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(click on photo thumbnails for a
full size picture)
12/10/2005
Today
is a day of reflection as we remember the man who has inspired us over
the years. Though the singer is silent, there still is the truth
of the song.
Members
of Higher Ground Australia (HGA) met in the quiet township of Mogo,
near Bateman’s Bay last weekend to celebrate the life and music of John
Denver. We say it every year, but we are not fibbing when we come
away and say that it was the ‘best weekend ever’. Our friends
arrived from Victoria, Queensland and many parts of New South Wales,
converging on the tiny town of Mogo, just 10 kms from the coastal town
of Bateman’s Bay.
Each
year our member-base has gently grown and more and more people are
coming along for the company and the weekend away. Over the past
two years, we have also had the opportunity to advertise on radio
through interviews and this year, we even had an article written in the
local paper about our weekend. We did get quite a bit of interest
from the locals for our BBQ and campfire sing-a-long this year.
John’s spirit is still very much alive in Australia.
Many
of us flew from our home states to Canberra. After arriving and
meeting up at the airport, we departed by convoy of hire cars through
the Great Dividing Range to the coastal town of Batemans Bay, where we
stopped for a quick lunch of local seafood. We were then off to
Old Mogo Town, which is a replica of a gold mining town of the
1800’s. We found our accommodation and the people who had already
arrived to start our weekend, catching up with old friends and meeting
new ones. The one thing about our JD weekends is our ability to
fall into old patterns and it really feels as if it were only yesterday
that we were all together – not an entire year.
After
dinner that evening, we adjourned to the conference centre for our
annual general meeting where decisions from the past and decisions for
the future are made. Our AGM, is a very important part of the
weekend as it is where everyone can discuss decisions on where our
fundraising will be donated and any other issues that arise. Once
the business side of the weekend is over – it is all fun for the rest
of the time.
Saturday
greeted us with a fine and sunny day and a few of us went to Batemans
Bay for a look while others went to Mogo Village to check out the local
crafts, or went on one of the conducted tours through Old Mogo Town
with one of the local identities. There was much to be seen and
gold to be panned, and a few of our group came back clutching small
gold nuggets. The afternoon went quickly enough and soon it was
time to dress in our ‘period costumes’ and have dinner before the
annual sing-a-long, raffle, book giveaway and silent auction.
The
sing-a-long continued on for many hours, accompanied by the frogs and
other night creatures. We wound wearily back to our bunk houses
as the birds were starting to chirp (the early birds – that is).
After
a sleep and breakfast and timed to exactly the same time as those in
Aspen were gathered at the campfire, we read out our letters from our
friends in America and New Zealand, plus other letters that had been
given to me to read. After a minute’s silence, we then emptied
our bottles of water that we had brought from our homes into a bucket
and started to plant our five native trees. One tree for John,
one for Meryl Moore (Max’s wife who passed on last year), one tree for
the continued sustainability of the environment, one tree for the
people affected by disaster (both natural and terrorist activity) over
the past year and the last tree was planted for peace across the
world. Once the trees were planted and watered with our combined
water, the plaques were laid in front of John and Meryl’s trees.
Highly
charged with emotion, we took off to visit and to be photographed with
an eagle at Birdland, which we will be sponsoring for the next twelve
months with the money we have raised through the silent
auction. The eagle cannot be fully rehabilitated so is unable to
be released into the wild. We have been given the opportunity to
name this wonderful bird and we will be asking people from across the
world help us to name the eagle.
Janette
All photos
©2005
by Higher
Ground Australia
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