How would you feel if you had spent 12 months anticipating, promoting and helping to organise an event - and then life conspires to put you off enjoying it? A friend of mine ended up having his funeral set down for the very same Saturday as the first day of the R & R --not that my friend actually picked the day or anything. That's life I guess. So come 9am on a perfectly fine Saturday morning a group of Land-Rovers formed up having prepared for the beach... and the 2002 R & R began without me. One of the REMLR members brought some Legacy Pins for me though. The Legacy man raised $240, an amount which was down on last year's amount, and a total that didn't match the numbers of entrants on the R & R either (?). At 9.30am the Legacy man left. The R & R waited for some latecomers and then set off.

The members who went on R & R in 2002:

• three Series 2A ex-Australian Army ¼ ton General Service Land-Rovers:
  • Graeme Dunlop's Sawmill,
  • Dennis McLaughlin's Chloe, and
  • Ross & Kay Carswell's Castrol, (all from the Hunter region of N.S.W.)

• two Series 2A ex-Australian Army ¾ ton Land-Rovers:
  • Warwick Lord in a 1966 Ambulance (Hunter region N.S.W.), and
  • David & Tracey Turner in a 1964 General Service Roo (with Sydney, the first dog to come on R & R, from Sydney N.S.W.),

• one Series 3 ex-Australian Army ¾ ton General Service:
  • Stuart Richter accompanied by Scott xxxxxx (from Central Coast of N.S.W.),

• two Series 3 ½ ton Lightweight Land-Rovers:
  • Peter & Robert Lawrence in a ex-German ex-Danish cammed diesel Lightweight (from the Southern Highlands N.S.W.),
  • Ana & Darren in a ex-Brunei drab petrol Lightweight (also from the Hunter).

At 10am the REMLR convoy headed down south to Silver City just like last year. They continued south, passing the World War Two era rusty steel pickets (or what remains of them) and bits of barbed wire. The wartime fences had reached from one end of the bight to the other during the early 1940's. About 1.5km further southwards they reached the original end of Tank Trap Track, a landmark since it is a different colour to the other sand dunes. What a difference a year makes. The scene was completely changed. The high dunes seen around the ramp last year had been flattened out and now the sands all but buried the top of the ramp which had less width at the peak and really only looked like a raised path wide enough for a motorbike at the most. As well, there were only about 14 tank traps of the north-south line sticking up out of the sand whereas in 2001 there were about 20.

After a lunch stop the convoy continued south, looking for the way up to the "toTTT Camp". Well, that was not going to be easy. I had the maps with me and I wasn't there. Dennis stayed around and kept looking around in Chloe with an ear on the UHF radio while the rest of the convoy kept driving south to see the sights. One idea they had was to scout around for the southern exit track off the bight, a track that runs westward to Williamtown called Lavis Lane. It is used by all the people who ride unregistered bikes, quads, trikes, and offroad racers on the large, generally flatter expanse of the southern bight designated for their use. The plan was that come Sunday afternoon the R & R would exit using Lavis Lane and cut out the return trek back up to Birubi Point. The time saved could then be put use in Warwick's shed at Salt Ash.

Speaking of trying to save time, I also set about using Lavis Lane to save time. Rather than going up to Birubi and then driving south to find the R & R convoy, I thought I would gain an hour or so at least by driving onto the southern end of the bight and heading north looking for them and hailing them on the UHF. A good friend in a Toyota Prado accompanied had me and even lent me a couple of new UHF handheld radios. So it was that about 2pm we arrived in Castrol, deflated the tyres, and headed onto the dunes. I must mention here that Lavis Lane was a essentially just a sandy track through the scrub but that it had an annoying corrugations; not small ones, but large ones. It was a non-stop series of ups and downs; it was like riding a camel. The lurching and sea-sickness-inducing track lasted a couple of kilometres. If you were a tad hung over... anyway we came out of the end of the track and onto the wide area of the dunes. Sure enough, there were quads and noisey things carting teenagers all over the place.

After heading east toward the ocean for 5 minutes I stopped and got out the binoculars. I could see what looked like a Lightweight Landy ahead, away in the distance on top of a dune. We had found the R & R alright - it was unbelievably good luck! The Lightweight turned out to be Ana & Darren. Darren was scouting the way and fairly flying over the sand. Obviously the ignition problem it was suffering last year had been well 'n truly sorted out. As we drove closer, another Lightweight, Mr Flat, appeared over the crest, and then a Series 3 ¾ ton GS. Then a Series 2A ¾ ton GS and a Series 2A ¼ ton -Sawmill- sporting a new canvas canopy... and then a Series 2A Ambulance having trouble with a hill. It was Warwick Lord, who I hadn't seen since his move from up near Mudgee to Salt Ash.

After saying hello all around and meeting members I hadn't met outside of cyberspace before (David & Tracey in the Series 2A ¾ ton and Stuart & Scott in the Series 3 ¾ ton), and checking over their Landys, we lined up for some pictures. (I also caught up on the story of the R & R so far). Just like 2001, some people hadn't turned up on the day. Nevermind, we ended up with a great bunch of people and Landys anyway. I found out that they were looking for Lavis Lane to see if it was going to be a drama. I told them I had 'just tested it out' and I said that it was good as long as you hadn't eaten for at least an hour beforehand. I asked whether Dennis and Chloe were on the R & R and I was told he was busy looking for the toTTT camp. We decided to go and find him and see if he had found the dune from last year that leads up to the toTTT.

A few kilometres later, with the aid of the 2001 mark and Peter's GPS, we knew we were close to finding it and called on the UHF for Dennis. It turned out he had found a track further north but it must have been Boyce's Track from what he was saying. Dennis arrived not long after we had located the marker stick on the beach using the GPS mark recorded last year. But where was the big steep dune that took an hour or so of hard work to conquer in 2001? No wonder Dennis went by without recognising the toTTT dune and gully. Apparently the sand had been moved to another postcode. It was gone. History. There was the usual middle dune section and then the higher back dunes but it looked a lot lower and easier to drive up. Was the deep gully through the high dunes to the scrub and the flat bit at the top of Tank Trap Track gone as well?

We sent Darren up into the dunes to blaze the trail for the rest of us. He went into big dune area and disappeared from our view. Using the UHF he told us he had sighted the camp area. We all proceeded up the high dune with no trouble at all. The gully through the dunes seemed sort of shorter than last year and the profile of the high dunes was very different. The back dune immediately in front of toTTT was definitely a couple of stories lower.