On Saturday the 6th of July, the team from the Zobel Finance Centre in Mount Gambier headed the way of Strathdownie (minus Tamara who turned the group down for a better offer) for an evening cookout to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Zobel group. It was always set to be an enjoyable yet very interesting night with half of the group unaware of the whereabouts of Strathdownie before the bus took its course including chief organiser Simon who was ready to send the bus in the complete wrong direction (towards Mumbannar) before Karen (who had to take over due to Simon’s negligence) picked up on his error in the days leading up to the event.
The night took an even more interesting turn when the 20 minute cruise turned out to be more like an intense 40 minute bush bash while we searched for the reflective vest that was to signal the cookout entrance but instead sent us down a narrow path that had Craig worried he wouldn’t be able to get us out – It simply provided some great entertainment for the rest of the crew, although it is fair to say Leroy (Leroy’s Mini Bus Hire) may have had a bit of shrubbery to pull from the bus’s undercarriage.
Surprising to some was the fact that the narrow path actually did lead to the cookout and when we arrived at the magical set up everyone took their time to 1. – exaggerate the roughness of the path that had been travelled and 2. – (more importantly) exclaim at the beauty of the set up. Bowdy (cookout owner/organiser) had set the area up perfectly with benches surrounding a large toasty bonfire, in front of a stunning longstanding hut.
Once everyone had taken in the beauty of the setup, done some star gazing and some chatting Bowdy brought out the feast, an array of extravagant fresh meats – Duck, Wild Pheasant, Venison, Pork, Lamb and Beef. But just when everyone had thought it couldn’t get any better, Bowdy surprised the group with dessert dumplings, cream and custard (which Meredith had to stop custard lovers Glen and Aidan fighting over for the rest of the night).
After dinner, Chief Organiser II – Karen set up some games which saw everyone share some laughs. The groups favourite game seemed to be the Heads-Up game (celebrity head), although some couldn’t quite grasp the rules including Nadine who would repeat the same action each time and state the name on the board repeatedly. Heads Up also brought out a side not many had seen before in Chris with some surprisingly good acting that led to his team getting the wood (pecker) over the other despite Robyn’s brilliant guessing efforts. When it came time to guess who was who based on ‘3 things they couldn’t live without’ that they had written down Taylah couldn’t work out why she didn’t make Aidan’s list (Aidan obviously too focused on winning, not wanting to give anything away).
This was followed by another game (not sure it was designed as a game) where everyone would try guess the song. Chris’s experience didn’t seem to help him much here, however, we may have unearthed Australia’s next big thing with Alicia in full voice, rolling songs off from start to finish with a breeze.
Finally, it was time to roast some marshmallows over the fire, before heading home for the night. But it couldn’t end without some entertainment; as Travis went to roast his marshmallow a sudden change of direction in the wind saw him scrambling away nearly losing his much-loved scarf to the flames.
A great night shared by all and a tremendous amount of praise and thanks has to go out to Bowdy!
