April was a difficult month, from the perspective of competing events, in Adelaide with Easter falling on the weekend before Anzac Day that resulted in three sequential long weekends that provided opportunities for citizens to ‘get away’ for a few days. There were also competing events including historic racing at the local Mallala track on the weekend of the planned AMOC event.
April was also a difficult time for Area Rep, Terry Jones as he suffered a restrictive shoulder problem that resulted in him not being able to drive any distance to reconnoitre the drive as was his usual habit.
Terry Jones called upon the services of Assistant Area Rep, Terry Holt to devise a run and lunch destination and Terry H used his knowledge of Bentley Drivers Club runs to create a run that culminated in lunch at the Lenswood Post Office and Cafe. The run was longer than the usual AMOC run at almost 140km but much of this was on faster, flatter roads that meant the distance was covered in less than 2 hours. Notwithstanding this, Terry Jones devised a shorter route for those who were uncomfortable about the longer run and one of these was himself as his shoulder was better but not back-to-normal. This run was a shorter loop of the Adelaide Hills roads that was only 55km long.
The competing events also combined with member illness that resulted in attendee numbers being the lowest in many years for our run to Lenswood. In total, only 12 members and guests were able to attend but the weather and the lovely Adelaide Hills roads were fantastic and the run was very successful from this perspective at least.
We started from the Crafers Primary school carpark that we have used several times before and drove through Crafers heading south through Mylor and then north to the Onkaparinga Valley Road and onto Balhannah. The longer route then went through Nairne, Dawsley and Kanmantoo, while the shorter route turned off toward Woodside and then via Tiers Rad to Lenswood.
The roads were not especially busy and the 26degree maximum temperature (that was warm for the time of year) and sunny skies made for perfect driving. The shorter route group arrived at Lenswood at approximately 11.30am and they were greeted by our host, Andrew who served good coffees and we sat on the verandah of the historic building watching the passing traffic (that included several Morgans that were clearly on a group run). Terry Jones was approached by a passer-by who advised he was on holiday from Western Australia and he wanted to take a picture of Terry’s 1974 AMV8. The visitor explained he used to live in Newport Pagnell and frequently saw cars leaving the factory after being completed and pushed to the nearby petrol station to fuel-up. He advised one of the cars he saw was made for Rowan Atkinson who was there to receive his new car at the petrol station!
Members who did the longer run arrived at approximately 12.20pm and then we entered the very quaint building to have our roast lunch. The owner, Andrew had had a very interesting career that included working for the Adelaide Zoo where he looked after the Indian elephant Samorn for many years. Samorn was a gift from the king of Thailand and she was well known and loved by Adelaidians, and a photograph of Andrew with Samorn adorned one of the walls. There were many other interesting artefacts including an old radiogram, record player, Coca Cola machine and a terrarium containing Vlad, a Central Bearded lizard and a pygmy variety too.
Juice preceded the roast lamb/grilled fish/Vegan pie and dessert was apple crumble or cheesecake. Tea and coffee followed and all this cost just $25pp.
Bon vivant member Chris Barron, resplendent in his floral attire, met his match with the waitress, Ros who kept him in check all afternoon (in a very convivial way). Terry thanked all for attending and proposed a round of applause for Andrew and members enthusiastically applauded. We headed off for home at approximately 3pm after a very successful event.