Words by Jeff. Pictures by Mike & Jeff.
With the forecast predicting wet weather for the Brett Tooke inaugural memorial drive to the Bonnie Doon pub, many of us had obvious apprehensions about driving older vehicles for several hour drives on windy wet high speed country roads. As a result we had a strong attendance with both Motafrenz and Morris Car Club and only a hand full of classics cars. It was great to meet Graeme and his 6 cylinder Wolseley which almost didn’t start again in Yea. Possibly a fuel vaporization lock after a stop. Nick brought his trusty Beetle, which I’m sure drove beautifully, Paul with his splendid dark golden Holden HT Brougham, Alan in his solid gold 240 Volvo wagon, and Gordon and Russell in Gordon’s trusty velour heaven Ford BA Fairmont. The rest travelled securely, safely and comfortably with good heating in more modern but generally interesting cars. I did take my EH Holden but while the tyres have full tread, they are quite slippery and was quite scary a few times.
Getting there was like herding cats as usual but we managed and we all got to the Bonnie Doon pub before 1 pm. 26 of us in total and the pub put us in their bistro in front of a large open fireplace. Outside was clearly too wet, windy and cold. Soon we were very comfortable warming our legs in front of the open fire with splendid views of scant water in Lake Eildon. It was a perfect environment for great club lunch with excellent acoustics and plenty of space. There was certainly plenty of friendly mingling. The food was pretty good to with Russell ordering and demolishing a monster ribeye steak. I can’t believe he got it all down. This was a lovely gathering of two clubs for which Brett Tooke was fondly remembered. I got to talk to Paulette and Kathleen about Brett and they were glad 2 year old Oliver got to meet Brett before we sadly lost him.
We didn’t do much else but I did get feedback about how enjoyable a longer drive is for a change, even if it is in a modern car. From this longer drive experience, next time we will make sure everyone has enough fuel for the trip, as many darted off at various stages (once again making it like herding cats). And we must remember to stops at more comfort stations on route in the future. The pub did look after us well having opened up the bistro and lighting the open fire just for us. Other than that, we look forward to a similar drive for the Brett Tooke memorial drive next year.
