25th Anniversary, our Holiday.

Wow, what a holiday! Quite a few people have spoken about the wonderful trip we had, but here are some highlights:

A fantastic trip on the train Perth-Sydney. They were very careful with my car and it would have been quite clean if it wasn't for the massive dust storm in South Australia. Seemed like we spent the whole train trip eating - 3 course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Met some great people. The restaurant and lounge car was amazingly restored (similar to the Oriental Express).

We stayed with Len and Jacky in Sydney - it was great to catch up with them (and meet the dogs!) again - what a collection of 928 models! Robin made the big trip on his own from Brisbane and stayed with us as well.

Had a great seafood dinner on the Friday night at Doyles and finally got a chance to put some faces to the names of many of the guys on the list. It was a shame more couldn't have come along for part of the trip.

It was also great to catch up with Des and Judi who made the drive up from Melbourne.

On the Saturday morning a few of us went to the car show to drool on the new models (as demonstrated by Creagh!) - some of the cars were very nice too. We saw the BMW - oops sorry, Porsche - Cayenne in its flesh for the first time. Tried to remove the engine whilst they weren't looking but they closed the bonnet on us. What's this? - A front-engined V8 Porsche? - How ingenious!

Met more of the guys at a great lunch at the Parkway pub before the first big photo stop in front Sydney Harbour. Looked exactly like the Swan river in Perth (apart from the Bridge and the Opera House and ...).

What a fantastic Photo - we had about 11 x 928's all together I think.

From there some of us headed South to the little bustling country town of Canberra for the night. Seemed like the entire population was gathered in the one street. Had an amazing meal at a little Italian restaurant (I think the total bill for all of us was less than a tank of fuel!). Met up with James and his partner Katrina at this bizarre night club / bar / venue / breakfast place called Tilleys.

Next stop Albury after some great photo stops at Parliament House and the German Embassy before an ice-cream break in Cooma.

The drive around the Snowy Mountains was fantastic - rumours are the next Porsche Classic might be held around here! (you heard it here first...). On the way we detoured to see the Holbrook Submarine (in the middle of no-where). Had a great BBQ dinner in Albury (should have done more of them) and met up with the Gleeson's.

Stopped at the historic town of Beechworth for some more ice-cream - Len and Robin found 3x928 models in a junk box in one of the stores! After a wonderful lunch at the Milawa cheese factory before heading onto Glenrowan. After lining up in from of the large Ned Kelly, I think the busload of German tourists were taking pictures of our cars (rather than the big Ned).

From there a stop a the Benalla Rose Gardens before heading to St Kilda for the night. The Victorians guys had organised an incredible venue for dinner - Cavellis - a restaurant inside a car showroom - and they even let Des bring his 928GT beside our table! Talk about secure parking...

A free morning allowed us all to find our own little ice cream places (and negotiate a UHF radio deal) before another great meal at the Stokehouse in St Kilda. A trip up to Arthur's Seat gave us a great view on the way to the Queenscliff Ferry. What a fantastic idea Des! A very peaceful break from the drive and a great sight seeing all the 928's loading on the ferry. The ticket lady asked how many cars we had - I think she thought the line would never end...

I'm sure Geelong must have had some warning we were coming - no-one there to let us in to our accommodation! And they call this the 928 capital of Australia? Thanks to some detective work by Roger we managed to get some sleep after another great meal on the foreshore. With all the 928 owners in Geelong, you'd think all the shops would be sold out of 928 merchandise - but, no - Rudy managed to find a 928 model and a 928 jigsaw!

After a detour to Bells Beach (you call those waves?) it was time to stop in Lorne at the famous Arabs restaurant before comparing the two ice-cream shops. Afterwards a great drive up to the Erskine falls - and yes, it had lots of water in it!

The drive around the Great Ocean Road was FANTASTIC - with Rudy as the pace car and amazingly no other cars on the first stretch I think we certainly came close to the limits of the cornering ability! Yes, we have to do that again! That night in Port Fairy and a rare chance to see the Mutton Birds come in (no, they weren't dressed as lamb).

On the home stretch now - a detour to see the Princess Margaret Caves and Len decided to see if Robins 928 had the 4WD option fitted! I think the additional sand he picked up doubled the weight of the car! Lunch in Mt Gambier before the run into Adelaide. Brian's car refused to start in Meningie and thanks to joint efforts was fixed after replacing the fuel relay with a spare that Robin had with him.

What a welcome to Adelaide!! Must have been at least half a dozen local 928's that met us on the highway and we all drove together to (Skinny) Craig and Tania's place with a huge welcome. It was great to catch up with all the Adelaide guys and put faces to names and everyone was asked to treat the place as their own (a bold move!).

The following days in Adelaide were exceptionally well organised by Ron, Craig and the other Adelaide guys. Including a cocktail party at one of the owners bar, a Tech Day at Eddy's place (what a cluey guy!) while a few of the ladies went shopping (can you hear the cash registers??).

A drive down to Victor Harbour (and Rudy doing Tarzan impressions) and dinner at Eddy's Cruising Yacht Club. The trip culminated in a fantastic day out in Birdwood with the guys organising a private grassed area to display our cars - about 19 in all!

At the final farewell dinner Len presented some prizes kindly donated by himself, Robin and a few others. Some 928 models that Ron found locally were snapped up quickly.

Prize winners included Robin (longest drive) and myself (never quite timing the car washing correctly and washing it in the rain). Perhaps there should have been a prize for the worse version of the 'Rubber Sharky' song?

Myself and Mo stayed on in Adelaide to start the Porsche Classic rally - boy it was hard to get use to the quiet pace on our own after such a great trip. That was all to change in a few days.... but that's another story (stay tuned)!

One of the great things about the trip was catching up with the different people who did various small sections of the trip. The group of people and number of cars was always changing. A fantastic drive and fantastic people - Thanks to everyone! - Lets do it again! OK - probably need to wait until I get my car back and my wallet recovers! - Cheers, Gary and Mo. '87S4, Perth

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