MINI COOPER REGISTER AUSTRALIA Inc

OUR FOURTH RUN – SUNDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2008

Being the last weekend of Summer, it certainly lived up to its name on the Saturday with a scorching 41 deg Celsius recorded in Brisbane to break recent records, so our judgement in cancelling the long Hastings Point Run in favour of a cooler shorter run in to the Coastal Hinterland was justified.

Even our round up at Fitzy’s Tavern Loganholme showed the promise of a warm lowland day, but we were confident in the planning of John Heselwood to know he would lead us in to the cooler wilderness and not get us lost like he did on the original Hastings Point Run. It would be good if he showed up to steer the boat, but alas it was not to be as he was working on a personal project and couldn’t make it, delegating it to Tony and I to row the boat on this magical mystery tour. Well that’s the secret of our runs – being able to conjure up enjoyable changes at the last minute, much to the delight of the assembled of Bob and Tony, the ever present Brian Hey and Ruth and Denis Volter ( sorry no more girls showed up again Ruth) and great to see Andrew Williams and Jeremy Moser in Andrew’s lovely Mini De Luxe and new member Stephen Doyle in his green Clubman.

Bob led the way down the Motorway after the obligatory brief and kept to a respectable 60mph to Exit 69 at Nerang where we threaded the back streets in red, blue, blue, green, green and silver order to reach our first stop for smoko at the Hinze Dam – or so we thought. Warning signs emblazoned with STOP cluttered the road in front of us, until Andrew and Jeremy sallied ahead and determined the stoppage was caused as a result of unseasonal monsoonal rains in the catchment, with the spillway area being flooded and large excavating machinery blocking our path.

A quick huddle ensued, and seeing as we were only 21 km from our lunch destination of Springbrook, we decided to venture on and have smoko and lunch in that mountain town. We then enjoyed some wonderful Mini bends on the way around the Hinze Dam and as we poked our noses ever higher in to the mountains beyond. Lots of waves and horn blows from opposite traffic, but I now understand why bikies are called temporary Australians – the same as they would be called Temporary Brits in the UK – as some of their passing antics were just suicidal on some very dangerous curves and bends.

On either side, we were tunnelled in by the huge gum and beech trees redolent of a bygone era and the reason why these mountain areas we so prized by our early settlers and woodcutters.

Smoko was enjoyed in the Springbrook Lookout car park in front of a building that Denis cheekily said could be our new Club House, and then we walked over the road to enjoy the scenic rim view over to the Gold Coast which sadly we couldn’t see for all the haze stirred up by the 80kph winds of the previous day.

Not to be deterred, Tony led us on to the Springbrook Village and the Purlingbrook Falls car park for a short walk ( via the huge sand lizards) to the lovely Falls which have only started running with the huge rainfalls of late. A couple of group shots and then another huddle in the cool mountain air, to determine that Andrew and Jeremy would lead us down the windy Mudgeeraba Road to a nice Hotel where we could enjoy lunch.

The run down, was as good as the run up, with many wooden bridges and one way sections to be negotiated before we pulled in to the Woodchoopers Hotel at the old colonial town of Mudgeeraba nestled next to the busy M1 Motorway on the west side of the Gold Coast strip.

Drinks and lunch were enjoyed in the comfort of the airconditioning and fine food and good company were enjoyed by all.

An informal Members’ Meeting was conducted with all assembled giving their positive views on their new Club ad the future direction and events for it.

Tony remarked that on completion of the current run schedule advertised on the web, that the Committee would ask for volunteers to conduct and plan future runs, to provide variety in our monthly meets. He also trucked out a great raffle prize in the form of a special Esky picnic pack containing thermos, picnic implements and an Esky. Tickets were purchased and this raffle will be held over until the next run, and advertised on our website to boost sales.

Bob would like to see more ladies present to help Ruth, and asked the members to recommend any additional members who could be asked to join.

Lunch over, we went out to the hot car park, and by default Bob led the parade back to Brisbane but took a wrong turn and he and Tony ended up at the local dump, only to quickly return to the Motorway and catch up Stephen and Denis near Dreamworld. Nothing further was seen of lead foots Andrew and Brian, but hopefully they and everybody else enjoyed a really pleasant day and evolving events.

Consult the web site for all run updates and Club happenings.

http://www.minicooper.org/australia or access the UK site at http://www.minicooper.org and look for the distinctive Aussie logo on their home page.

See you at the next one.

Bob Ward