Patsy and I attended the weekend and a bit of a personal benchmark for Patsy was achieved, as I drove Daisy the S2a towing our little camper whilst Patsy ventured out in the "Fraud" Ranger towing our new car trailer which had Sweetpea the 1950 S1 perched up on its back for the first time. (She still does hold a current National HR licence so it wasn't really that much of a benchmark I suppose. I am still wondering whether the a/c in the Fraud had anything to do with it!)
Anyhow we trundled out on the Friday afternoon and after a minor hiccup that occurred after idling for ten minutes or so at road works, Daisy with a very tight newly reconditioned engine, decided to starve for fuel on an uphill controlled single lane section of the road (part vaporisation I suspect). This slight disruption to traffic and the look on the lollipop operators face as I drove off the side of the road, was well worth a photo but I didn't have the camera ready, but it only cost us a minute or so in actual time and we arrived at the camp around 3.30 (real time EST) or so, time to set up.
A convivial group was already there, camps already set up, fireplaces set up and with wood at the ready and some had already spent some time down at the river battling the oppressive heat of the Friday.
Friday night after most had finished tea was spent around the fire talking about varying subjects and was pretty well ordered. We went to bed at around 2300 and I think there may have only been one or two who stayed on.
Saturday morning we woke up to a slightly overcast day that promised to be a degree or two cooler than Friday and following breakfast some organisation of the centre section of the area reserved for the occasion began to take place and a number of more participants began to roll up.
A quite considerable number of Series vehicles were present especially pleasing as only a few years ago there were hardly any of these beasts on show. It is also of note how good the radiator badges look on the Series vehicles. They stand out and look pretty classy even if I do say so.
Of a number of clubs that were invited and who had acknowledged their intentions to attend a few may have been put off by weather reports as whilst we were sitting out in the field looking for shelter under which to seek shade from the partially clouded sun we noted that the radar on BOM showed that it was apparently raining on us at the time and we didn't know! Regardless, those that did show up, the Mini Club, Morris Minor club, Sunshine Coast LRO, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Zephyr car clubs did us proud on this occasion.
A selection of the vehicles on show:
A bit of a rush for Ian to get "Ralph" to the situation where he could bring him along but he certainly looked the part even if the clutch and brakes are still looking for a little attention.
Some may recognise this vehicle as the one that Newhue used to own. Gus, a LR nut from the USA, has recently purchased this vehicle and is at this very moment preparing it for a "round Australian 12 month trip of a lifetime". Watch for his reports on Aulro.
Now I always thought a Mini Cooper was a Mini Cooper, having had mixed memories of six foot something NSW traffic cops unfurling themselves from these pocket rockets on more than one occasion, but yesterday I learned that of these two depicted here, the green one above, was Leyland built (Cowley factory) whereas the red one below, was Rover built (Solihull factory) and there are distinct differences between the two, the more obvious of these being the shape of the trailing edge of the doors.
The Sunshine Coast LRO club was represented by 4 defenders, one of which displayed on its bonnet a very comprehensive map outlining this vehicle's travels around the world.
The Morris people sure picked a shady tree to sit under!!
There were a couple of others that turned up as well and I apologise if your pride and joy isn't included, but all in all it was a very successful and enjoyable day.
Many thanks must go to Dave for the majority of the organisation and the other members of the committee and volunteers that all worked so hard to make this weekend the successful and fun weekend it was.
Luckily we got home in one piece despite the efforts of a "P" Plater who pulled out from the Kooralbyn turnoff right inline with Daisy's brushguard. A little bit of an emergency swerve and brake application avoided contact and I still very much doubt that she even knew there was any other vehicle on the road at the time. Could have been real handy had I been playing Euchre at the time as I sure knew what was trumps.
All ended well though.
Regards
Glen
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