A small but enthusiastic group of SACC members left Strathalbyn at 08.30 am for a slightly longer run to the hills above Walker Flat and in particular to the small community of Black Hill.
I would like to thank Bryan and Sonia Chapman for setting up this very interesting visit to a rural property we were unlikely to visit without their involvement. So Thanks to you both!
I had mentioned at the May MGM that there was a few K’s of dirt road out past Cambria but following a little bit of rain the road was pretty good actually.
We took the back roads through to Mannum, avoiding the truck & ute show, and continued on through acres and acres of prepared paddocks of hay or wheat awaiting the winter rains and had a stop at Cambrai at the very well stocked bric-a- brac cottage where some members spent a few dollars on the best bargains around.
The drive to Wayne & Victoria’s property saw us driving along real old dirt roads skirting around and gener-ally following the river amid huge river gums, classic roads which take one back in time until we turned into their property and headed up to the airfield above the house and sheds. Wayne was just coming into land in his little single engine biplane having taken his grandson for a short flight.
He is a man of exceptional talent who flies to small airfields and services a number of airplanes and was very interesting to hear some of the stories about some of the planes and motorbikes in the hanger.
We then drove down to the main home and were amazed to see what he has in a number of sheds garages and sea containers.
The pride of his collection were beautifully displayed out of the main garage and we were given full history of each. But the real passion of his is his love of motor bikes, mainly all Honda’s in all models all fully regis-tered and used around his property. There were so many more in the containers plus other cars he has built up while we wandered around with a cup of tea or coffee to warm us up.
A vote of thanks was given to both Wayne & Victoria as we set of on the next part of our run, not too far away we turned into a narrow road signposted Shell Hill, here we saw a huge mound of oyster shells about 15 ft high which have been preserved from when this part of the earth was under water millions of years before.
After a short stop we continued on to Walker Flat for our picnic lunch, Bryan had organised for our group to have access to the river bank and we parked our cars on flat grassed area where we could watch the world and the water go by while we chatted and shared comments about the visited property.
The following enjoyed the day:
Elaine & Bob Sellar; Rae & Cameron Mighall; Sonia & Bryon Chapman; Marylyn & Ian Bell; Ken Winnen; Di & Gordon Thorpe and Jan and myself.
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