SA meets WA at the Dome
Tim Schapel (Club President of SA Club) and his wife Joanne were doing a bit of driving holiday and catching up with friends and family in the Northern Territory for his twin Sisters’ 70th birthday and instead of driving straight up and down, decided to do a detour to the West, travelling down the coast and spending a couple of days in Perth.
I met Tim with my family for the first time two years ago at the Nationals in Adelaide SA. I can remember Tim made us feel very welcome when we arrived just in time for the first “meet and greet” at the pre-Rally dinner after just hopping off the plane only about 30mins earlier! Both Tim and Joanne made us all feel very welcome in Adelaide and it was a privilege to be able to arrange a quick catchup with some fellow club members while Tim and Joanne were in town!
On their first day in Perth, 7th August, Tim and Joanne met up with Ken and he took them to the various sites around Perth such as the new Optus Stadium & Matagarup Bridge, the WACA, our iconic Kings Park as well as Fremantle Harbour and other tourist spots such as the Round House. Both Tim and Joanne enjoyed Kens company and lively commentary.
The next day, we caught up at the Dome Café at Hillarys Boat Harbour around 3:30pm for a coffee and some cake. Jim Mitchell, Martin and Bev Wood, Ken and Gloria Spurling, Michael Barker, myself and my wife Maria met up outside of the Dome. After a brief chat we made our way inside and managed to pull together a couple of tables at one end of the Café so we could all sit together. A few moments later my two sons Cameron and Mitchell arrived. Cameron was proud that he drove himself and Mitchell from School in his is very own car, given that he got his licence only six days earlier!
It was great catching up with everyone again and Tim enjoyed speaking to Martin and Jim about all things Valiant. Tim was especially happy to catchup again with Michael Barker (who also sponsored the 2017 Rally in SA with the donation of a number of books that went up for Auction!) and in fact Michael brought some of those very books to that Dome that night!
Time flew by and before we knew it is was well after 7pm, Cameron and Mitchell by that time had driven home to do homework and were already sending us SMS messages about what was for dinner! Everyone had a great time catching up that evening.
