2009 PP GTG In The Red Centre.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Hi All,

Well Stan & I have nutted out the start date for the 2009 Pradpoint GTG and after a lot of toing and froing we have arrived at the official start date for the GTG at Ross River Resort. So the official date is:

04 July 2009

So now everyone can start making decisions on if they are going to be able to make it. We realise that the date is probably going to disadvantage many NSW participants but unfortunately the NSW school holidays for that period are seriously out of synch with the rest of the country so it was a case of trying to minimise as much as possible the impact to the NSW PPers whilst still allowing the majority of the rest of the country to attend.

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Well done Mav and Stan and thanks for all the effort!

LFaR.

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Ok. a target date to aim for.
that = saturday 4th july, the first day of school hols WA
resume on the 20th july.
Sounds good, WA people who cant leave till the end of school term could propably be there on the 7th of july with out to much trouble.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Folks just to tantalise you all I will be visiting the proposed camp grounds over the coming year to check that they are suitable for us. When I do so I will put up a link to a slide show of the camping areas so you can get an idea of what to expect. Along with the slideshow I will also do a bit of a review of the camp grounds.

I will do my first review and slideshow later tonight and post it in this thread.



Trephina Gorge near Ross River Resort

Cheers

Mav

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Well today my wife, Son and I took a drive out to Ross River Resort to check the place out and see how they are going with the restoration work. We had not actually been to the camp grounds there before so I was quite surprised at how nice they were for a bush camp ground.

The camp grounds are situated a little ways from the main homestead but this is not a problem as there is every convenience at the actual camp ground. Their powered and unpowered sites and the grounds are kept very nice. For those wishing not to sleep in their tents there is what they call the Bunk House which can accommodate 48 people, there are 4 bunks per room and you can see the bunk house in the slide show. For those that want a little more private accommodation then there are cabins available near the main homestead, you can see them in the slideshow. They are the small green buildings situated around the pool area.

The camp grounds also sports its own bar and BBQ area, the management have said that if there is sufficient numbers they will open the bar for us to use. You can see the bar in the slide show.

They have also said that they will take care of getting the large open fire pit going so that we as a group can sit around it, this is also in the slideshow.

I posed the question of night time entertainment and they are going to see what they can arrange, these details and others will be better known a couple of months before the event.

The ablution block for ladies and gents are quite clean and presentable. There are approx 10 showers and toilets in each.

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words so with that in mind I have made the slideshow available to download and hope you all find that the kick off point for the GTG is up to your expectations. The scenery around Ross River is spectacular to say the least. YOu can find the slideshow here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?1w00dps0guj

For those that do not want to see the slideshow here are a couple of pics to wet your whistle on:

The first pano photo is of the main Ross River Resort complex, you can see the cabin accommodation and the main building which houses a bar area, restaurant, and reception.



The next photo is of the camp ground area.



The slideshow has many more photos and is well worth a look to guage a feel for the resort.

Cheers

Mav

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

That looks fantastic Mav.

Now there's just the wait .... its a bit like ordering a D4D :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Chippy

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

but its worth it in the end. just got to find the end

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Okay just to add a bit of ambience to the slideshow I have spruced it up a bit with some background music and a bit of oration from myself. Be warned that this is not dial up friendly as it is 32 MB in size, it is a first attempt at doing one of these so I am just learning the software side of it as I go so be kind.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1lrxitjvl1c

And if you would like to see the kind of scenery around Trephina Gorge and Rainbow Valley then you can download this video slideshow that I created. Be aware that it is 37 MB in size.

http://www.mediafire.com/?j9ddzyxytlj

[Big Fella Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Big Fella]

Mav,

I must say they are top productions you have made there mate, well done. After watching them all I feel the need that we somehow must attend to see this beautiful area, so we will be trying really hard to do so now. We may even have to buy a new van just for this trip! This forum has encouraged Lacey and I to spend a lot of money already, so I don't think a fistfull more would hurt too much.

You can pencil us in for this one. As for school holidays in NSW being put of sync, too bad kids your getting out of school for a few extra days (private schools generally break up a bit earlier and do nothing for the last week anyway....why do I pay them all that money?).

Anyhoo, hope to see you all there for a few quiet ones around the fire pit.

[Chuck Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chuck]

That looks fantastic Mav.

Now there's just the wait .... its a bit like ordering a D4D :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Chippy

Only quicker :lol: :lol:

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Mav,

I must say they are top productions you have made there mate, well done. After watching them all I feel the need that we somehow must attend to see this beautiful area, so we will be trying really hard to do so now. We may even have to buy a new van just for this trip! This forum has encouraged Lacey and I to spend a lot of money already, so I don't think a fistfull more would hurt too much.

You can pencil us in for this one. As for school holidays in NSW being put of sync, too bad kids your getting out of school for a few extra days (private schools generally break up a bit earlier and do nothing for the last week anyway....why do I pay them all that money?).

Anyhoo, hope to see you all there for a few quiet ones around the fire pit.

Hi Big Fella, I am so pleased to hear that you are going to try and make this GTG I reckon it is going to be bigger the Ben Hur. :lol:

We are also on the hunt for a good hard floor camper trailer, we looked at a second hand soft floor the other week here in Alice but she had seen better days. What it highlighted to us was that we definitely want a hard floor camper.

You know when I was growing up my folks used to move all around the country for work and I spent a lot of my youth living out of a caravan. I lost count of the number of schools I went to. The one thing that still amazes me today is when I think back to how much better my knowledge of Australia was compared to the kids that stayed their whole life in one school. I reckon getting the kids out there to experience Australia has a lot going for it that no school could possibly teach.

I think we will all be surpised at just how quickly this event comes around.

Cheers

Mav

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

On the weekend we did a run through Owen Springs reserve which is the optional trip for day 3 of the GTG itinery. This would include Rainbow Valley first before heading through the reserve. I made a slideshow up that shows what this is like, it is 28 MB in size so it is only suitable for those on broadband connections.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2ldzx2h5w3y

[mototrim Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close mototrim]

Great slide show Mav,

Unfortunatly my media player wont play the video`s but the slide show was great.
The facilitys look good and there seems to be plenty of shade. 8)

Do they allow permanent tenants as we may not wont to leave

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Great slide show Mav,

Unfortunatly my media player wont play the video`s but the slide show was great.
The facilitys look good and there seems to be plenty of shade. 8)

Do they allow permanent tenants as we may not wont to leave

That is odd that your media player will not play the videos, what are you using? Windows Media Player and Winamp both play it on my PC at work and at home. Have you selected your media player to play all files types via its setup menu?

The caretaker at Ross River Campgrounds did say that it was tough to wake up to his surrounding everyday, he said it with a big grin on his mug. :lol:

[mototrim Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close mototrim]

Alls good Mav,

Just downloaded an upgrade for version 11 and its worked a treat.

I liked the backround music you used on the last one and that must be a good video camera as the images and colours were extremely good. 8)