VALLA 2005
Valla, an event that has been going now for 23 years. An event with its own traditions and expectations. Having only owned our GT for less than a year this was our first Valla experience.
One piece of advice I can give to Valla virgins is to book your accommodation early. Very early. The only accommodation we could get for the weekend were at a place called the Sacred Mountain Retreat. The problem was it was truly ON the mountain. As in we had to drive to the top of the mountain on a track only slightly wider than the car and heading straight up the mountain. But a very nice room. Needless to say we have booked out accommodation already for next year.
We left for Valla on Friday at 1pm. Arriving at Valla around 6 hours later and quite tired we called it a night to make sure we were fresh for the coming few days. Waking early and heading down to the resort we found organising already in process in preparation for the show and shine to be held in Nambucca Heads main street. The police have closed the street to public car access. The GT's kept arriving and lining up in model groups awaiting our Police escort to the show.
After around half an hour the majority of cars had arrived and so had the police escort. The convoy slowly wound its way out of the resort and up to the junction at the end of the road. We parked on the side of the road awaiting the all clear from the police to proceed.
After a brief wait the front cars started their engines and began the drive to Nambucca Heads. Along the way locals and other Ford fans could be spotted snapping pics of the cars as they traveled by.
The process of squeezing over 90 cars into a confined space began. The first row of cars consisted of the first batch of GT's ever produced. The XR. As the cars backed up the street the timeline followed and ended with the BA based GT at the top. Behind these the associate member cars finished off the lineup. Every entrant was given a voting form so it made sense to start at one end and work your way through the models filling in the voting paper as you go.
Unfortunately due to the nut coming off my air filter on the way to the show and shine. I didn't spend as much time there as I had hoped to. I had to walk several Km's to a parts store nearby only to find they didn't have what I needed. I was very lucky that a fellow entrant had a nut that fit the thread and was able to get me out of trouble. Thanks mate.
The police only keep the road closed for the morning basically and at around 12:30pm the road was re-opened and the street cleared of sparkling GT's. Everyone headed back to the resort to park the cars and start preparing for the party that awaited everyone that night. The afternoons entertainment consisted of visiting tents and cabins for a chin wag. Jumping in the GT's for laps of the park which is a contest all to itself with trophy presented for the most laps.
The sun finally slunk below the horizon and the time came to head over to the building which the party was to be held.
The party represents the one time in the event that everyone could let their hair down. Or put some hair on in this case. The theme for this years party was cross dressing and not everyone got into the spirit of the event (including myself) but many did and it was a great laugh to see the staunch petrol heads hamming it up in dresses. I've been tossing up weather or not to post images from the night. I have decided to post the images and obstruct the faces of the individuals involved to hide their shame. The party was kept jumping by the band much to the locals distaste.
Sunday rolled around and is the last official day of the event. Usually there is a sunday cruise to a location and this years cruise headed to the pub with no beer. It was quite a nice drive heading out there. Very nice scenery to enjoy on the road to the pub both on road and the rolling hills. We arrived for lunch and some ended up having lunch/dinner due to the kitchen being over run with orders and some taking one and a half hours to receive their orders. Nobody was too upset though as the pub had a band entertaining the starving masses and we all had a good chat. Unfortunately the weather let us down this day so we all huddled in the pub instead of heading to the grass car park to again admire the cars it held.
Everyone enjoyed the day at the pub and due to the weather slowly but surely the the car park emptied and we all returned to the resort for a well earned rest. Its a pity the weather didn't also take a break. The night ahead held the presentation dinner which was a more serious affair. Their were trophies for each model and for the XW, XY, XA, and XB their were several categories. Their was also an award given to the best associate car and the best cruiser which represented the car that did the most laps of the valla resort course. Here are the winners in their categories.
PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS
All the voting has been tallied and trophies presented. To view the best cars of Valla 2005 just click the heading above and enjoy.