Summer Run to Warburton

On arrival at Tosaria’s Cafe the weather is cool and grey, but as soon as Kon commences the briefing we are blessed with sunshine. We have a full house today with at least 10 new Members joining us for their first run. Suitably revived after an excellent coffee, we head out of the Industrial Estate in Rowville and are pretty quickly leaving outer Melbourne, glimpsing rural estates on the eucalypt lined route.

Passing through Clematis township, we follow the Puffing Billy rail line to Emerald, after which there are just enough twists, turns and changes of elevation to give the gear stick a work out and clean any cobwebs out of the exhaust. Tall Mountain Ash timber with an understorey of tree ferns follows and then for us disaster strikes - we take a wrong turn with three drivers behind us, all of them relying on my poor navigation skills. Luckily Deb in her 718 Cayman, Kayleen in her 981 Boxster and Justin in his 1977 911 Carrera are all patient whilst we try unsuccessfully to retrace our tracks and find the right course.

Those lucky enough to have better navigational skills or using their GPS’s find the rest of the route picturesque with plenty of opportunity to utilise their Porsche’s legendary handling.

The rolling hills of Neerim flatten out through the La Trobe River Valley and then onto Powelltown with its historic sawmills, timber stacks and apple orchards. As we wind down the Warburton Valley those towering Mountain Ash and tree ferns return before arriving at the very well appointed, Heritage listed (1885) Alpine Hotel in Warburton.

At the specially prepared parking area beside the fast flowing Yarra River I see that new member Ryan Zarb, driving solo in his brand new 992 GTS is one of the first to arrive. We all enjoy each other’s company over a three course lunch with excellent service from the staff on hand. To finish a great day there was a surprise door raffle of some nice selection of bottles of wine, which some very lucky members won.

Special thanks to Kayleen Mahony and Deb Lane, who took charge of getting Sam and I to Warburton, it was a fun trip and Sam was heard saying “wow, can those girls drive”.

Extra special thanks to Kon for organising the run, controlling 90 people at any event takes special skills. I think we all appreciate that he takes the time and makes the effort to ensure that we all are having a great time.