We decided to take the panel van for a run up to Rockhampton to the Classics by the Coast car show. We liked the idea of a car show without judging and only a few People’s Choice prizes. We left from Gympie at 3pm and drove up to Gin Gin for our first night. We had more gear in the back of the van than we took for our 17 months around Australia, and we were staying in motels and cabins.
This was the first real run since putting the Triple carby’s on and I was hoping that the economy would still be as good as it was. It was a vain hope as we lost about 4 MPG. Looks like another tune up is on the cards.
Apart from the fuel and a slight rear seal leak we sailed along without a care in the world. On Saturday, we headed on to Rockhampton taking our time with a lunch break at Mt Larcom and pulling into Rockhampton about 1.30pm. We went looking for a carwash to clean underneath and was a few bugs off the front before heading back to the caravan park and our cabin for the night.
An early start on Sunday to get to Emu Park to set up. The gates shut at 9.30am but we got there after 8am and the park was packed. Their final tally of cars on display was 320 and they ranged from a 1924 farm ute up to the latest Monaro shape and everything you could think of in between.
We set the van up and had a lot of interest probably because we had it wide open, even though the back was full of our gear, and a lot of the other cars were left closed up. We spent the day looking around the cars and talking to people who made the mistake of stopping to ask about the van, that and filling the camera with photos.
At 3pm they announced the People and Entrants Choice and at 3.30pm we joined the que of cars heading for the gate. I really wanted to see how 320 cars, vans, utes, rods and bikes got out through one gate but we had to get back to Mt Larcom before the sun set.
We got to our cabin before 5pm and settled down for the night ready for the drive back home. Another good sleep and we were on our way back to 1770 before 9am. When we got there all we wanted was some little café where we could sit and have a meal and look out over the water by no such place existed so we left there and headed to Bargara for the night.
Next morning we went for a walk along the foreshore at Bargara and decided on lunch at the hotel overlooking the beach, which was a great idea until we discovered the hotel was closed on Monday and Tuesday, so we head fish and ships instead. We finished our extended weekend with a drive home and pulled into our drive at 4.30pm.
It was a great trip away and I thank the club at Rockhampton for putting on a very good show
