The morning greeted us with grey skies and steady rain.   It didn’t look good for our longest day behind the wheel.  A check of the rain radar showed the storm moving east and only scattered showers to the west of us, our direction of travel.

Sure enough, that proved to be the case.  The rain had largely finished by the time we hit our first stopping point in Echuca for breakfast.   We hit a local bakery, and I had an English Breakfast in a pie.  This mean a pie containing Egg, Bacon, Sausage and beans.   It worked much better than it sounds.

This area was very lush and fertile, and there was a combination of olive groves and livestock as we drove along.    The roads were mostly straight and we just cruised admiring the scenery and seeing occasional glimpses of the Murray River as it meandered along.   All the cars were running well, with only the 380SEC suffering from a minor hot start issue, likely a fuel accumulator.

From Echuca, we continued to follow the river, and left the main highway to take smaller roads that were far more interesting.   We stopped for a break tat Lake Charm, which was quite windy and then continued into Swan Hill to regroup.   At Swan Hill one of the guys produced a cake and some oranges which was a great way to take a break from the driving.

As we continued along the river from Swan Hill, the weather kept getting better, and the scenery continued to change.   The lush greenery gave way to red dirt and scrub.   The olive trees and sheep gave way to more and more wheat fields, as well as trees growing nuts.

This was part of the trip was a gentle cruise with minimal traffic and interesting scenery that was slowly changing.   Our lunch destination was Robinvale, where after driving over 400km we stopped at a Vietnamese take out store.   The owner was a real character and he also owns the local Chinese restaurant.    By the time we hit Robinvale the weather was really good, and it was quite hot at 27C.    We refueled the cars, and since the morning involved very relaxed cruising, I got 13.7l/100km which is about as good as it gets in an ADR 450SLC.

After Robinvale, we headed south towards the viewing Platform at Lake Tyrell.   The afternoon driving was quite different to the morning.   We were really in wheat country, with wheat as far as the eye could see.   The roads were empty and quite good, with lots of curves as they went around the various wheat fields.   The area was full of undulating hills, so the road had lots of ups and downs as well as the curves around the fields.    This was some of the best driving of the day.

We stopped for a break at Lake Tyrell and had a bit of a look around.   The scenery is quite good here, and it was well worth taking a short detour to see it.

The rest of the afternoon was planned to follow part of the Silo Art Trail.   The Silo Art Trail is a collection of 15 grain silos in the Wimmera and Mallee area.   It covers 700km, and you could probably spend two days doing the whole thing.   We didn’t do the whole Trail, but six of the silos that were generally on our way to Horsham, where we planned to finish for the day.

The first one we visited was the Sea Lake silo.  It has a vibrant mural of a little girl siting on a swing in a windswept area.   We stopped for a longer break here as this is one of the two we had identified as ideal for shooting some good photos of the cars with the silo in the background.

The next one was at Lascelles.  This wasn’t one of the Silos we had identified for a longer stop, but we ended up taking one anyway.  There was something eerie about this silo.  It was of a local Farmer and his wife.   The Farmer looked like had weathered a few too many droughts in his life, and the town of Lascelles mirrored this, looking rather down and out.

Next were short stops at Rosebery and Brim.   Brim was the one that kicked off the whole thing.   These were interesting, but not as vibrant as some of the others.  We only stopped for a few minutes. as we really wanted to get to Sheep Hills while the light was still good.   Sheep Hills looked like the most eye catching silo of the ones we were visiting, and it didn’t disappoint.    We arrived just as the sun was starting to get long and the vibrant mural looked great with our classics lined up.

It was generally about 30 minutes or so between each silo.  The roads meandered through the wheat fields, mostly along side the railway tracks.

We had originally planned to see Rupanyap, but we decided to skip it and see the final silo in the town of Horsham.   We almost didn’t bother going to look at this one, as it was getting dark.   I’m sure glad we did.   It rivaled Sheep Hills for visual impact.   It wasn’t just the silo that was painted, it was also ancillary buildings, for example one with a black cockatoo.

After our final Silo, we refueled and checked into our hotel in Horsham.   I checked my oil level, and like yesterday, I was at the low mark.  Even after adding a liter this morning.   I topped it off again, and as I shut the bonnet, all of a sudden one of my horns started to blow continuously.

It was rather loud in the parking lot of the hotel, and I quickly put on a head torch and got under the car to take a look.   Sure enough, my drivers side horn was blowing, but the passengers wasn’t.   This seemed to rule out the switch being the issue.   If I held the horn tightly, it at least stopped making noise.   While this solved the immediate problem, I couldn’t stay there all night.   Since I wasn’t able to let go, one of the other guys found my tool kit and extracted a screwdriver for me to remove the connections to that horn.   However, the horn was cowed by this display of tools and stopped blowing once I had the screwdriver in my hand.   This time I shut the bonnet less vigorously so as not to disturb the horn.

After this we adjourned to the local pub for dinner.  As with last night, the pub was very good. Amusingly, it provided the option to add a side of Chicken or Beef to the vegetarian meal. It had been another great day on our trip, and very different to the sort of driving we did yesterday.   This was my first time in this area of Australia and I enjoyed it.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 2: Mallee region and Silo Art Trail appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

We started our road trip in Bathurst.  Trying to get out of Sydney on the first morning would have wasted hours.  The idea was everyone was to make their own way to Bathurst the night before as an unofficial Day 0.   I was the last to arrive and it was quite foggy and wet getting out of Sydney, which made the drive rather slow.

This morning, the weather was much better and our convoy of 10 Classic Mercedes rolled out of Bathurst at 6:30AM.  Our first destination was Young via the Olympic Highway, where we had a rather nice breakfast at a local Bakery.   On the way to Young, we passed through the towns of Blayney and Cowra.   The Terrain was mostly gentle rolling hills.   It has been quite a wet year this year, so the countryside was very green, and there was quite nice varieties of colour as we drove along.  All the cars were running well, and it was cool but not super cold.

From Young, we continued along the Olympic Highway to Cootamundra, where the terrain was similar.   At Cootamundra, we turned off the Olympic Highway and turned south towards Gundagai   The normal way to travel to Gundagai from here would be to head down to the M31 Hume Motorway and then head into Gundagai.   On this trip, we’re trying to avoid motorways, so we took a back road through Burra Creek.

The road through Burra creek was very narrow and windy, but it was a really good driving road with minimal traffic.   The weather was warming up and I think everyone enjoyed taking their cars on this back road.    From there, we arrived in Gundagai and lined the 10 cars up in front of the old Railway station.

From Gundagai, we headed south towards the outskirts of Tumut.   This road was also very good and had some great changes of elevation and some nice bends.   At Tumut, headed towards Tumbarumba.  This section overlapped with Day 2 of the Concours run from last year.   We filled up at Tumbarumba, and I had used around 55 liters in my 450SLC to cover 390km.  I thought this would be among the worst of the convoy – but I was wrong.   The 500SL managed to use 58l, the 380SEC was similar and the 280S and 280SE 3.5 W108s were closer to 60.   Meanwhile the W124s were the milage superstars with the 300CE only using 35 liters for the same distance.

From Tumbarumba, we left the road we used last year and headed west towards Jingellic.  The road here was similar to what we experienced from Gundagai to Tumut and it was an enjoyable drive.    From Jingellic, we crossed into Victoria and drove along the south side of the Murray River.   The Murray River road was a revelation.  We followed it for quite a long time, past Granya, along lake Hume until crossing back into NSW at Bethanga Bridge.

Driving this road was the highlight of the day, and I suspect will end up being one of the highlights of the trip.   The road follows the river, but is elevated, and the views are amazing.   The road is also great to drive on, twisting and turning with the river, some corners tight, some sweeping and huge fun at legal speeds.

I got rather enthusiastic with these corners in my 450SLC and managed to break both of my rear exhaust hangers.   Luckily, one of the other guys had some spare hose clamps which have become makeshift metal exhaust hangers.   So far they are working very well.    Along this road we also stopped at a couple of lookouts which had amazing views.

After we crossed the bridge, we had to pick our way through Albury.  We lost a couple of the cars in the convoy, which were funneled onto the M31.

The rest of of kept going towards Howlong, before heading back into Victoria for the final push to Cobram where we are staying.   This road was fairly flat and straight.  While it was interesting to see things like the olive groves along the way, there was no comparison to the Murray River Road.

We arrived in Cobram about 6:30PM, where we were reunited with two of our lost vehicles, the final one not arriving until about 7:45PM.   We refueled at the end of the day and I had used 15L per 100km, similar to my previous tank.   After checking into our hotel we had nice meal at a local pub.

We covered around 675 km today.   Losing three cars was not ideal, but we managed to find them in the end.   The roads were excellent, the cars all ran well and we all enjoyed our day.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 1: The Upper Murray appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

In 2022, I went with a group of friends to Adelaide via Victoria and The Great Ocean Road, before returning via Broken Hill.   Last year, we attended the MBCV concours event taking the mountain roads there, and the inland route back.

This year, the same group that went to Victoria are going back, but this time the Long way Euround.

Like last year, we have built the trip around a car show.   In this case, the Australian National Show and Shine in Euroa.   This is a big car show set in Seven Creeks park.   We had a bit of a scare earlier in the year when the show was slated to be cancelled, but the organizers were able to get more volunteers in time.

As with last year, these will all be classic Mercedes, including two 108s – a 280S and a 280SE 3.5, three 107s – two 450SLCs and a 500SL, a 126 380SEC, 123 280CE and three 124s – a 300CE, 300TE and E280T.

Day 0

To avoid getting stuck in Sydney traffic on the first day, our trip starts in Bathurst.   The plan is for everyone to make their way to Bathurst in their own time, refuel their car and allow us to make an early start the next day.   I’ll be working a full day, so this will be like another night drive for me.    The distance will be different for everyone in the group, but for me it will be 216km.

Day 1

On our first official day of the trip, we’re taking the inland route to the Murray river, before following the river west.   We’ll initially go through mid sized towns such as Cowra, Young and Gundagai, while avoiding the M31.   There is a very short section of about 10km which is shared with the route from last year, but otherwise it’s all different.

Once we hit the river, we’ll alternate between the NSW and Victorian side, going through some of the smaller towns before finishing up in Cobram.   We’ll cover 657km on the first day and it should be a fairly relaxed day as we don’t have any specific deadlines.

Day 2

The second day will be a busier day.   We’ll continue our Murray River tour, getting as far along as Robinvale.   This will take us through famous Murray towns like Euchca and Swan Hill.

In the afternoon, we’ll do a portion of the western Victorian silo art trail.   This is a series of grain silos with murals from artists painted on them.   The official silo art tour is quite extensive, however, due to time constraints we’ve planned to visit 7 of them.   Depending on how long it takes, we can cut out the last couple.    On Day 2, we’ll cover 746km, finishing up in Horsham.

Day 3

Day three will be an easier day.   We’ll start by doing a scenic drive through the Grampians National Park.   In the afternoon, we’ll visit a Benz wrecker, and optionally a metal working shop.   We’ll finish our day in Bendigo, where we will be able to wash our cars for the show on day 4.   On day 3, we cover 414km.

Day 4

Day four is the Australian National Show and Shine in Euroa.  We’ve got a section for our ten cars near where MBCV have their allocation.    We’ll stay at the show for the morning, before taking some scenic roads to the eastern side of Melbourne.   These roads are quite windy and should be far more interesting to drive on than the motorway.   We cover 510km on day 4.

In the evening, MBCV have kindly offered to host us for a BBQ at their club rooms.   Having visited their club rooms last year, our group from NSW has serious club room envy!

Day 5

Day five we leave Melbourne and tour through Gippsland hugging the coast.   Last year due to time constraints we took the more direct route through Traralgon.

In the afternoon, we’ll stop at the Gippsland Vehicle Collection in Maffra.   After that we continue along the coast through Orbost, before turning north to Bombala where we stop for the night.   Day 5 is a fairly relaxed day where we cover 604km.

Day 6

Our final day we head north from Bombala towards Cooma.   We couldn’t take the more alpine roads, as chains are required until after the long weekend, and we are driving on the actual long weekend.

From Cooma, we continue north towards Canberra.   This is the only repeat leg from last year, but in the opposite direction.   However, from Canberra, instead of taking the road through Oberon, we take the parallel road through Tuena.   This takes us up near Bathurst and Lake Lyall.

As with last year, we go our separate ways at Lithgow.   The shared drive is 515km, and overall I will do 658km on day 6.

The post Planning a 2024 Classic Mercedes Road trip – The Long way Euround appeared first on Classic Jalopy.