Ramblers Resort - Toogoolawah

… and so at last we’re on our way to the infamous Toogoolawah, home of the Equinox Boogie* and the place Rob has raved about for the last couple of years. Rob’s nervous (but won’t admit it!) – will it have changed, will anyone remember him… I’m nervous – will I feel an outsider as rob fits right back in. As it turns out, after a handy airport pick-up from Brisbane (thanks Roland!) We arrive 9pm in the pitch black and follow the glow of the light from the bar. There residing happily is Macca aka Dave McEvoy, chief instructor of the club and a shout of “Rob!” confirms that indeed Rob has been remembered. A few beers later and I’m sat alongside Macca on his piano stool while he bangs out a few tunes (bear in mind this is after he has already kept us entertained on his sax and clarinet) and I’m feeling right at home too.

The caravan we’ve booked for the boogie is already on site so we’re soon settled in there and into a steady pattern of jumping all day then chilling in the bar. Macca lets us know that he’s hoping for rain, they’ve been in drought since May and the whole state is parched and dry and at risk of bush fires. Thinking back that so far this year I’ve seen rain in Arizona, Dubai, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, French Polynesia and New Zealand I don’t think it will take long for the rain to follow us and sure enough after two days it arrives. The ozzies are over the moon when rain arrives and fortunately the showers are short enough not to greatly affect the jumping although the humidity afterwards is something else. You get used to jumping in on the sun set loads and watching out for Kangaroos on the landing area though, and the magpies swooping down to get your head on the way out to the plane or to attack your pilot chute on the way back in. Skydiving Oz style.

A few days on and we’re nicely settled in, when we wander back into the bar area and spy Shaz and Andy from back home, a day later and its Rob Silver, followed shortly after by Claire and Sarah and then Laura. The British contingent has arrived, Hib on tour! A couple of Freds(Red Devils), Glen and Jonno add to the numbers and then George, Cheryl, Steve, Jo etc. etc. you get the idea, the Brits must make up a good proportion of a lot of the plane loads, but then with 400 people registered for the boogie its going to be a good one.

*Boogie – definition: a gathering of skydivers with the intention of doing some fun jumping and partying hard, bit like a festival in whuffo* terminology.
*whuffo – definition: someone who has never done a single skydive, derived from “what do you do that for?”