Bay to Birdwood – Day 2 – Griffith to Mildura

Today was the second day of our big road trip to Adelaide for the Bay to Birdwood.   As is usual, started just after sunrise at 0630.   However, today was going to be different.   While most of us were going to stay on the planned route, the owners of the Corvette and Petrol Blue 280CE would go direct to Mildura via Hay to try and arrange repairs to their cars.    The rest of us would continue to Jerilderie.  The Corvette owner wanted to source a new starter and have it installed properly.

We left Griffith to a pretty nice sunrise.   We would be driving together for about 20km before the turn off.   However the Petrol Blue 280CE didn’t last that long, cutting out after about 10 minutes of driving.   We know the issue is ignition related as it didn’t seem to have spark at first.   The owner thinks it may be related to the coil.   It could be the ignition box too, but a coil is easier to find on the route.

After about 30 minutes the 280CE started again and three cars peeled off, the Corvette, 280CE and the 280SL.  The owner of the 280SL had a few contacts in Mildura that may be able to help.

The rest of us continued on to our breakfast spot at Jerilderie where we ate at the local bakery.   Jerilderie is famous for its connection to Ned Kelly and there are plenty of references around the town for it.

On our 2024 Trip, we skirted the Murray to the south, on the Victorian side.   This time we went through the Murray River area to the north.   Our next stop was the town of Moulamein.  Originally we had planned to refuel there, but they only had 91 so we decided not to.   At the local servo, we got chatting to a local farmer who told us that one kg of supermarket rice needs 2,000liters of water to grow, and explained how some of the water rights work in the area.  Apparently the water rights can be worth more than the land, depending on what you have.

Driving out of the town we saw a lot of Almond and Pistachio farms.  Apparently they make more money than rice these days.

After Jerilderie, we headed to Balranald, on the Murrumbidgee.  We had a really nice lunch at the local bakery.  Our original plan was to see Balranald Southern Cross, which is a museum that contains, among other things, a full size replica of Charles Kingsford-Smith’s aircraft.   However, while it was supposed to be open, it wasn’t.   So we had to look at the plane through the window like a bunch of schoolboys peering at a new car on display.   The other guys had stopped at Hay to make arrangements for their cars, and we met them briefly at Balranald as they came through.

We refuelled after 426km, and I got 14.2l/100km from the 450SE.  It continues to be very smooth and comfortable for the trip.   My makeshift odometer setup is also working very well.  it got a bit warmer in the afternoon, and we kept going to our final destination in Mildura. Some of the roads were active cattle paddocks, but mostly it was scrubland.  Since we skipped Balranald southern cross, the main group arrived at the hotel at about 4pm after fuelling up.  I got about 15.2l/100km from the 450SE on that leg.   We covered 582km for the day and 1,310km from Sydney.

We then got an update from the other guys.  The owner of the corvette had a new starter and had found a local mechanic to fit it. The advantages of a GM starter. It had been quite a chain of events, contacting one person who referred him to the next one and so on.  In the end after the 7th call he found a really friendly local mechanic who helped.  The mechanic even noticed a bolt missing from the exhaust manifold and fixed it.

The owner of the Petrol blue 280CE found a coil that was supposed to be the right specification, but it didn’t match what we looked up.   It seems worth it as a spare as the car should run even if the spark is weak.

Both were able to join us for dinner where we had American style BBQ.   Tomorrow we head to Strathalbyn.