I called my wife last night to check in on her and also to let her know how I was doing.
“I had a great day today. We drove around 650Km, and we have another big day tomorrow, around 750km.”
“Oh, really. That’s a lot. When do you get to your destination?”
“Ahh .. there is no destination”
“What do you mean?”
“The drive is the trip. That’s it. We’re making a bunch of stops, but we don’t have a destination”
“So you mean you just drive all day?”
“Yes”
“And that’s supposed to be enjoyable?”
Even explaining this trip to loved ones, it’s difficult to communicate what this trip is. It’s not about going to a particular destination to spend time there. It’s about the journey, the comradery and most of all, driving the cars. Within this group, we didn’t buy these cars to just polish them and take to shows. A car is meant to be driven and that’s exactly what we do. None of these cars are museum pieces and none of us would buy a car to just look at. We want to make the most of it and enjoy the machine. 40 years ago these were high-end machines that were used regularly and were designed to drive on the German Autobahns. And today, they’re being used to drive over 750km.
Cobram to Echuca
This morning was a bit of a rough start. We started experiencing pouring rain around 4:30am and with our start at 6:00am, we were right in the thick of it. The BOM weather radar indicated that it was not going to last much longer, but it was coming from the north-west, and that’s the direction we were headed.
If the rain wasn’t enough, it was a particularly rough start for me, I was running a few minutes late and had to rush out the door. I could hear the others in their cars and started getting calls a 5:59. I managed to make it out of my room at 6:02 and quickly dumped eveything into the boot of the car to join our convoy. I returned my room key and jumped into my car only to find I didn’t have my 2-way radio with me. I remember putting it in my bag, so I jumped out and opened the boot of the car to look for it. No luck. I saw the hotel receptionist stepping out, so asked her if she could let me back in the room – which she kindly did. A quick search didn’t reveal the missing radio. It must be in my bag, but I don’t have time to look for it. The rest of the crew had set off and I had to catch up.
Due to the wet weather, traffic was moving slow, so I managed to catch up after about 15 minutes, but I couldn’t help thinking about that missing radio. Is it possible I missed it when I went back to check? Am I going to do the rest of the drive without it? Is there anywhere I can buy a new one from? I was sure I packed it, but I couldn’t find it.
I’m currently having trouble uploading photos and will update this when I have access to a better internet connection.
We continued driving in convoy in wet weather until we reached Echuca, by which time the wet weather had cleared up and we were greeted with perfect spring weather. The break was short, but we all managed to get a quick breakfast and coffee before moving on to our next location.
Echuca to Robinvale
Truth be told, this wasn’t a very exciting drive. Straight roads and not a lot in the way of sights as we were driving through. That is until we made an unscheduled stop at Lake Charm at around 9:30. Even as we approached Lake Charm, there really was not a lot to see. Flat plains used for grazing cattle and sheep. No mountains or crops growing, but I did find it odd, that someone was selling a half cabin boat on the side of the road. “They must have to travel a bloody long way to get that thing to water”, I thought. We continued on and about 20 minutes later saw a sign pointing to a boat ramp. We turned down the street and drove down until we reached the end of the cul-de-sac where the boat ramp was. The scale of this lake was unbelievable! I had no idea that this existed. We stopped and took plenty of photos of the cars and even a few of the lake!
We continued on to Robinvale where we stopped for lunch at The Little Vietnamese Cafe and refuelled. The owner of the cafe was a delightful character who really went out of his way to make us comfortable offering us hot tea and taking time out for a chat. It turns out that being the start of spring, Robinvale is a bit quiet right now as they don’t need people to pick the crops, but in a few weeks from now the place will be buzzing with an influx of Vietnamese and Indonesian pickers. The reason for this is these are the only 2 countries form Asia that Australia offers work visas to for fruit picking and Robinvale a robust farming industry producing carrots, pistachios, olives and several other crops.
The Start of My Mechanical Troubles
As we came to leave Robinvale, I went to my car as usual and fired it up. Cranking, cranking, cranking, but not starting. O-Oh! My car has had some minor warm starting issues in the past. Typically if I left the car for around an hour after driving, it would require cranking twice before it would start.
At Robinvalue, I had to try around 10 times before if finally started. This is concerning. It’s clearly an issue with the fuel pressure regulator that’s mounted near the fuel pump, but it’s not a spare that any of us have on hand.
This would continue to be the theme for all of our stops from Robinvale. Difficulty starting and occasionally even stalling after I did get it running. Fortunately, the car still ran flawlessly other than this.
Robinvale to Horsham
Robinvale to Horsham is typically a 3 hour journey – that is of course as long as you’re not taking the Long Way Euround. the first half of this route took us to Lake Tyrell. I thought Lake Charm was big, but this was on another level.
To get to Lake Tyrell, there is however a small catch – dirt roads! Not the kind of dirt roads that filled with red dust and gravel, but washboard style dirt roads. the kind of dirt roads that shake you to your core – or in my case, shake you’re number plate loose – even if you’re driving carefully. It was definitely worth the effort however. Once we got to the lake the view was just surreal.
There’s more photos to come when I get access to a better internet connection!
From Lake Tyrell, we headed towards Horsham, where we are spending the night. This region has a massive wheat and canola crop industry, and so throughout the area there are many silos. In an attempt to encourage tourism to the area there is a silo art trail, where you can visit the silos and view the large artworks that have been painted on the side.
Making our way through the Eastern portion of the trail, we visted half a dozen or so of these silos stopping at many, for a photos with the cars and of course the silos!
The last of the Silos we visited was in Horsham, handily located within a kilometre of our hotel for the night. We checked in our bags and did some cursory checks to make sure everything was OK with our cars. I was relieved to see that my motor oil and transmission oil levels were the same as they were last night. I was a little concerned about the transmission oil as I did see some seepage from the oil pan before leaving Sydney, but this is clearly not an issue. My biggest mechanical concern is the fuel pressure issue. The good news is that tomorrow we are visiting the Benz Shed as a part of our trip. While it’s not normally advisable to fit a used fuel pressure regulator, this may be necessary tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, it’s a relatively relaxed drive for the Long Way Euround crew as we are only travelling a little over 400km.
