In April 2016, John Fowler, from the Sprite Drivers Club of Victoria, held another Gippsland Tour similar to the 2015 Tour.  This year the Victorian Club is celebrating their Golden Jubilee. So John brought forward this years run from 2017.

Last year the run , was highly successful and enjoyed by all the those who entered. A suggestion put forward by a few, was that the run finish earlier each day, around 4:00 -4:15pm.  This John addressed this year and added another great idea. It was that we stay our 4 nights in the one Motel. No packing and re-packing the Sprite boot. A difficult task in a Bugeye.

John likes to start each day with a Drivers briefing. Here he goes through the days activities, covering any likely problems and other details. Then we have an early start usually getting away by 8:30AM. This allows a lot to be done and still finish by about 4:15pm.

26 cars entered, most were Spridgets, but a couple of exceptions. From SA we had David and Di Low in their Bugeye, Dean King in his Mark 3 and Don and Elaine Cardone in their Toyota Kluga. Don took the Kluga along instead of his Bugeye, because a very close had died just before the run, and Don was concerned the Funeral would be on during the run and need to be able to respond quickly and return to Adelaide. As it turned the funeral was well after the run.

Don and ourselves travelled over to Melbourne together, with us towing the Sprite. Dean King drove his Sprite alone to Melbourne.  We stopped overnight at Beaufort at the Motel. From there it was an easy run into Melbourne and on to Narre Warren to unload the Sprite and park the car and trailer at a Victorian Sprite Club members home. From there we went back to our Motel at Glen Waverly. Here we met Graham Hately from Sydney. He Margaret had driven down to Melbourne  in their MG Midget. We had lunch  and I asked Graham to check out my car, it was not running quite right. Graham adjusted the carbies and all seemed fine. The next morning we needed to be at the start quite early. On the way my car spluttered, back fired, farted down the freeway. We had go almost 40k’s to the start and I was quite worried, as were  surrounded by B Double trucks and heavy fast moving traffic. We missed our turn off, and took the next turn off and was trying to find the start, when the Sprite just stopped. So Graham now was checking the electrics, and after a process of elimination he changed the points, the condenser and finally success. We caught and joined the rest who had now started the run. At morning tea we met some of the new faces. Then Graham Hepburn from Cairns turned up, but his Bugeye sounded as bad as mine did earlier. So again Graham Hately to the rescue. This time the problem was dirty fuel. After some time Graham sorted it out. Then later that day Don Cardone’s  Kluga broke it’s power steering belt, so once again Graham Hately came to the rescue. Three recues in one day.

. TheDay 2 greeted us with a very heavy fog. So you wipe  windscreen and it just re fogs. We did a quick tour to Mirboo North, great scenery once clear of the fog.

Then we had to drive to Walhalla and catch the train by 10.45. The Mirboo drive took a bit longer than planned, so really needed to push to catch the train. Well we really did push, but it is a great road, just repaired from last year. This road goes in, but you must come back out the same way. The town is very small, but very interesting and the train ride was short, but fun.

We had lunch at Walhalla , then on to Moe to the Old Gippsland Town. Then a scenic run back to the Motel at Morwell for nibbles  and drinks.

DAY 3  Another foggy morning, and a brisk walk to the Anzac Dawn Service. A very moving and well presented service, then back to the Motel for breakfast, drivers briefing and off to Bulga National Park. Here we took some good photos of the cars lined up. Most had scones at the Lyrebird Café. Then on to the Gippsland Maritime Museum at Port Albert.  A very interesting well run Museum. He we all Fish and Chips pre ordered and paid for earlier. From here a twisty drive to the Agnes Falls. Here was a large waterfall, we also saw a fair sized black snake. Some of our group left us during that day to head home and back to work.

Day 4  No fog, but now a few less in our group, as this day was an option. After our briefing, we drove straight to the Bryant Park Hill-climb. Here most did a few parade laps of this very technical track. Great fun!  The facilities for a Hill-climb are possibly the best in Australia. Since last year several improvements to the pit area have been finished. The next stop was the Trestle Bridge.

This year we climbed the path up on to the bridge, and took advantage of the view with all the cars parked below. Then on to the Noojee Heritage Centre. Here we saw a short movie of how a steam engine was transported by a truck, then lunch. Next stop was the Jindivick Cricket Ground. A large ground, only used for Cricket, no Football, with a full outdoor gymnasium and Club House. A couple more stops including an Historic Bakery and then we said our good byes and headed back to our motel at Glen Waverly. Next morning we loaded up the Sprite and drove with Don and Elaine Cardone to Beaufort and stayed there and returned to Adelaide the next day.

This was a trip exceptionally well organised and was so enjoyable, and we were able to pack a lot in to each day, we still finished in time for drinks and nibbles, minor car repairs, time to re-fuel. Each day we drove close to 300k’s.

Of course if John does another trip we will most certainly be going, the opportunity is just too good too miss.