Friday 31 March, a group from the Ballarat Register and the Geelong MG club met at Meredith for The Valley Run, a rally planned and run by Rhys Alexander. Without a doubt folks, Rhys’s rallies are the bees knees! Short, sharp and furious! Okay, so your scribe was in his TF1250 and “furious” maybe a tad ambitious!
Our meeting/start point was at Meredith primary school, on the Midland Hwy ‘tween Ballarat and Geelong. There was a good mix of Geelong and Victoria MG club members totalling about 30 people. Geelong members attending were Peter Guthry, Ian & Tina Jenkins, Geoff Ross, Roger & Helen Phipps, Ian & Jenny Duffin. Raise your hand If I missed your name.
At 1030 Rhys called the pack to order and issued each “team” their individually tulip instructions before sending us on our way. We were warned of a 700 metre stretch of gravel road, which confused me, as my car displays MPH. So does that make the gravel stretch any shorter? Fortunately for Rhys it wasn’t wet else he would have had 16 cars to wash!
The Brisbane Valley didn’t disappoint, with its abundance of steep climbs and descents, long winding roads, a landscape varying from dense Aussie bushland to open pastures, plus a few marauding B-Doubles just to keep you alert! There is also the odd winery or two. Of note is the condition of the road surface with the bitumen being in pretty good nick!
Rhys quoted a distance of 94 kms, and most made Bunjil’s Lookout, Maude by 1200. Well, most did! A certain fellow in a TC decided to stop at every viewpoint to eyeball the magnificent scenery the Brisbane Valley offers. Well done Jenny and Ian!
The muster consisted of 17 cars being:
TC x 2
TF x 1
MGA x 0 ? Hmmm?
MGB x 5
F/TF x 5
MGV8 x 1
MG190 x 1, and
TR8 x 1
The weather stayed cool and dry for the run and our lunch stop. Huh! It was just playing games, as your scribe and “scribess” (!), were absolutely dumped upon near Bannockburn when travelling home to Geelong! Such is life!
Thank you, Rhys, for another great run.
Christine & Kev Simonsen
