Meeting 18 February 2003
We lunched on February 18th at the RAC Club: Downer, Woods, Cherry, Gardiner, Moor, Walker-Powell and a new friend, Ross Venner (1963 - 1968 Grant), were there. Owing to business commitments, Main and Clarke sent their apologies. Craig, Bevis and George sent their apologies from the United Kingdom.
Cherry, (45-55), gave us a report of the OP Dinner that he attended and presented the Club with an Australian flag that those attending the November Sydney meeting had inscribed. He also bought back an autographed dinner menu and a present from Craig of two books on Portsmouth. We were fortunate to catch Cherry because he was due to depart for the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia to retrace Shackleton's odyssey from the Weddell Sea, past Elephant Island and across the Scotia Sea to South Georgia. It was from Elephant Island that Shackleton made his epic voyage in the "James Caird" across the Scotia Sea and then his heroic crossing of South Georgia. Cherry told us that he would only be attempting the last part of the crossing from Fortuna Bay to Stromness whaling station as this could be a very demanding crossing against strong winds and heavily crevassed glaciers. We understand that few have repeated Shackleton's feat, even with the advantage of modern equipment. We will hear more undoubtedly at our next meeting.
Ross Venner is a Chartered Accountant and is the accountant for the Sporting Shooters' Association.
The drought continued and intensified between the November meeting and this one. Happily, after prayers had been offered in all Australian churches for the past nine months there is a suggestion that it is coming to an end at last: flow has restarted in the upper reaches of Darling River and property owners can find more than dust and spiders in their rain gauges. The lack of water was becoming critical; grass was starting to grow in dry creekbeds and graziers were being forced to take their stock to the roads and stock routes to search for fodder. Worse still, the springs that are the source of many of our rivers were starting to falter. I am attaching a picture of Dungowan Creek valley in happier days. With it we can remind ourselves what we will see when the parched land becomes green again.
The next 4 meetings are on Tuesday 20 May, 12 August, 18 November 2003 and 17 February 2004. Those of you with flexible travel plans please make a note; we would love to see you. Gap year students and backpackers in Australia should not be deterred by the thought of an unsought expense; I am sure we can work something out.
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