West Wyalong Farm Stay
2nd - 4th October 2004

Written by Bryce R Messner

As usual I got away early and arrived on Thursday lunchtime with the aim to collect the firewood & organise the campfire site, and collect a few rabbits.

Over the course of Saturday (some very late Friday night) all booked in for the weekend had arrived but two who we didn’t here from. Once everyone had set up camp it was time for Hugh to let his entourage know the itinerary for the weekend.

Saturday comprised of the huge tractor ride for all assembled, and most took advantage especially the kids and then the children had a ride also. Andrew was last seen disappearing over the horizon on his motor bike for most of the afternoon. He actually managed to get me on board for a run down the back lane, which was huge fun; it had been a long time since the last.

Mary had even gone into town on Friday to buy 20 chooks (foxes got the last lot) so the kids could chase them around the farm. The kids also had Kato, a billy mohair goat, and Lambert a pet sheep and his mates to hand feed as well, also a number of farm dogs to pet. All car doors had to be closed as Kato will jump in and won’t leave until you take him for a drive. Also I found out not leave your window down as the black cat likes to bed down in your car. On this occasion mine, I had wound the windows up at night (as I was Sleeping inside and not in my car) and locked the cat in somehow, that p*ssed & sh*t all over my new sleeping bag (it took months to air the upholstery out).

Saturday night meal was as always-excellent, campfire cooking in camp ovens by most and the conversation stimulating.

Sunday we all had breakfast and Hugh collected us all for a trip into town and the local showground as the 4x4 Mud Races were on. This sport particular to Victorians and a few from NSW is a lot of fun to watch. Modified 4x4 with large tractor tyres and auto transmissions are preferred. Land Rover was represented by a lime green 2 door Range Rover heavily modified. They travel around a long narrow circuit two at a time along a trough of mud with a dividing wall down the centre. If you are too close as they pass you get sprayed with mud as we did. We all drifted back to camp after a couple of hours, and some ventured a little further afield to look around west Wyalong.

A small group of us about four cars decided to visit Hugh’s other property “St Omer”, a 1000acre block of grazing land and a about 5 kilometres of Humbug Creek, for the large part dry with pockets of water and sand. Well we found an entrance into the creek a proceeded to drive its length and of course I got bogged, too close to a wet patch. I hand dug myself out before the others caught up and we were able to proceed on until we ran out of Hugh’s portion of the creek.

We then went looking for gullies and wet spots all over the farm, which there were many spots for us to play in and get terribly muddy. As it was getting dark we headed back and decided on a short cut and it meant a very steep crossing of a narrow section of the creek. I got through with a couple of scrapes back and front and rocketed up and over the edge, but Ian not so lucky managed to wedge himself in the gully needing extraction, and back to camp it was.

Again another fantastic night was had by all around the campfire with great camaraderie, with a great bunch of people that could not be experienced staying in Sydney no matter how hard you tried!

Monday morning much of the same just lazing about until it was time for all to leave and say farewell to Hugh & Mary with a big thankyou for running such a perfect weekend for our club, until next time.