Next year we will head south to Mini Meet West in San Diego...looks like a fine meet is coming together.

Hotel room booked, will stay a few extra days after the meet...never been to San Diego.  Looking forward to it.

Not certain how many VMC members will head south...at the club meeting last night there were 4 Classics likely to go south (some on trailers)...we'll see.

Next September I will do a short series of throwback Thursdays on our month long 4 Classic Mini run from our mustering in Gatton, Queensland to Melbourne & Tasmania via Bathurst/Mount Panorama, Philip Island for Tasmania Mini Fest in Hobart and return via Lightning Ridge, where we went underground in an opal mine, to Toowoomba for another fine dinner with friends!

PHOTO:  Thing on post at Hay, NSW where the Mini Nationals are held annually  

So what/where will the next great adventure be??

The next day saw my only real failure on the Mini when the bearings in the right front hub let go at 60+ mph on the Gore Hwy.

New bearings and CV went in at the roadside but only one steering arm bolt would hold torque on reassembly...the second bolt had galled in the hub.

So we cancelled our swing around Toowoomba and headed straight there.  Next day we looked at the situation in a MOCQ member's home garage and I tapped out the steering arm bolt holes in the hub removing all the galling (threads in the hub were fine) and used two new bolts to make things right.

We were clear to head for the coast and the finish line.

Next day we toured in Toowoomba, enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the local Group...our last night on the road.  At the dinner I said to the Club President, who manages a large transport company, I have one question, "What do you think of the roads in NSW?"  (my question arose because the pounding ROO took on the test drive to Sydney 3 months before & the need to rebuild/replace some of the front suspension)  His answer, "Terrible."  I felt relieved because my harsh comments in the Mini after pounding into yet another cement bridge deck in August had not been greeted with understanding by my co-driver.  Apparently, the suspension on a new transport tractor from North America might last 2-3 months given the road conditions.

Thereafter we headed east to meet up with a group of MOCQ Members from the coast who would escort us home.  I finally met Andrew Wright from whom I had purchased the Mini (with my cousin acting as buyer) and who until that day had only been an email friend.  I said, "You are jumping in with me."  And so he & I visited on the last leg to Palmview.

John & Lynne headed for Caloundra, Elaine & I headed south to Brisbane...the first Mini adventure in Australia was over!

Our last Thursday one the 'One Lap' was November 17, 2011...with 3 days to the finish line at the starting point, the Ettamogha Pub in Palmview on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

We passed through the wheat growing area, Moree with a DC-3 over the entrance to the Pub.  We went through Goondiwindi, home of the famous race horse the Goondiwindi Grey, we overnighted at the Gliding Capital of Australia...right at the airstrip.

Minis were running well, we could see the finish, could relax a little and enjoy the drive.  Soon enough we would be in Toowoomba to dine with MOCQ Members there, but...

Hey guys...see the set of claws on that one? Must hurt her back carying all that weight.....quick segue to B-52's Rock Lobster sound track.

On our 10th Thursday, November 10th we hit 60 days on the road, just 10 days from the finish...and tucked in at a camp at Batemans Bay, NSW after coming around the southeast coast from Sale to Marlo (at the mouth of the Snowy River) and Cann River.

It had been wet in Sale the night before but we had been dry in the tent while the rental unit for John & Lynne leaked as did the rental motorhome for the younger German couple we had seen on and off from Melbourne.  We had gone out to 80 Mile Beach on the Indian Ocean coast, so we had to visit 90 Mile Beach (actually 94 miles long) on Bass Strait near Lakes Entrance.

We were in a more populous region east of Melbourne in the southeast with scenic roads and an Echidna searching through the rocks near the shore.

(psst Rick: I knew that!)

The Australian 'rock lobster' sees claws only in the females on the foremost of 5 sets of legs for getting about.  The males have no claws.  The big lobster at Kingston, SA is representative of a male.

Shediac Lobster..  has bigger claws. Note fisheman beyond.

 

//www.tour-smart.co.uk/images/dynamicImages/zoom_jpg4ca43e9e154e7.jpg

Shediac NB also has a giant Lobster...actually "Le Homard geant"...

On the way around to the Great Ocean Road we saw more big things - which Aussies are wont to put up...

Oh, the lighthouse is real.  The Cape Jaffa Lighthouse was recovered from Margaret Brock Reef at Cape Jaffa on the South Australia Coast.

The Giant Lobster is not real.

Spectacular views

Our 9th Thursday, November 3, 2011 saw us working our way around the coast to Mount Gambier and on to the Great Ocean Road built after WWI as a remembrance of those young Aussies who had given their lives at Gallipoli and elsewhere in the Great War...and to open up lands for agricultural settlement.  Not far from Melbourne now.

The scenery is spectacular whether driven west to east, but coast side parking is more safely accessed if driving it east to west (which we did on the Tasmania drive in 2013).

Great Stuff Rick - Bringing back a lot of memories.

Crossing the Nullabor in the wet was an experience that few travellers get as it doesn't rain a lot there.

The road is pretty featureless as evidenced by the shot of TomTom taken near Norseman on the western end - Next feature in 1185kms which was a roundabout at Ceduna in South Australia.

The road has several straight sections which are used as emergency landing strips for the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service). Lynne managed to capture a shot of Roo "Landing" on one of these.

Also some Big Rigs using this road - If you look closley you can see Roo in Pic3 shrouded by a cloud of spray from one of these rigs.

Now I'm off to waste another hour or so looking through some more photos and remembering a great trip with great company in 2 great little cars.

Thanks for sharing Rick - looking forward to next weeks "Throwback Thursday".

Regards

John K

When we left Perth for Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie...the Western Australia Gold Fields, John & Lynne headed around the SW coast, the plan to meet again in Norseman before heading east on the Eyre Hwy....the only paved road link between southwestern WA and the rest of Australia.

We went to Kalgoorlie to see the masive open pit gold mine, to touch the history, where a young American Mining Engineer - Herbert Hoover - was establishing a record for mine engineering and wooing a maid...see the photo of the Hoover Mirror still in the hotel lobby and his framed poem nearby.

While on a post-dinner walkabout some young people thought it might be fun to horse around with ROO parked on the opposite side of the main street...a street wide enough for the oxen trains to turn around in 100 years ago.  Fortunately, I have a largish voice...but took the opportunity to hide ROO at the rear of the hotel.

After hooking up in Norseman (and changing oil/filter) we set off across the Eyre Hwy. to South Australia...with one section of the trip dead straight for just under 100 mile.  Also one of the very few times we had moisture on the roadway.

 

EDIT - If you take the train east from Perth (can put your vehicle onboard), you cross true desert and go 300 miles in a straight line...but in so doing you miss the awe inspiring view of the Great australian Bight where the continent simply drops off into the Southern Ocean

HMAS Whyalla info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Whyalla_(J153) 

On the 8th Thursday, October 27, 2011 we were headed east in South Australia working our way around the Spencer Gulf past Whyalla and its WWII corvette of the same name.  Captain Matthew Flinders RN, HMS Investigator made it just beyond this point in a cutter during his exploration of the gulf before grounding in mud over 200 years ago.

We camped that night next to a Guiness World Record attempt to circle Australia in a battery powered MGTF.  The team would recharge the batteries overnight at the same cost I charged my camera battery!  In the morning the MG would start out towing the trailer and when its batteries ran down, the chase vehicle would take the trailer and the MG would carry on with its on-board batteries.  They team were on the home leg, headed west to Perth when our paths crossed.  The MG had much needed suspension improvements to address the weight of the batteries.

A couple more shots from the trip south to Perth.  Too many to post...from Denham where we rotated tyres, to Monkey Mia (waiting for the Dolphins) but a few including the Pinnacles that the early Portugese sailers though were ancient human ruins, to white sand dunes that looked to be snow at a distance and spectacular sunsets.

And the '04 MINI Cooper S has tranny reinstalled after new flywheel, clutch, clutch slave, release bearing, bushings...not pretty when opened up...much better before the new flywheel, clutch went in.

Wonderfull! Thanks for sharing Rick.

Ron