About Walhalla Goth Week-end or Gothcamp.
About Walhalla Goth Week-end or Gothcamp.
The week-end grew out of interest from members of aus.culture.gothic who decided to meet irl & go on a week-end road trip to a quaint little town with an amazing cemetery. It grew from there.
It is a fluid weekend with a very loose structure. You can join in as much or as little as you like. There are no tickets; you just pay your own way for whatever you decide to do.
The point of the weekend is to get together with a group of like-minded people in a fabulous rural setting, get to know each other & chill out.
Generally we start with a picnic lunch. Bring food to share but just not too much as we always seem to have far more food than we can eat & there are no refrigeration facilities in most of the accommodation options. We will kick off at about 12.30.
Having the picnic at lunchtime, rather than in the evening as we have done in the past, means that if you can only come up for a day trip & do not want to stay over night, you are more than welcome to do so. I only ask that you let me know if you are coming so I can make a determination on which site to use & make sure enough of the selected site is blocked off for our use.
We generally spend the afternoon exploring the attractions that the town has to offer (refer About Walhalla) or just hanging out with a drink or two & talking to people.
In the evening we have dinner. This has taken on a number of formats over the years. It was initially when we had the picnic but we have also had dinner catered by The Star. Until recently I would never have recommended the Pub but it has been taken over by new people & the food is quite passable, although there are no vegetarian options on their menu & I’m not sure how they would cope with the huge variety of dietary requirements we have in our little community. This is an area that will be up for discussion in the next few weeks.
If we agree to an early dinner we have the option of doing a Ghost Tour, which also takes in a little bit of a mine tour (it starts at about 8.30pm & goes for about 1.5hrs). I have been asked about the glowworms in the mine & they are certainly included * if* they are around. The mine is now an active working mine so many of the glowworms have moved on & it is not every tour that they decide to show themselves. It’s a bit of potluck I’m afraid.
Either after, or instead of, the Ghost Tour we have often held a Trivia Night. I’ve found that this is generally a good way of getting people to mix & get to know each other as we do it in teams. The questions are usually pretty simple, often silly & the whole thing is designed to be a bit of fun. If you get 2 out of 50 no one cares! Besides the prizes for the winners are crap because they are only whatever happened to be in my cupboard on the day I leave for Walhalla! This may, or may not, be included in this year’s schedule. It just depends on who is around & whether or not people feel like it would be a good idea.
After Trivia we just sit around & have a few drinks, or have a pyjama party, which ever seems like the best idea at the time!
Day Two invariably starts slowly & involves seeing those bits of the town you may have missed the day before or taking in some of the other activities the town has to offer. We have often gone out to Coopers Creek which is down a dirt road off the main Rawson Walhalla Road. It’s the sort of place very easily missed unless you know where to go & what to look for. From here we have taken the back road through Coopers Creek to Boola Boola Winery, which until recently had a tea room attached. The tea room has closed down now but I am sure if I asked nicely, and there was enough interest, I could have them re-open for Devonshire Tea for us all. Mr Pxx & I did the drive up the back bush road to Boola Boola last week-end. It passes right through where the main fire front caused the most damage to the bush. It is actually quite spectacular & very interesting to drive through it. The landscape is all brown, fawn & black….and somehow that seems rather appropriate for a group of Goths. :-P
People tend to start wandering off home at any time during the day or some have stayed on for an extra night.
Other impromptu activities that have been held at Gothcamp are poetry readings either in the cemetery or in the Rotunda, grave yard mystery trails, board games, video nights, basically anything any-one wants to suggest..
All in all I think every-one who has attended Gothcamp has enjoyed it. It seemed to grow each year we held it and certainly those in town who have been there for a few years still talk about it fondly.
I hope you will join us in this beautiful little town and get to know a few more people within our little community..
More info on Walhalla & Accomodation options shortly
The week-end grew out of interest from members of aus.culture.gothic who decided to meet irl & go on a week-end road trip to a quaint little town with an amazing cemetery. It grew from there.
It is a fluid weekend with a very loose structure. You can join in as much or as little as you like. There are no tickets; you just pay your own way for whatever you decide to do.
The point of the weekend is to get together with a group of like-minded people in a fabulous rural setting, get to know each other & chill out.
Generally we start with a picnic lunch. Bring food to share but just not too much as we always seem to have far more food than we can eat & there are no refrigeration facilities in most of the accommodation options. We will kick off at about 12.30.
Having the picnic at lunchtime, rather than in the evening as we have done in the past, means that if you can only come up for a day trip & do not want to stay over night, you are more than welcome to do so. I only ask that you let me know if you are coming so I can make a determination on which site to use & make sure enough of the selected site is blocked off for our use.
We generally spend the afternoon exploring the attractions that the town has to offer (refer About Walhalla) or just hanging out with a drink or two & talking to people.
In the evening we have dinner. This has taken on a number of formats over the years. It was initially when we had the picnic but we have also had dinner catered by The Star. Until recently I would never have recommended the Pub but it has been taken over by new people & the food is quite passable, although there are no vegetarian options on their menu & I’m not sure how they would cope with the huge variety of dietary requirements we have in our little community. This is an area that will be up for discussion in the next few weeks.
If we agree to an early dinner we have the option of doing a Ghost Tour, which also takes in a little bit of a mine tour (it starts at about 8.30pm & goes for about 1.5hrs). I have been asked about the glowworms in the mine & they are certainly included * if* they are around. The mine is now an active working mine so many of the glowworms have moved on & it is not every tour that they decide to show themselves. It’s a bit of potluck I’m afraid.
Either after, or instead of, the Ghost Tour we have often held a Trivia Night. I’ve found that this is generally a good way of getting people to mix & get to know each other as we do it in teams. The questions are usually pretty simple, often silly & the whole thing is designed to be a bit of fun. If you get 2 out of 50 no one cares! Besides the prizes for the winners are crap because they are only whatever happened to be in my cupboard on the day I leave for Walhalla! This may, or may not, be included in this year’s schedule. It just depends on who is around & whether or not people feel like it would be a good idea.
After Trivia we just sit around & have a few drinks, or have a pyjama party, which ever seems like the best idea at the time!
Day Two invariably starts slowly & involves seeing those bits of the town you may have missed the day before or taking in some of the other activities the town has to offer. We have often gone out to Coopers Creek which is down a dirt road off the main Rawson Walhalla Road. It’s the sort of place very easily missed unless you know where to go & what to look for. From here we have taken the back road through Coopers Creek to Boola Boola Winery, which until recently had a tea room attached. The tea room has closed down now but I am sure if I asked nicely, and there was enough interest, I could have them re-open for Devonshire Tea for us all. Mr Pxx & I did the drive up the back bush road to Boola Boola last week-end. It passes right through where the main fire front caused the most damage to the bush. It is actually quite spectacular & very interesting to drive through it. The landscape is all brown, fawn & black….and somehow that seems rather appropriate for a group of Goths. :-P
People tend to start wandering off home at any time during the day or some have stayed on for an extra night.
Other impromptu activities that have been held at Gothcamp are poetry readings either in the cemetery or in the Rotunda, grave yard mystery trails, board games, video nights, basically anything any-one wants to suggest..
All in all I think every-one who has attended Gothcamp has enjoyed it. It seemed to grow each year we held it and certainly those in town who have been there for a few years still talk about it fondly.
I hope you will join us in this beautiful little town and get to know a few more people within our little community..
More info on Walhalla & Accomodation options shortly