Our Nationals Trip

[Mrs-EK61]

Thursday & Friday
Our meeting time was 7:30am on the Freeway.

We head off to Tailem Bend, where we meet up with Mark & Shani.
Quick stop at Lamaroo for some fuel and the local police check out Cameron's car.


Then off to Ouyen, where we re-fuel again and have lunch.
A few km's out of Ouyen, Cameron's car suddenly loses oil pressure. Purpl8 is loaded onto the trailer which Kati & Glen had their car on. (luckily)


We decide to travel into Swan Hill, which is our overnight stop. The boys check out Cameron's car, when it's decided that Purpl8 will need to go back to Monash for repairs. We also catch up with Garry, Sue & Georgia, who will travel with us to Wangaratta.
We check out the big Cod while in Swan Hill.

We continue onto Echuca.
We stop at The National Holden Museum (worth a look) and also have a wander around the town and grab lunch.




After re-fuelling we cruise off.......Wangaratta here we come. After a quick stop at Strathmerton (where we meet Garry & Chris), we head off again.

We arrive in Wangaratta around 4ish. Off to diiner at a local pub, then we register and catch up with everyone at the Wangaratta Club.
A few drinks later.....we head off to bed for a busy Saturday.

[Mrs-EK61]

Part 2
Saturday
Great to see all the FB's & EK's gather in one spot.



After a quick briefing from Bill & Nick, it's decided that we are heading to Glenrowan.
After a short cruise with some of the Victorians, we arrive at Glenrowan. A few pictures in front of the big Ned Kelly, we check out the small museum in the main street.


We then decide to head to Beechworth for a look around.
We come across an RACV FB in an old garage.

Again....we have a look around, head to the bakery and then head back home to get ready for dinner.
Great to see Purpl8 has made it back after repairs
Dinner is at the Wangaratta racecourse....after dinner, we wait for the shuttle bus....again, we all decide to call it a night.

Sunday
Show N Shine day
Great sight seeing all the SA cars lined up ready to go.


What a great sight seeing 80 odd FB's & EK's all lined up looking clean and shiny.

I ask Dave to help with the voting, but it's left up to me & Matt (son) as Dave is too busy gas bagging....and they say women can talk
After some hard decisions, voting is complete. Now time to take some photo's. I think the whole weekend we took over 1054 photos.












Show N Shine over, we head back to the cabins to kick back for a bit, before it's again time for dinner. Dinner is done & dusted, it's time for presentation.
Can not be more proud of our Club, with SA taking home 7 trophies. Congrats to Dave, Thommo, Cameron, Richard and Roger "the Rat"
Also well done to Bailey, Lilli & Georgia for winning the colouring in competition. All in all.....SA did pretty well at these Nationals. The night is over, so back to the cabins for a good nights sleep, before we all head of back to Adelaide. Most of us are heading our own way home.

A huge thanks to the Victorian Club for a great Nationals.
It was great catching up with everyone.

[Cal]

Some great photo's there. Thanks

[Mrs-EK61]

Part 3

We decided to take the Great Ocean Road on the way home with Mark, Shani & their boys.
We travel the Hume Highway and onto the Western Ring Road, where we head to Geelong.


After a quick stop at Geelong for lunch, we look for Speaky's Surf Shop, as he has an FB wagon on display in his shop.


We also couldn't resist stopping at the &*#@ factory for a photo.

Here are a few photos of our trip. There is some awesome scenery & some amazing views.




We stop at the Great Ocean Road memorial.



Lorne is a beautiful place. We stop here for the night.

Next morning, before we head off, we decide to grab something to eat & before Dave could even take a bite of his pie, he was mobbed by these sulphur crested cockatoos.

But Karma is a bitch........

We make several stops along the way & take heaps of photos and take in the amazing views.




We head to Port Campbell, where we stay the night.
In the morning we head out to the 12 Apostles. I'm so excited to see them. they are an awesome sight.




We also check out Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, Bay of Martyrs & Bay of Islands


Our next stop is Port Fairy.....where we re-fuel and grab some lunch. We also come across an old Ampol garage along the Prince's Highway, so we stop & take a few photos


Off we go again & around 7 km's out of Port Fairy.....tragedy strikes....a truck flicks up a rock at Mark's windscreen.....OMG......They are so lucky.......no injures luckily.

Dave & Mark smash out the windscreen & somehow we make the 70 odd km's to Portland. It's cold & raining, so by the time we get to Portland, they are freezing & wet.
When we reach Portland the boys make a makeshift windscreen with shrink wrap plastic & gaffer tape.


With still 114 more km's to Mt Gambier, we somehow get there, where Mark & Shani head for Mark's uncles place. He orders a new windscreen the next day.
We continue on home & several hours later, around 1:30am.....we are home. Safe & sound.
We had a fantastic time travelling the Great Ocean Road & a great time with Mark, Shani & the boys.

[Trev]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us, the Great ocean road is well worth the extra miles.
I came home that way last year from the nats.

[Devilrod]

Great pics guys, bummer about the windscreen especially in that weather!

Great Ocean road is an awesom stretch of road/ scenery.

[Thommo]

Great photo's guys, nice job
70k's without a windscreen in the cold and wet does not sound like fun at all,
it must have been freezing. good to hear no one got hurt though.

Cheers
Jeff

[EKfanPaul2]

Fantastic quality photos there. Well done.

Quite an adventure in a road trip you had. hard luck about the windscreen!

Cheers

Paul K

[Brian Westlake]

Great pics. I especially like the black and white ones as they have a nostalgic feel. Sorry about the windscreen on that nice white wagon. From my experience, you may be finding bits of glass for quite some time. I lost one last year in a Tank (Barge) Fairlane, and it scratched my steel dash quite badly also. I'm glad no one was hurt.
Tony ZoneToughened.

[Eeek]

Thanks Karen for putting up the pics and telling our 'story' about the trip home. Was awesome to cruise the great ocean road with you, Dave and Matt. I won't say Cowra or bust coz I don't want another "busted" windscreen hyuk hyuk.

[ek amigo]

Great pics , thanks for sharing, I lived in Torquay for a while, love that drive , the cars look awesome.

[Dakam]

Cool pics Mrs-EK61, gotta get down the Great Ocean Rd.
Glad to see you limited the number of Glenrowan pics you put up.

Great to catch up with you guys.

Dave.

[Mrs-EK61]

Do you mean this one....Dave!!



Sorry Dave couldn't resist!!

[Devilrod]

My eyes, my eyes!!!!

[Dakam]

No, I just meant I'm glad you limited the number of pics because it was a boring place.........

Dave.