Offsite, within walking distance, there were the local motels and what seemed to be a very efficient shuttle bus service, also a number of outlying towns were well within easy reach. For the wine buffs, surrounded by dozens of vineyards it must have seemed like paradise. For the car and bike enthusiasts there was of course the Birdwood Museum, plus, any one of the guided rides to the surrounding towns which were sure to please even the most discerning rider. Combine that with all the usual rally events, such as the Rolling Thunder, and gymkhana, throw in some trick riders and vendors for good measure, hell, if you didn’t find something to keep you occupied for most of the weekend, then, you really weren’t trying.

Unfortunately, once again, the problem of lousy food raised its ugly head, and with this years caterers managing to hit an all time low for a National Rally, it can only be described as a rip-off for anyone who prepaid $28.00 for Saturdays meal, with no variety or a second choice available, they dished out a small plate of what might be loosely called food and a slice of dessert, so, as with the other two nights of catered food, if you didn’t eat that particular thing there was no option but to go to one of the food vendors outside and buy another meal, I might add, that, to the vendors credit, their meals were twice the size for a third of the price we had paid for the catered meal, plus the caterers didn’t even supply tea or coffee to wash their crap down, again it was go outside and buy one from the vendors. I don’t know who was responsible for hiring that mob, but I reckon they need their arse kicking and they should refund everyone who prepaid, fair dinkum, it was a bloody disgrace, its about time HOG took a leaf out of the Ulysses book as far as catered food goes, I mean, how come HOG always gets it so wrong when bringing outside caterers to their Nationals and Ulysses always manage to get it right with lots more food on the plate, and for less money?

And whilst I am having a whinge, that no doubt very expensive, and way too bloody loud sound stage that was set up right in front of the marquee, would have been better replaced with an inside stage at one end of the tent and the bar somewhere in the middle so you could at least get away from the music if you wanted, and talk without having to shout at the top of your voice an inch away from some ones ear, the only saving grace, was, that even Hughie had figured that the Wolverines had reached their use by date for HOG rallies and proceeded to send down the rain causing them to stop playing an hour or so early when the ‘you beaut’ stage got a bit wet and went belly up, I’m just glad that it didn’t happen to the Flaming Sambucas and Jungle Jooce that played on the other nights, because in my opinion, they were the real crowd pleasers for the weekend.

So, apart from the perennial problem with the food, I reckon the Adelaide Chapter, and all those behind the scenes put in a really good effort, and obviously a hell of a lot of hard work in giving us back a good standard of rally that has certainly set the bench mark for next year.