Barry & I have been participating in this event for some years now and this year was no exception. Many of the Jaguar club members brought their Jags along. This year, we had invited my brother to come along and share the driving in our 1948 Holden FX as he had contributed to the completion of this long-winded restoration!
The morning arrived with promise of a very nice day and we were given our instructions as we left the Casino - presumably so that no discussions could be entered into with other entrants!! It was revealed that the Derwent Valley was our destination and we all merrily set off, with some of us finding that this came to an end very soon with traffic backed up from Battery Point to Macquarie Street, seems that roadworks in lower Macquarie St and closure of Salamanca Place for the market made it just a bit too much to cope with the traffic. Anyway, we eventually got through the bottleneck and headed straight through New Norfolk, then on to Plenty/Bushy Park and turned left towards National Park but turned right through Meadowbank dam (well not literally!!) and then on to Hamilton. No stops thus far as we headed down to the turn-off to Bothwell where we all stopped for a welcome lunch and rest under the lovely old trees in the town square. The local pies were good and many can attest to this!!
At this time my brother suggested it may be a good time to fill the car with petrol but the gauge still said 1/4 tank so Barry said, oh no, we will get to Kempton - Ha Ha, some 1 Km out Bothwell, we experienced the awful "cough, cough" of an engine dying for a drink!!!! Luckily one of the passing participants took pity of the boys walking back to Bothwell and brought them back with the needed fuel. Off we go again, but that was not to be the end of our troubles. Just after passing through Melton Mowbray, Barry spotted (from the passenger seat) a frightening red light on the temp gauge!! As it was only intermittent, we kept heading to the final rally destination of Pontville and, fortunately, the old girl made it and once cooled down, happily drank about 2 litres of nice cool water!!!
Naturally, once the event was over, we had no more worries and arrived home for a quick swim to cool down from the hot day (no air conditioners in those old cars, you know!!) and prepare for the evening activities with a delicious dinner at the Casino.
All in all, a great day out as always and other members really should get into this event.
- Athalie Wiggins
You can find more pictures from this event in the Galleries.