VALLEY LODGE DRIVE AND LUNCH

MAGALIESBURG

26 JULY 2003

By the time Anabela and I arrived , Alan Sofer (Silver TT) and his wife Alice and Andrew Stevens (Red S3) were already waiting for us at Jackson's Diner. Nick Weinmann (Silver S3) arrived just behind me, then Racharld Maasdorp (White A4 B5) with his wife Sharon, their son Keagan and a friend Riaan. A bit later, Ryan Tholet arrived with his brand new Glacier blue TT - a new Audi colour with a lot of metallic speckles in it -, which attracted a lot of interest and attention. The colour on the TT is splendid!. A bit lighter than on the pictures, it fits the car perfectly. Also we noticed that this new TT's exhaust tone was different, being richer and deeper, than Alan's 2000 TT. Philip Croeser (Silver S6) also came, but only to say Hi and lend us his digital camera, as he could not go to Magaliesburg with us. Micky Marais (A4 B6 2.5TDi) and her husband Wayne, joined us later at the Valley lodge.

By 11.15 am we all left Jackson's Diner in convoy. We drove towards the Fourways Mall and then caught the R552 to Lanseria. Even though there was a lot of traffic around the Fourways Mall we managed to stay together, except for Andrew who must have thought we were going too slow and shoot ahead . But he did wait for us and we caught him later . We then got onto the R512 which took us to the southern part of Hartbeesport. Before reaching the dam we turned left onto the road which connects between the R512 and the R563, one of my favourite -near Johannesburg- road. Other than two or three cars, there was no traffic and we where able to up the pace a bit. The road has been re-surfaced not so long ago and with no traffic, it was a pleasure to let all those horse power a bit loose. The pace was fast but not fierce. Well Anabela was with me and I had said before it would be a leisure drive, so I did restrain myself a bit . Nevertheless it was a nice and enjoyable drive with Nick, Andrew and Ryan in my rear view mirror.

Even on the R563 there was very little traffic, all the way to Magaliesburg. By the time we got to the Valley Lodge it was just past 12 noon. We sat on the terrace sipping drinks while waiting for Micky and Wayne, who eventually arrived and a bit later. After they had a couple of drinks, we moved to our tables also on the Terrace. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the temperature in the mid twenties. It felt like spring.

Contrary to the last time we went to the Valley Lodge last year, which was a Sunday, the Saturday buffet, choices and variety, was pretty mediocre. The food was good though. Although there wasn't any ice cream for dessert, Alice managed to organise some, which made some us, including myself, very happy.

We left sometime after 4 pm. Some of us drove together back to Johannesburg, but this time we took a shorter and different route via the R24, past Muldersdrift and the N14 highway.

As it is always the case with our club meetings, everybody seem to have enjoyed themselves thoroughly and really liked being with other Audi enthusiasts.

Thanks to Alan for this very well organised event. Thanks to Alice for organising the ice cream and to Philip for taking the trouble to come and join us at Jackson's Diner and bring/lend us his very nice digital camera. It is so much more practical, easier and faster to have digital pictures for posting on the website, rather than analogue pictures, which have to be brought to the processing lab and converted to digital, and would have delayed posting this report by two of three days.

Many thanks to the participants, as it is you the participating members, even though we weren't that many, who make this club most enjoyable and worthwhile.

André van den Heuvel