Latest Car Extreme

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I would be absent for some 10 days....
I'm back in Sydney, currently finishing the editing for the lastest Australian Velocette OC magazine, FishTailDownUnder, which I want to get to the printers in a day or so, such that with a little luck, the 710 members of the Club will get their copy for a Christmas read.....
Organising the many photographs I took, seemed a good time to briefly take you, via some pics, through the rally, superbly organised by the Club's Western Australian centre, based as mentioned in an old , now disused, timber town, Donnelly River, some 4 hours south of Perth.
We checked in Sunday afternoon 15th Nov. meeting up with fellow club-members not usually seen for a year, due to the vast distances the Club encompasses...Sydney is some 4500 Km away...
Incidently one rider, Stuart Hooper - a name perhaps familiar to some as the man who is currently setting records on the salt lake, Lake Gairdner, South Australia on a Velo...131mph earlier this year- rode his Venom from Brisbane in Queensland the over 5000km in 5 days to the rally and of course proudly accepted the long distance award...
Stuart is featured below with myself on the left, Stuart in the middle with the award and Jim Day on the right. Stuart insisted we be photographed together...all cross Australia Velo riders ( mine and Jim's were done in Dec/Jan. 1969 on a Velo Thruxton and MSS).
Left click on the images to enlarge....




















While we are on awards, and the Club really isn't made up of "pot-hunters", but we do have some special awards...featured is the Keith Hamilton award for the youngest rider at the rally...for the second year awarded to Annette Albrecht from South Australia. The late Keith Hamilton had many friends worldwide and was a frequent contributor to the several Velocette internet sites.
Rally organiser, Paul Barfoot presents the award.
























The ride was a "hub rally", with us going for daily rides over 6 days.
Below is a stop at Walpole, on the southern coast followed by an aerial tree walk though a Tingle Tree forest. These trees grow only in this area.

































The rally as mentioned was based in an old timber camp and illustrated is the Rally HQ, aptly named "Hall Green Works" for the rally duration.

















There is always a funny side to everything and on day 2 we called in a "Gnomesville"...well it was an area near a round-a-bout on a road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, except there were gnomes or rather gnome statues everywhere!
I wont go into why...but we created a new gnome hamlet amongst then, named "Ven-gnome-ville"....
















There was native fauna everywhere to the delight of the international visitors, all loaned motorcycles, mostly Velocettes, by West Australian Centre members. Four from The Netherlands, two from New Zealand, one from the UK, five from the USA.
We organised as best we could a final photoshoot...seems the Western Grey kangaroos, lorrikeets and emus also participated....














































Regretably all good things come to an end and this occured with a farewell dinner on the final Saturday evening.....
A nice touch was the special Velocette oriented place-mats and the special menus, Velocette red wine, black, gold and silver balloons......









































































The next day, Sunday 22nd, was the closing of the two shipping containers, re-loaded with Velocettes for the trip back to the Eastern States via train...they are in transit as I write this....
Next year the 2010 National Australian Velocette Rally is in Northern NSW at Lennox Head on the East Coast...we look forward to it and thank each and every member of the Western Australian Centre of The Velocette Owners Club of Australia for their generosity, hospitality and companionship.
A great rally in what has become a tradition for the Australian Velocette Owners Club....