Gorillas and All That

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GORILLAS AND ALL THAT "Have a gorilla." of stew. Apart from a journey over the " river via the bridge to retrieve a sleeping "No thanks, I just put one out." bag, and those necessary brief excursions There is something distinctive about to the outer world, I stayed in the pit every Tongue and Meat trip, and this until 12.30 p.m. the next day. Ruamahanga-Cow Saddle tramp was no In commemoration of the trip, a new exception. The gorilla was flogged-to verse to "Jolly Jack' was composed: death I hope. "I'm Jolly Jack the tramper, I'm happy Dave Ryrie led a party of 15 up the as can be, Ruamahanga and Cleft Creek for a 3day trip, 22nd-25th April. At the cairns For when old Hughie sends it down, on the tributary Dave asked the party to I chuckles gleefully. find the route. An interesting situation The reason why I chuckles, is developed which demonstrated the necesplain to see, very sity of bushcraft weekends. The right route found, we made our way over the For when old Hughie sends it down, he saddle to Cow Creek hut, only to find wets all over me. it was full. So we decided to continue on to a camp site about 15 minutes down We broke camp in the afternoon and river. That night the wind blew and the journeyed through the rain to the bus. rain came down. Everyone voted the trip a success despite the wet weather. Ôf the 15 in the In the morning we left early for the party, only one had been in the club shelter of Mitre Flats hut, but on enter- longer than my 10 months. All of the ing the hut we cried: party went very well, and there should "Oh, I've had a guts full, be some good tramping done in the future. Of tramps where the hut's full." Those on the trip were Dave Ryrie, Camp was made in a very sheltered Bill McLemon, Lyall Mason, Allan Jack, Alan Anderson, Paddy spot on the opposite side of the river. Cremins, Bryan I retired to the pit at 3 p.m., and helped Carey, Peter Rainforth, Tony Smith, cut up the stew in comfort. The fly pro- Neville Taylor, Mike Morris, Dennis vided a built-in fresh water supply. Dave Taylor, Wayne Hobson, Ron Bowman, and Lyall braved the storm to stir the and Mike Hollis. stew. Five greenhorns made the mistake "Have a gorilla." of going over to the hut to dry sleeping bags, and found that they weie unable "No thanks, I'm trying to give them to get back as the river was rising fast. up.' The wise ones had an extra big helping -Mike Hollis.