KATARAPKO
November 2007-11-13
It was looking to be a very nice weekend for our planned Club trip to
Katarapko. 
I
had already decided to take a couple of extra days off work to make the most of
it, so Bev and I travelled up on the Thursday, arriving at around beer o’clock.
Alvin and Kath had been there a few days already and Graeme & Jock as well as
George & Herma had arrived earlier that day.
The camp site was situated on the banks of the Katarapko Creek, which was looking a tad low, but pleasant enough nonetheless. Kayaks were already on the bank, so some had already been out to test the waters. Not much activity for the rest of the evening except for the occasional stroll to the fridge, with a reasonably early night to bed.
Friday turned out to be another warm and sunny day, so Bev and I took the opportunity to go for a drive to check out Berri as well as Barmera. On the way we stopped at the camping disposal store in Barmera and actually managed to escape without buying anything! We then decided to take the drive which follows the shores around Lake Bonney, which had quite a high water level and was teeming with pelicans.
On returning to camp, we found that Graeme, Jock, George and Herma had also gone for a drive and returned just before tea time. Ian and Jen as well as Keith and Gill had also arrived, with Stuart and Denise arriving later that evening, followed by Jan and Dean, with grandson Zander in tow, just before bed time.
Saturday morning was spent at the camp, some going for a paddle in one of the
canoes and George having another go at catching the elusive fish. It didn’t
appear there was much around only having caught one tiddler the day before and
having to throw that back. Frank also arrived quite early, unfortunately without
Lyn who opted not to come due to illness. Later that day, the whole group
visited the Cobweb Glass Studio to see some excellent works of art including
glass bowls, coasters, wall hangings and leadlight. Several items were
purchased, after which we went out the back to inspect the property’s solar
array installation.
There were some
180 amorphous panels totalling over 10 kilowatts of potential free power. Any
excess power not being used is fed back into the mains electrical grid,
resulting in around $5000 per annum profit on their electricity bill.
From Cobweb, it was off to a lookout, in an old water tower, overlooking Berri. This was truly spectacular and worth the 100+ steps to get to the top. From there, we all went to Café Primo for tea.
Sunday morning arrived all too soon and Frank had already headed off before most of us managed to get out of bed. However, before departing, Kath and Alvin had organised a scavenger hunt the previous day and had given us until 10am Sunday to collect all the required bits. Well, there were certainly some "interesting" interpretations of some of the items on the list as well as some very innovative creations. Bev and I picked up the most points, winning a collapsible bucket, followed by Denise and Stuart who won a very nice 2008 calendar. A good time was certainly had by all.
Many thanks to Kath and Alvin for organising the trip and another fantastic Club event.
Gerry Paay