G'day, With Julie and little Pepe our pooch, we just spent 4 days at the Gold Prospecting Bash 2013 based at the fantastic Laanecoorie Lakeside Caravan Park located in Central Victorian Goldfields...with about 100 old grizzly roothless and toothless, ugged and near bugged, prospectors and their partners, we sat around the campfires each night after being out prospecting in the Goldfields showing nuggets and sharing information on our gold detectors, coils and equipment.
The Laanecoorie Lakeside CP must be one of Victoria's hidden gems as it is not on everyone's destination list yet it has complete facilities, fishing and boating in the nearby lake, Rec Hall, Bar B Q's and it is one of those parks that still allow one to relax & enjoy sitting round camp fires, with your friends and their dogs. This is the second year we have attended and it keeps getting better with guest speakers/demonstrations on Gold Prospecting, both detecting and panning and the latest equipment...Doug Stone one of the leading gold map and info authors, and gold authorities in Australia spent two days with us and together with noted Gold & Relic Tour Leader, Darren Kamp I went out for a day in the amazing OKA vehicle which can virtually go anywhere in the bush...most attendees found nuggets and many no doubt paid their way......
They had an auction to raise funds for the Peter Mac Cancer Hospital Unit and my wife surprised me with successfully bidding on a 10 day tag a long tour based out of Kalgoorlie in May next year with Darren Kamp and his 'go anywhere' Oka vehicle, who arranges all necessary permits etc on private leases....he's never had a tour I believe where gold is not found by everyone and many paying for their trip with some profit....I think I will be taking my tent and swag rather than the Van on this one....
The owners of the park even provided a magnificent roast beef and pork dinner with all the trimmings in the Rec Hall on Saturday for $10 head...tariff at $26 powered site among the many trees was great value and many Park operators could take note how to attract like minded groups who will keep coming back because of reasonable tariffs offering real value for money....Golden Triangle Woolies and Coles donated all the salads etc and one of the Prospectors provided two complete meals of mackerel/salads on the Sunday and Monday for us all at $5 head with all proceeds to the Peter Mac Cancer Hospital...in all $11,200 was raised..how good is that?.......I find prospectors a very loyal and caring fraternity....
Great place..Life is Great! Hoo Roo....
-- Edited by Golddetectornomad on Wednesday 16th of October 2013 11:34:14 AM
-- Edited by Golddetectornomad on Wednesday 16th of October 2013 11:36:53 AM
__________________
'Without Going, You Get No Where'.
' Aspire to Inspire before you Expire'
Where Gold be....is where Gold be......old Cornish saying......
The older we get the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.......
G'day Jules, the most amazing thing I believe about the Gold bash is we are all just contributors on the Forum 'Gold Detecting & Prospecting Forum'. No fees or memberships, just comraderie and a common interest, yet 100 plus partners attended. None of us had ever really met originally except on the Forum, yet they came from Qld, S.A., NSW and of course from Vic to attend.
Similar no doubt to meeting Grey Nomads, folk are never really as you visualise by simply forming an opinion from their posts and are invariably no where near as cantankerous, and usually far more humourous and great fun to be around than perhaps you" imagine" them to be...
Imagine a similar Grey Nomad 'Bash' at somewhere central in the near future......? Hoo Roo
__________________
'Without Going, You Get No Where'.
' Aspire to Inspire before you Expire'
Where Gold be....is where Gold be......old Cornish saying......
The older we get the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.......
Laanecoorie is a great little place I lived there years ago the western red cedar house out on the main road I built and had many a great time there if you go out into the gold fields there is quite a few puddlers out there and with a bit of work quite a lot of small bits can be panned around them have photos some where of the park flooded and lots of water flowing over the spillway quite a site
Camped at Laanecoorie back in May and had a fantastic week-end. We were down the back about as far as you could go and one of our "tribe" remarked that "you wouldn't even know we were in a caravan park!" The place was all but deserted!
Great spot, but apparently very crowded at Easter and to a lesser degree at Christmas. Damned cold in winter too according to one of the camp employees.
__________________
Proud owner of an 2006 3lt turbo diesel Rodeo. Van will be next!!
Just received the very sad news that the owner, Jim S. of the Caravan Park passed away last night 17th after his courageous battle with cancer. I believe only 60 years old . We were raising funds for the Peter Mc Donald Cancer Unit he was in...one of natures' gentlemen he willingly shared his extensive local gold knowledge with us all even to the point of taking us out and showing the best goldfield areas....our future Gold Bash at the Park will never be the same as previous years.....I believe Jim built his magnificent Park from scratch and should have been about to start taking it easy....something to reflect on for us all......Good bye a true/genuine mate to all.....Hoo Roo
__________________
'Without Going, You Get No Where'.
' Aspire to Inspire before you Expire'
Where Gold be....is where Gold be......old Cornish saying......
The older we get the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.......
