CMCA Deniliquin 25th Anniversary Rally
A tribute to Don & Erica Whitworth for having the foresight 25 years ago while travelling in there Kombie Van to get this organization off the ground. The club has now over 67,000 members
Deniliquin which is situated on the banks of the Edward River, began as a river crossing during early settlement and has developed into a commercial centre servicing the Riverina.. its also the home of the famous UTE MUSTER
We only had 80 kl to travel so no need to rush...woke to rain this morning, as usual packing up in the rain...This will be a good test for John and I as once at the rally we will be on our own steam no electricity and no water (except what we fetch for ourselves and fill our tanks up with) we are allowed to run our generators for 2 hours a day to charge up the batteries...
Was a nice run to Deniliquin all country roads...arrived to see nothing but motorhomes all around town all going to same destination...the Rally... we had to queue for a while as the weather wasn't the best and they had had heavy rain the night before which left the grounds in a bad way...
Very sloppy.... it didn't help all these heavy vehicles trying to park on it... but eventually we were settle in a row of big rigs...in the mud yuk !!!
Over 1000 motor homes on the site so we had a long walk each time to the main marque and all the many exhibitors and other goings on.. but it was great exercise, and each day you saw something new during your walk...the weather fined up after 2 days and we had lovely weather for the rest of the week..
The event is run by volunteers of the club and what a great job they did !!!!!!
Every night they had entertainment on which was of high standard ....one night they had a couple on named "The Lady and the Larrikin" beautiful voices and he was a larrikin which made us all laugh...we liked them so much we bought their CD John had a picture taken with Lisa
We had a few walks into town which was not too far, the whole town opened up for us everywhere we went.... they had discounted prices for us...and made us feel very welcome.
The club organised tours of the area.... we went on one with Lois and Mike to a rice farm where they showed us how it was grown...and harvested...very interesting...
Rice field
The next day we went on a tour to "Mundiwa" Deniliquins first "run" or station of 700,000 sq acres taken up in 1842.... we enjoyed the historic surroundings of the homestead
The also ran many seminars where we learnt so much about different aspects of being on the road...and also craft shops were run every day... I signed up for a craft of making a teddy bear purely out of wool, with a large needle...called needle felting...I made it for John in his football team colours...
Mid week while taking a stroll we passed a small coaster home and John noticed the name on the side of it and said "Hey that's my cousin" he was very happy to find his cousin Jan and husband Geoff who he had not seen for years.... we had a nice catch up with them... amazing all those motorhomes and what do we find....
Geoff-John-Jan
On the last night they had a Black and White ball and of course everyone had to wear black and white, and each group dressed up there tables.... some went to an awful lot of trouble..with some great outfits..and some silly outfits...
We left on Sunday with a sad heart...we had to say goodbye to our friends who we enjoyed there company so much ..and our new friends...
We had a great week CMCA and will definitely go to another rally..
A special remembrance to my best friend Pat's Mum... Jean who passed away this week, she was a beautiful lady , and will be sadly missed.
