Thursday was catch-up day for some members to arrive, set-up and relax.

Friday all the members who were coming arrived in their various vehicles including Barbara who began as a visitor and then, much to our pleasure decided to join us as our latest member.

President Lin and Wendy joined us minus their bus, it had broken down in Narrogin, fortunately they had towed their Suzuki along. So a night in a Narrogin hotel, 2 nights in a Wagin hotel and bumpy rides to & from Woodanilling while waiting for the much needed spare part to arrive in the Narrogin mechanics was on their agenda.

The day was spent chatting, card playing plus our usual games. Our evening meal was very pleasant with BBQ'd steak & sausages plus the salads and desserts brought by members to share.

Saturday saw Lin & Wendy a little frustrated as the promised spare part hadn't arrived which meant another bumpy ride for them to join us for morning tea and to begin organising everything for our Christmas celebratory dinner & evening.

Lin distributed our new summer sunshine hats which will keep our heads, necks and shoulders safe from being sunburnt.

Serena kindly BBQ'd the remaining sausages for our lunch. After which some of us relaxed while other gallant members worked hard decorating the tables, putting the hampers together, wrapping prizes and planting a winning number under one of the chairs.

At 6pm we all made our way to the hall, the tables looked great plus bottles of red & white wine were there for us to enjoy.

As it had been suggested we most of us had found various suitably festive outfits.

There were male & female Christmas elves, a human Christmas Cracker (Leanne), silly hats and plastic blow up costumes (which sagged as no-one could blow them up), for those who didn't have an outfit .

Lin did a great impersonation of Lawrence of Arabia in his gown and headpiece.

One of the CWA ladies was kind enough to take a photo of the whole group in all our glory but somehow managed to cut our heads off so take a look at the pic and decide who is who !!! LOL

The very nice 2 course dinner was cooked, served and cleared by local CWA ladies and enjoyed by us all.

Bad, very bad cracker jokes were shared, the raffle Christmas hampers were won, as were the wrapped gifts and the secret chair number found. All in all it was a very special & fun way to celebrate both Christmas and our WAG's friendships.

On Sunday morning we held our 2024 AGM during which Lin remained as President,Tony as Secretary, Rosalie as Treasurer, Leanne resigned her position as Events Co-ordinator after two years of very hard work, for which we all are very grateful. Shirley was nominated to take up this difficult task which she reluctantly accepted as no-one else was game enough to take it on but we are sure she will do a fine job assisting Lin.

June continued the position as Scribe.

The meeting was closed and many members left for home at lunchtime.

The rally started well with morning tea at Piawanning.

The venue looked good and we may look at it as a weekend site in the future.

Monday night was at Lake Ninan, near Wongan Hills. This is an excellent location and the sunset was stunning.

Tea was a jaffle night, however unfortunately we could not have a fire as fires are banned at the   lake. The gas burners performed well and the meal was excellent.

Tuesday we set off for Beacon, arriving around 10:00am. On the way we stopped and had a look at Bencubbin. Many had a coffee and looked at the items on display in the main street.

At Beacon we had a brunch breakfast in the very new camp kitchen at the caravan park. This is a great facility and once again everyone ate too much.

The rest of the day was spent either lazing around or exploring the town, depending on people's preference.

A bonus was the gift vouchers supplied by the Shire for staying at the park, which people put to good use. The museum was also open and several people explored that. Overall a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Wednesday we headed to Nungarin Military Museum and Mangowine Homestead.

First port of call was the museum, where most people spent several hours exploring. A very interesting and huge place.

Lunch for some was at the local cafe, which served excellent food. Then off to explore and stay the night at Mangowine Homestead.

Thursday we travelled to Westonia. Here we stayed for 2 nights and explored the town, museum and Tavern for tea.,

On Friday morning we had a cooked breakfast, where again everyone ate more than they should have. Isn't that what holidays are about?

Saturday morning saw us packing up and beginning the return trip to our homes.

So enided our Roving Rally. From reports all enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to another one next year.

The weekend started in fine form with half the members arriving Thursday and the balance on  Friday.

John and Lil were able to attend, but they had to book at Cataby for 2 nights and Moora for one night.

Interestingly the only accommodation available in Dandaragan would only rent a full service with breakfast, lunch and dinner and wanted over $400 per night. Obviously John and Lil did not take up this option.

We were also pleased to have John and Lynda from NZ attend again. You may remember they attend whenever they are in WA and fit right in.

The weather was great, with days in the high 20’s and plenty of sunshine.

Now for a couple of downsides to our weekend.

1. The Shire of Dandaragan have a new computer system they are using and so we can only stay for 3 nights, and not 4 as we had booked in November 2023.

2. With only 5 powered sites, several members were suddenly on unpowered sites, even though they booked and believed they were getting powered sites.

The park hosts, and all the townspeople we spoke to, cannot understand the Shire’s attitude and several were going to talk to them about it. This didn’t help us though.

Friday night was a steak meal at the Country Club and Saturday Lunch was a BBQ (BYO meat) and shared salads and sweets, with the meat cooked by our super chef’s Warrick and Juva.

At both meals most of us ate too much.

On Friday disc bowls was played and an unusual and very rare event occurred.

Two very experienced players were playing and the score was 12 to 0.

On Saturday two teams of two were playing, of which one member in each team was very experienced, and the score was 18 to 0.

You don’t see that very often and one person in particular is not discussing it very much. I suppose I will have to be very careful at Moodiarup now. Sorry S******.

Most of us spent Saturday afternoon“resting” from the lunch.

The chocolate wheel was great entertainment at happy hour, and as darkness fell everyone retired to their vans to wear off the balance of lunch.

Sunday, after morning tea, those who were staying adjourned to Shirley and Peters brewery for a roast beef roll for lunch and to spend the night.

Topsy and Arie called in and spent the day with us. Great to see them.

Once again Shirley and Peter turned on a fine afternoons entertainment (lawn bowls in shed) and meal and refreshments.

Thanks Peter (who cooked the beef) and Shirley who managed everything else.

Monday morning, those who were going, started on the roving rally. First stop Lake Ninan for a quite afternoon and jaffle tea.