photo by Greg Elsey
Monday
Monday was the first
official day of the weeks calendar of events. Members volunteered to hold
workshops & share their knowledge on a variety of topics with others.
TAI CHI First up
on Monday morning was a session of
Tai Chi with Rob who has been learning
Tai Chi for 6 years. Although he is not an instructor he shared his
knowledge with an inside look into Tai Chi showing a series of warm ups,
Shibashi one (a set of 18 exercises which Tai Chi is based on) & the Lotus.
SOLAR & BATTERY WORKSHOP Later in the morning member Jamie
Hazelten of
DSS,
Dynamic Solar Solutions
along with
Jason, who are both keen campers themselves, presented an interesting workshop on solar panels,
batteries & all 12 volt requirements related to camper trailering. it was great
to get firsthand information like this straight from the horses mouth.
Jamie had his well equipped Land Rover 130
series with him stacked with Copeton Waters specials from his
shop.
While at the meet they were kept busy with repairs & insulations, all done
with free labour.
A big thanks guys for the workshop, the free services you provided while
at the meet & also the donation of two prizes for awards later handed out
at the closing ceremony.
SCOOBY WORKSHOP Young Clancy Skinner
once again held his Scooby workshop which was well attended, not only by the
kids but by adults alike. What's a Scooby you might ask???
DREAM POT WORKSHOP
The Dream Pot is
thermo cookware, whereby the cooking
process is finished by retained heat in the partly cook food. The cooking
process is very simple. You only need to place the ingredients into the inner
pot & gently boil on your stove for the required short time. The inner pot is
then placed into the Dream Pot and the lid is close. The retained heat then
finishes cooking the food.
Donna & Kate
hosted a Dream Pot workshop explaining what the process was, while
passing on the valuable experience they have learnt along the way.
GRAND OPENING The afternoon saw the
opening ceremony by Kevin, Rob & Ron.
Kevin welcomed
everyone to the meet & spoke about of the beginnings of the group 6
years earlier, how the group had evolved to become the best of its
type on the net, now with over 3000 members, the past years members
weekend get togethers & the friendships they had created.
Rob handed out a few
awards....
HANDIEST ITEM AROUND CAMP AWARD won by Mike
Sargeant
http://www.campertrailers.org/handiest_item_07.htm
GOLDEN PEG AWARD
won by Clancy
http://www.campertrailers.org/golden_peg_07.htm
FURTHEST TRAVELED TO STATE MEETS
Gus & Jill Skinner & family traveling
4300kms
Ron then told
of the preparation the groups co-owners had done
in organizing the 2008 national meet at Peak Hill Showground & the
talks that had taken place with the Showground Trust.
It was the group's 6th
birthday & with that Kevin, Ron & Rob proceeded to cut the birthday
cake. In true camper trailering spirit the cake was made in camp by
Margaret Durante in the Cobb. A big thank you to Margaret for baking
the cake.
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