Bendigo to Euroa
It’s show day! Today was the day of the big car show that we centred this trip around. Truth be told, even without this show we would have made this show, as it’s about the journey and not the destination. The Euroa show was just an anchor to organise things around.
We headed off from Bendigo at 6:15am. Being the first day of daylight saving, the sun wasn’t up yet, but the weather was feeling ok. There was a crispness to the air, but it didn’t feel too cold, and most importantly it wasn’t raining.
The route to Euroa was not very engaging, with long straight roads through mostly grazing country. We saw our fair share of sheep, cattle and even Buffalo as we passed by a zoo. We drove through Colbinabbin and saw some silo art, so decided to stop there for some car photos as we like to do. As we moved on the weather started to change and we experienced a fair amount of rain. We were starting to worry that the show might be cancelled due to the rain.
It was a relatively stress free morning, however I was still dealing with the fuel / stalling gremlins from yesterday. This meant each time I started the car, I needed to open the bonnet and fit Will’s Improvised Device (the WID as I will call it from now on) and install the WID to get the fuel pump running. Then remove it when switching off the car. This was quite a hassled and needed to be done quickly to ensure the engine didn’t get too much fuel which would flood the engine and also cause difficult starting.
We arrived at Euroa at around 8:30 with the weather starting to clear and the sun shining. We made the decision to refuel before the show as we were on a tight schedule. The Mercedes-Benz Club of Victoria were expecting us this evening and had put on a BBQ for us. More about that later.
Euroa National Show and Shine
We arrived at the Euroa show and parked our cars together with the MBCVIC display. The show is mostly centred around Australian / American muscle cars so there were no other European clubs on display. We spent a couple of hours there admiring the cars and chatting.
There were a large number of pre-1990 Ford’s and Holden’s. A large display of Bolwell cars and many American models that have been imported over.
Euroa to Jamieson to Nicholl to Ferntree Gully
The route from Euroa took us through the Yarra Ranges National Park. These are not leisurely cruising roads! These are the sort of engaging roads I enjoy most as the road twists up and down the side of the mountain range. It’s an exhilarating drive with scenery every bit as breathtaking. We would stop to regather at the end of each section thinking that was a great bit of road only to find the next section even better. This went on for hours! I don’t think I’ve experienced anything quite like that back in NSW.
Ferntree Gully Mercedes-Benz Club of Victoria BBQ
When we came to Victoria last year, we stopped by the MBCVIC club house and met some of their members. They were the friendliest bunch of people I’d ever met and their hospitality was something I’ll never forget. They did it again for us this year holding a club BBQ and inviting 30-40 of there club members. We met many of the people from last year and lots of new faces. Their passion for the marque and their cars can be felt the moment you start speaking to them.
It feels like the cars we see at the MBCVIC club events are a level above those that we have in Sydney. Just about every car is presented to near concors level with low mileage and a long and detailed history.
By the end of the night, I think we were all starting to feel exhausted from the days activities. Our hotel at Cranbourne was 30 minutes away and we were all keen to get there and get some much needed rest.
Tomorrow is another full day of driving with over 600km to cover as we follow the coastline eastwards to Bombala.
