[gregc]

Suzuki 4wd Club Victoria

Annual Trip #4 – Suzuki Club Christmas Party and Suzuki Club Christmas Dinner

Trip Facts
Sometimes it can be nice to talk to other club members face to face instead of over a cb radio, and what better time to get together than just before Christmas.

The Suzuki Club has run a social weekend of camping for many years, and this has always been quite popular with club members. However, in today’s social climate, we realise that the rustic charm of burnt sausages and mosquitos may not appeal to all members, so this year we also had the inaugural Christmas Dinner.

Christmas Camping Trip:
The Christmas Camp is typically run over a weekend in December (Saturday and Sunday), with a Saturday night BBQ, followed by a short day drive on the Sunday.

Christmas Dinner:
The inaugural Christmas Dinner was run on a Friday night in December. There was no driving involved.

Trip Location and Accommodation
Christmas Camping Trip:
Previous Christmas Trips have been held at various camp grounds within a short drive of Melbourne (i.e. Wombat State Forest, or the township of Rubicon). Chosen locations are likely to have basic amenities.

Christmas Dinner:
The Christmas Dinner will be located based on member interest. A central location with public transport and/or taxi facilities is preferable.

Trip Standards
The Camping and Dinner are more about socializing than driving. They provide an opportunity to bring along better halves, and discuss topics other than Suzukis – i.e. Nissans or Subarus.

The Sunday Day Drive on the Camping Trip is likely to be rated easy-medium.

Previous Trip Coverage
Here are some vintage photos from the Sunday Day Drive at Rubicon:

[Gwagensteve]

Back to the top with some more relevant info and pics.

For the last few years, our annual Christmas party trip has been at Bill's Block in the Yarra Valley. Bill's is pretty close to Melbourne, it has terrain to drive and there's no general public around so it's an ideal place to hold our party. It's proximity also means it's good for a visit just for the day, and people come and go throughout the weekend.

This is a low key weekend that's very social, and as it's not a point A to B type of trip there's plenty of time to catch up and chew the fat. For the last few years, the club has catered this event with a roast, which is both delicious and ensures we're all eating together which is great. The club catering crew does awesome work!

This year, perhaps as It was the first time out in the bush for may of us all year, there was a huge turnout, including some new/prospective members and even some old members dropping back in after years away. The weather on Saturday was perfect, a friend of the club presented a chainsaw/arborist demo, we cleared some tracks of fallen timber, broke an axle, rolled a car, and generally had a great time. The beauty of these weekends (and Bill's in general) is that with so many cars all gathered around and short tracks to drive right near camp, there's lots of opportunity to learn and compare - go for rides in other's cars, get up on the ramp and work out what's going on - it's a really valuable learning opportunity regardless of your level of experience.

[Gwagensteve]

And some more photos

[Gwagensteve]

Damo, leader of the catering crew!