Here are some old pics that have come my way. I didn't know where else to put them, but I didn't want to discard them.
This one dates back to October 1976, and features myself, Paul Dickson and Tony Beck at Wilpena Pound, about to head off on our first serious bushwalk. It was real serious - once we got lost and had to climb down a very big cliff where we really shouldn't have been. However, I have loved bushwalking ever since, and still try to get away with a few mates (Paul is usualy one of them) for a few days every year.

By the way, we were the only Sea Scouts to be seen in the Flinders Ranges that season. We had just formed the !st Henley Venturer Unit and were very proud of the Scout Association and our uniforms.

Our Venturer leader, Steve O'Brien, took this photo. In the background is his 1961 Kombi Van, which in later years featured a Holden 186 engine.

Click on the pic for a larger image
This is the Seamist, a wooden hulled carvel-built Scout class Patrol Boat in which I learned to sail. It was one of the oldest boats in the South Australian scout fleet, and also the fastest. We won most of the sailing races which were held monthly through the sailing season each year. Paul Dickson and I were regular crew - he as skipper and I as mainsheet hand. As teenagers one summer a group of 5 of us took this boat on a sailing trip down the Murray, from Blanche Town to Mannum for about 8 days. We also crossed the Murray Lakes in her to win our class in the Goolwa to Meningie Freshwater Classic one year.

She's pictured here competing in a sailing regatta at Meningie some time in the 70's.




Click on the pic for a larger image
Now we're getting serious. Here's me in Bangui, in the Central African Republic in 1988. Shaving my head caused me a few moments' grief when I wanted to leave the Central African Republic, as the border guard at the Cameroun border wanted to know why I didn't look like my passport photo. I told him I was hot.




Click on the pic for a larger image
(as if you'd want to)
home