DSK Sydney to Melburg Run for the VW Jamboree '09 Part 2

The facilities at the park were great as was the camp site. But at some ungodly hour of the morning we were awoken by a member of camp staff who said a naked man had been roaming the park and had been escorted off the property. Then she demanded we make sure he wasn't one of our party! It was really rude and totally bizarre. Not surprising Carlyle, Dutchy and Nat didn't get much sleep after that. Here's Lobus taking a load off as we packed our Splits in the morning.

After a little trip we hooked up with the Chicken Chokers and then cruised the entire way to the VW Jamboree. Here's a couple of pics at the hookup point:

And during the cruise which seemed to last forever. The various cars shuffled back and forth and it was brilliant to be in force all led by Lobus.

We finally arrived at the location, the Carribean Gardens in Scoresby. The $2.50 entry fee covered everything and made it easily the cheapest show I've been to ever. I wish Sydney had a venue like this. While I've been to bigger shows I'd have to say that it was probably the honesty that stood out at the VW Jamboree. All of the VWs actually looked like people drove them on a regular basis and there was less of the fancy chrome jobs although some showed astounding attention to detail. There weren't as many original cars, most being modified in some way or another, but the atmosphere was so great. It was relaxed and really friendly and the Melburg Luft crowd who ran the event made us really welcome. They were very pleased to meet up and the camaraderie amongst the Split Screen crowd in particular was simply amazing. At no point was there an "us and them" feeling the way there often is at specific shows in Sydney. Possibly the best part of the whole show was that there were no judges. Anyone who came along in a VW was free to park in the show area and each vehicle was given a sheet to list the owners details and a bottom detachable section on which to vote. There were Beetle, Bus, Type 3 & Water Cooled with a standard and modified section for each class and additional categories of Best of Show, Best VW Variant (beach buggies, Ghias, etc.), Best Rat (there were plenty) and Best Display. Unfortunately Carlyle and I had to leave before the presentation but apparantly Dutchy and Dave came away with prizes. Here are some pretty poor pics of what was an amazing lot of cars. First a few of the huge array of Beetles:

There really were tons of Beetles there and many were great. There were also alot of Karmann Ghias. I particularly liked a grey primered Ghia with a black roof and roof rack that was totally slammed. The wheels also looked great with dull grey drums and black wide 5 rims. Unfortunately I didn't get a good pic but it can be seen at the back of this first photo. Most of the modded Ghias were insanely low:

There were also a few Beach Buggies along and they were really tidy if not flashy. The nearest red one had Jim Meyer's signature on the bonnet and back:

And on top of that was this lovely Porsche 550 Speedster that I had to take a pic of:

But, as can be expected, my real love was with the Splits. There were Bays about but the Splits really rocked. Like Doc's red panel in the first pic, Anthony's blue Golden Fleece panel in the second, and the Bus'N'Bug SC and the Splitty Calender 11 Window in the third pic:

While the swap meet section wasn't big there were some interesting things on sale. Carlyle salivated over this ex-road service '74 SC. It had a 2.0 motor and tranny and although there was a lot of rust in the treasure chest floor and the sills it certainly had potential, especially for the price. Note the towball on the front bumper......

Hold on a second there - that treasure chest door looks a bit odd. Aye carumbah!!

The white bus in this pic was also on sale but the price was, IMO, Ebay level and there was a LOT of bog and rust despite the fact it was an early model. However my favourite bus of the entire meet was the semaphore Palm Green/Sand Green 11 Window parked at the end of this stall. It looks Brown over Cream but that is simply the effect of the rust! It has an adjustable narrowed front beam, a notched chassis and raised steering box, drop spindles, straight axle conversion and adjustable spring plates and a 1600dp. The front seat was nice and upholstered but there was rust in a lot of it and only a special permit had got it on the road for the day. Nonetheless it took my fancy and looked brilliant.

I came away with a few bits, like a cool Dynamic reverse lamp, a Bosch work light and some new old stock push-pull switches complete with knobs. I was also given some little yellow squishy toy Beetles for my kids when I bought the reverse light and I picked up one of the cool Melburg LUFT hoodies to keep me warm in the Southern Tablelands winter.
Quite aside of the show the gardens featured a small gauge railway, a big indoor flea market where Lobus bought some jeans and Carlyle picked up more memory for his great little Nikon camera, a large kiosk and restaurant, picnic areas, a lake, playgrounds and lots of family stuff. If you're better half really wasn't interested in VWs they would've quickly disappeared and made use of the superb facilities. We were so impressed with the set up and enjoyed ourselves so much over the entire weekend that we've decided that in a couple of years (after my wife has had baby No4 which is imminent) we'll head down with both our families for a 4 day weekend. Mind you, he has to come up with an air cooled VW for the trip! Here is the last pic of our crew before Carlyle and I had to leave.

Carlyle, Dutchy, Nat, Dan, Dave and, of course, me.

Our trip home took us about 8.5 hours in total. We left the show at 2pm, were fueled up and ready to go by 3:00, on the outskirts of Melburg by 4pm and heading north fast. We stopped at a service centre near Wangaratta at about 6pm and then refueled again at Tarcutta before stopping at Gundagai just before 9pm for some Chinese food. We finally rolled into home about an hour north of Goulburn around 11:30pm. The Splitty had ran without a hitch. It isn't fond of hills but on the flats and downhills it kept a steady 110kmh at least and the engine seemed cool and happy.

I'd been looking forward to this weekend for literally months and it was all I'd hoped for and more. The drive down was fun and uneventful. The Melburg crowd were super friendly and great to hang with, the show was superb and relaxed and the trip home was quite quick all things considered. The only breakage for the trip was the speedo cable and the fact it was only 3 weeks old suggests I have some problem solving to do on that front but it was minor.

There are some big thankyous to go around. Firstly to Dutchy and Nat who lined stuff up in the first place and were friendly and fun all weekend. Also to Dan and Dave who made great travelling companions. There were also the entire Melburg crowd and the Chicken Chokers (I'll have to use DSK user names here) like Tonz, Stench of Goat, Doc, Roscoe, Tombi, Twin Fin and others who adopted us for the weekend and made us feel at home. Anthony Surie and his team deserve a massive pat on the back for what has probably been my favourite VW show EVER. But my final thank you has to go to Lobus who met with us at Marks, led us around, chatted and ate with us, wandered the markets with Carlyle, and generally made us feel like we were part of the family. I sincerely hope that I have the opportunity to do the same for him some time.

I know this was long winded but this was, without doubt, the best VW weekend I've been on yet. To Ash and other people who piked at the last minute.......

YOU MISSED OUT!!!!