We have just spent a fun weekend on a trip with the car club.
As the weather report predicted rain and storms for the whole weekend, we made a difficult last minute decision to leave the Lotus at home and take the Mondeo. This is because the Lotus can be rather damp inside, when it rains, even with the roof up.
Graham did make the suggestion that we could wrap ourselves in plastic garbage bags. Ahh the romance of vintage motoring.
The other members of the club called us whoozers, chickens etc.
Anyway, on these sort of runs its always handy to have a modern car for a support vehicle.
Had I have known we were taking the big car I would have taken more clothes as I had packed for the limited boot space in the Lotus.
Day One.
We left Armidale early and our first stop was Walcha for a toilet break.
As often happens with the older vehicles one of the cars decided it had gone far enough and
took a lot of encouragement to get going again.
We then stopped for morning tea at Aspley Falls before heading to the Long Flat Pub for lunch.
Lunch was enormous (too big) , and very slow.
After lunch it was a stop at the Kindee Suspension Bridge.
Here is some info on the Kindee bridge for those that are technically minded.
“Built in 1936, the Kindee bridge is a three-span suspension bridge on the road to Kindee over the Hastings River at Kindee Crossing. Because the Hastings River at the site flows in a narrow deep gully with steep banks, and because flood levels of 13m (43ft) have been recorded, and no through traffic was contemplated, a high level light single lane bridge was considered most economical.
The bridge is of trussed cable type and has three spans of 27m, 67m and 27m respectively. The deck is supported throughout by hangers attached to the trussed cables. The cables are plough steel with ropes and are anchored to concrete blocks buried in the approach embankment. Gussets are clamped to the cables and diagonals and hangers are secured to the gussets by pin joints. All diagonals are compression members of two angles riveted together to form a star section. Hangers are tension members of round mild steel.
The deck is of timber consisting of transverse planking and longitudinal timber stringers carried on timber cross girders supported by the hangars. Timber wind bracing is provided in the plane of the deck. Piers 24m high consist of round timber piles forming a braced trestle on concrete foundations. To prevent debris lodging in the spaces between the piles, the piers are sheathed with timber to flood level.
The bridge still carries its design load limit of 10 tons and is in a very good state of preservation.”
Final stop for the day was Port Macquarie and a night out at the Panthers Leagues Club.
Day Two
Up early for the Port Macquarie Swap meeting, and the predicted wet weather had arrived.
It was miserable… (But I did get a bargain Royal Albert plate at one of the stalls) and everyone was wet and cold so we left early.
We then got back into the snuggly warmth of our car (with a proper solid roof)
and went for a tour along the coast and up to the lighthouse.
On the foggy trip home, there were all sorts of problems with
one of the cars repeatedly breaking down in the middle of nowhere and torrential rain.
They may mock us,,, BUT,,, Sensible move not taking the Lotus.
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