Woodside

A weekend away at Woodside with a bunch of people which was born from the weekend away at Lake Entrance last year.

It was a little camp ground at the start of the western end of the Ninety Mile Beach on the Gippsland coast.

We arrived late Friday afternoon to find a jam packed camp ground with very little vacant area.  The 3 other families were already there and grabbed whatever area was left.

Some of the other “campers” had spread out over large areas and the camps had obviously been there for months.   Some of the people were a little territorial, trying to dissuade anyone from trying to setup in the eastern end of the campground.

We managed to squeeze ourselves into a corner and it turned out to be a nice spot with enough of a clear area to light a fire

Ross took the new generator he bought on the way home from Queensland in Canberra, in January, along with Daniels Xbox.

The generator was tested at home and ran like a clock. Ross bought it on Ebay from a guy in Canberra and arranged to collect it on the trip south from QLD. The generator was virtually new, only having been used once, and its condition (still in the box) attested to that.

Ross had the generator popping away with Daniel playing Xbox, and he decided we might as well use the toaster along with all the normal things feeding of electricity.  The generator is a 2kva, Ross had tested all but one appliance for power draw …. The only unknown appliance was the kettle, and it didn’t have any power details written on it.   I could be more than the toaster so he plugged in the meter, turned on the kettle and immediately heard the generator labouring, and struggling under the load.  It sounded like it was melting.  The meter that the kettle was plugging into was spinning out of control like the Pharaohs poker machine.   It hit 2.2kva before Ross could react.  The power cut out and everything went quiet.  Whoops.  Daniel wasn’t amused the Xbox had poo poo’ed mid game.

Ross commenced the overload reset sequence and each step was completed successfully before the next ……. all except for one …. the one where the generator actually re starts.  All the kings horses and all the kings men could not put humpty together again. The resident Fitter and Turner, nor Aircraft Mechanic couldn’t effect any inroads into the problem. (remind me not to fly again)

Not to be denied Daniels Xbox, Ross whipped out the backup little Honda generator that lives in the camper. Plenty of people carry various spares, but not too many campers carry spare generators !!!

Daniel was back up and running on the Xbox, and his silence was excepted as a kind of gracious “thank you dad”.

Saturday night started out uneventful, sitting around the fire having a laugh and enjoying the company when someone seen what appeared to be a grass fire at the western end of the camp ground.  It turned out to be a couple a drug f#$cked dickheads with a big’sh camp fire way to close to the boundary posts, dry grass and foreshore scrub.  After a short discussion they where told by Ross either put it out or have it put out …. short story!  It ended with the fire was well and truly out, water running through their camp and Ross wandering back to our camp with an empty 25ltr water container.  Back to laughing, drinking and enjoying the company.

The pit toilet was declared toxic and off limits very early after arrival by a few of the uninitiated.  Having experienced a great many pit toilets, some of which would burn the hair off your arse, Ross wasn’t too concerned and when he felt the timing was appropriate he wandered up to the pit toilet, roll of tickets in hand.  The pit toilet was without any question to BEST pit toilet either Ross or Barb had experienced. It was virtually odour free (as far as pit toilets go).  City folk are a little too precious, and they made numerous car trips to off site toilets as the need arose.

We had the toilet and shower setup, but only the actual campers amongst us jumped at the opportunity to enjoy the shower. Funny really, you would expect the people not normally used to roughing it to grasp the chance to shower.

Returning to the dead generator for a moment. On our return home Steve called around. That was a welcome sight for Barb who has heart palpitations when asked to help reverse the camper. On mentioning to Steve that the new generator had shit the biscuit, he found the problem in about 13 seconds. Dodgy fittings were to blame, and it was back running like a clock.