The striking photograph of four well-dressed bushwalkers indulging in a lofty dinner party atop the Castle, a remote, hard to reach rocky peak in the Budawangs (Where in Canberra, February 25) attracted a bulging mailbag.
While the sentiments of most readers echoed those of Penny Standen of Kambah who gushed, "I wouldn't care what was served, just look at that view", the most enlightening missive to lob in my inbox was sent from Will Keogh, formerly of Canberra but now living in England.
"I'm the waiter!" exclaims Will, more than answering my call for any leads in identifying the daredevil diners.
"The photo was the Australian National University Mountaineering Club's entry in a photo competition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Youth Hostel Association," explains Will, adding, "50 teams of bushwalkers all took photos on ACT and NSW mountain peaks at 11am on the same day, April 18, 1993".
Apart from pulling off the role of the champagne-pouring waiter with aplomb, as a budding engineer, Will's other crucial job on the daring mountain-top mission was to design a table to lug up the 847-metre-high peak.
"I designed it in Dad's workshop, and assembled it at the summit," he explains, adding, "it needed to be as light and compact as possible as there weren't any fixed ropes on the Castle in those days, so it wasn't easy carrying anything up."
Will also vividly remembers the champagne.
"We felt pretty wobbly walking back down the mountain after a glass of hot champers on dehydrated stomachs," he muses. I bet.
My faraway correspondent also dobbed in the others in the photo including Duncan McIntyre who was behind the lens and the young man seated at the table resplendent in a tuxedo, now a prominent ACT government minister. Can you guess who?
While it was only ever intended as a one-off trip, the elaborate photo shoot spawned Cocktails at the Castle - an ANUMC annual tradition organised by Will and Duncan, both subsequently inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.
"It's a delight to have started this tradition, it was especially satisfying when my son participated in the event a couple of years ago - the wheel had turned a full circle," attests Duncan, now a deputy secretary at the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
Duncan, who has participated in about 10 Cocktails at the Castle further reports "the event quickly evolved to taking even more elaborate serves of food and drink".
One year Duncan even squirreled away a tub of ice cream chilled with dry ice in the bottom of his backpack.
After a long hot day, when the group of fellow climbers reached the top, he jokingly asked. "Who'd like some ice cream?"
"You can only imagine the look on their faces when I pulled out the tub of ice cream buried in my backpack," he laughs.
However, it appears as if Duncan's catering prowess was outdone in 2014, when according to Jessica Rose in her outdoor travel blog, the mountain toppers indulged in "haloumi and zucchini fritters, Spanish tortillas de patatas, olives and sundried tomatoes with bread cooked that morning in Braidwood, salmon dill and cream cheese wraps, and spring rolls cooked on a frying pan".
Sound mouth-watering? Wait for the dessert.
"Layers of orange cream cheese, choc ripple biscuits and Lindt chocolate, and a selection of pecan biscuits and orange biscotti ... all washed down with Pimms, sangria, citrus cocktails, and mojitos."
Meanwhile, ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury (yes, he's the one in the tux) is also "thrilled to have been part of the group that began the tradition".
"The mountaineering club was such an important part of our lives; it was so much fun to explore the outdoors together," he recalls.
Shane also points out the group are still all friends.
"The engineering skills Will honed on cobbling together that table obviously paid off - he is now designing wind turbines in Bristol," reports Shane, who also "sometimes bumps into Duncan at national energy forums".
Meanwhile, Nigel Snoad (he's the one playing viola) is a product manager of Google's Crisis Response team in the US and Nicky Davies (in the fetching ballgown) is an executive director of an environment peak body based in San Francisco.
One aspect of the trip the quintet can't agree on is whether they were awarded the top gong in the photo competition.
While Will is adamant, "we didn't win the competition, I remember the winning photo was just some sweaty bushwalkers at a trig point ... we felt a bit miffed," Duncan believes they snared the $50 prize. "Young Shane probably kept the money to run his first campaign," he quips.
Next month marks 30 years since he snapped the now infamous photo and Duncan reports "there is talk of a reunion climb".
"We are all still pretty fit so could all climb up OK," reveals Shane, adding "spread all over the world, the hardest part will be getting us all in the same place at the same time".
The fact all five fresh-faced thrill-seekers who clambered up the Castle in 1993 are now at the top of their professions makes me wonder what really was in that bottle of champagne they cracked open at the summit.
In fact, if the reunion does eventuate, on the off chance I can sip a flute of their magic bubbly, I might offer to join them under the guise of reporting on their trip.
Oh, I'll also volunteer to carry up the serviettes.
Tidbinbilla Mystery Siren
The mysterious purpose of the rusting contraption in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (Call of the Wild, December 24) has been solved.
While several readers thought the out-of-place device hidden in bush near the bottom of the Camelback Fire Trail may have been related to some obscure historic scientific research, its origins are much more pragmatic.
"During 1974-75 when I had just commenced as a ranger at Tidbinbilla the staff were talking about what we would do to alert visitors in the event of a bushfire in, or threatening, the reserve," reports Peter Hann, adding "so we came up with the idea of a battery-operated siren located out of sight near the car park."
According to Peter, "a warning sign was placed in a prominent position to advise visitors before they set off on their walk to immediately return to their vehicles if they heard the siren".
"There was no mains power, so a battery was used," reports Peter, adding, "a staff member was responsible for testing it from time to time, and swapping batteries but only during the fire season."
Thankfully the siren was never used in an emergency but Peter does recall hearing it being tested.
"It was like a fire truck siren, a very, very loud fire truck siren!" he exclaims.
So just how did it become a rusting relic?
"I was responsible for it being left off from 1983, but there were staff there who felt it was vital, so we agreed to leave the siren in place so that the decision could easily be reversed," reveals Don Fletcher, another former Tidbinbilla staffer, adding "and it seems like it is still there almost four decades later."
Meanwhile, the warning sign is long gone, possibly a casualty of the 2003 fires which ironically burnt the siren and surrounds, melting the battery that powered it.
WHERE IN CANBERRA?
Rating: Hard
Clue: It's been sometime since there were bottles of wine in this 1830s cellar.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday, March 11, wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to David Wade, of Holt, who was first to identify last week's photo as part of the old Belconnen Bus Interchange before it was redeveloped. This section of discarded canopy is currently located near Hall Showground, across the creek from the main oval, in the Hartley House/Hall Polocrosse Club area.
SPOTTED
This column's recent exposé on the Weeping Beech tree at Milton Park in Bowral (February 4) promoted Stephen Esdaile to submit a photo of one of his favourite trees.
"There's a lovely Weeping Japonica in the gardens of the Goulburn Court House" reveals Stephen, adding, "it's not nearly as large as the Milton Park beech, but also growing in courthouse grounds is this magnificent camphor laurel with a quarter acre canopy."
SIMULACRA CORNER
While recently enjoying a dip at Tidbinbilla River, Kumalie Walker noticed this near perfect circular rock hole which her family now refer to as the "witches' cauldron". Having occasionally dipped my big toe in that river I can confirm that the cauldron is a long way from boiling - the water is chilly all year.
CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au/ or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
