The Bellarine Dodge Dawdle

It all started Friday night with early registration for Rally participants and we had a great turn up on the night nearly 15 cars registering on the Friday night with the rest checking in on the Saturday morning. 
It was great to see so many turn up on the Friday as it gave all a chance to have a cuppa collect their Rally Packs and generally have a chat about not much at all but always good to see fellow Dodge folks again.
The official start was Saturday morning and the weather was looking ok, overcast no rain, as we were lucky enough to have that pass us on the Friday night. We had 24 starters with 3 withdrawals

9.45 on the Saturday morning we all had a Rally briefing, so that any last minute issues or concerns could be sorted out, and once that was conducted it was then in the cars and we were able to leave our headquarters, that being the Western Districts Historic Car Club - Geelong Show grounds.

We had a tight schedule and the Committee were keen to keep to our program moving. It was all plain sailing as we all headed off down the Bellarine Hwy towards Queenscliff, with myself being the lead car.

About half way to Queenscliff there was a strong smell of something very hot like the rear brakes, so it was time to pull over and see what the hell had gone wrong, and thanks to all the others who also stopped as it was in fact the rear brakes having their own camp fire. [I think many of us can sympathise with this].

A few litres of water from Arthur James soon cooled things down then Bob Brown produced some spanners and a quick adjustment from Bob had us back on the road heading for our first official stop.

We all arrived safely at the Marine Discovery centre at Queenscliff to be met by Alex who is the senior education Officer from the centre, and she was able to give the group an excellent talk on all things marine that live in the southern end of Port Phillip Bay, and from several conversations with Club members, it was all agreed that it was well worth the stop.

Next stage was to travel into the historic Town of Queenscliff, travelling down the main street to our pre arranged parking at the bottom of the main street, and then followed by a short walk to our lunch location for those wanting lunch, and for those not wanting lunch there was an opportunity to have look around the historic shops and main street.

After lunch it was off to Point Lonsdale to the Rip view car park, where we were met by Harold and Pauline who had done a fantastic job setting up some tables in the car park, so we all could enjoy some excellent afternoon tea and coffee, cake and biscuits this all went down very and again thanks to Harold and Pauline for their efforts.

After we all had enjoyed afternoon tea we were all off to Ocean Grove and then onto Barwon Heads, travelling over the new controversial two bridge option and then up to the Bluff to take in the sights of the two coastal towns of Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads along with the Barwon River where it meets the sea.

After a short stop it was time to travel along the majestic 13th Beach coast road, with pounding surf of Bass Strait. It was just great motoring along this stretch of road one never tires of this view. It was now getting on so it was time to adjourn and head back to own accommodation in preparation for the nights meal and entertainment.

This brings us to Sunday where we all met down by the river not far from where many Rally participants were staying, and after a short catch up it was off to the Geelong water front to take in all that the redeveloped water front has to offer. Not long after we left the river location we were met by the ever smiling Harold who directed us into our pre arranged parking location so that we were able to show off our vehicles to the good folks of Geelong, and it was very pleasing to see so many people enjoy our cars and ask many questions of which, Iam pleased to say, were all answered with much authority.

�Just before mid day we all then travelled along Corio Bay to our lunch destination where again we were able to show off our cars to the public. All Rally participants enjoyed lunch at the Ripples by the Bay Restaurant and it was just after lunch that we had 3 presentations to be made with votes collected from all Rally Participants.The 3 categories voted on were being

Best 4 cylinder: - Bob and Tom Brown

People's Choice: - Chris and Rita White

Best 6 cylinder: - Ken and Nicky Chandler

Well done to all the winners who were presented with very nice plaque made available from the generous support of the RACV.

Mid Sunday arvo and time for a wrap up and sadly it was all but over. I would like to again thank all those who attended this Rally, as without your support these events simply do not happen and lastly, I would also like to say a special thanks to the Rally Committee -Len and Olive Fox, Harold and Pauline Newton and my back stop and shoulder to lean on Lorraine thank you all so much.