What an awesome day for a cruise! We met at eleven o’clock at Club Kilsyth, for an eleven-thirty departure. One thing that stands to mind is the amount of non-club members we had turn up for this cruise – I couldn’t believe the amount of people that showed up through friends or the gmh-torana forum. Anyways… we headed off up Canterbury road towards Lilydale at about eleven forty-five, after waiting for a few latecomers. Some nice leading (and planning) by Brett saw us pull over twice to re-group, once just out of Lilydale, and the second time just out of Healesville before we entered the Black Spur. Anyone who has driven through Healesville on the weekend in a hot car before will know how much attention a line of hot cars will draw – love that neck snapping!
Once we were all in a line again, Brett led us through the Spur – one of the better roads to drive around – if bends and curves are your thing… (heh heh). Everyone was impressed (or should I say taken aback), by the leisurely pace that was set going through the Spur – turns out that there was someone going excessively slow in front of the lead car! Nice curves though – and the view front and back was very impressive.
Once we got through the Spur we drove through the main street before turning into the park and lake area. I have been to Marysville several times before and didn’t know that it even existed - till Brett and I cruised up the weekend before. What an awesome area for a photo shoot - right next to the water’s edge. We had a visit from the local constabulary who came to have a look – but all was good – everybody resisted the overly tempting urge to commence into a motorkhana on the grass - and they drove on by.
Most of us headed up to the bakery (yum yum!) for some special treats – it’s an awesome place where you can eat as healthy (or unhealthily) as you like. Even Dave appeared content to make do with a chocolate milk instead of golden arches goodness. Then we headed back to the lake, where we spent about two hours chatting and checking out the row of cars. Eighteen cars made it for the day – a mix of 5 LH/X Torana’s, 2 LJ Torana’s, 1 orginal A9X Torana, a Kingswood, an original Bathurst 327 HK Monaro, an XF Falcon, Big Kev’s XR8, a 4WD and 5 Commodores (VP, VR, VX wagon and 2 schmick VY utes).
All in all, it was a great day for a cruise – and a big thanks needs to go to Brett, Deb, and anyone else involved in the organisation of the cruise. Well done guys!
- Andrew