South West Rocks Run

09 November 2013 / Words by Peter Rodgers, Photos by Keiran Rodgers

As you can see from the photo, Kevin is the only one with food in front of him at our lunch. This is because he made sure he got to the front of the queue this time. He says he was making up from last month's run when he and Carole ordered when most of us had already finished our lunch - we did wait for them before driving home!

Also unlike last month's run, Kevin and Peter managed to stay with the rest of us, rather than inadvertently turning off to explore the countryside!

So, after some initial fortification and conversation at the Rivermark Cafe, fourteen of us in eight cars, including a Merc. and MR2 drove a mixture of twisty roads and highway out to our lunchtime destination of South West Rocks. Of course we didn't take the most direct route up the Pacific Highway but instead took the scenic route along the Macleay River via Kempsey and Gladstone.  

We detoured to take in the view from the Smoky Cape Lighthouse, which also provided a bit of exercise walking up the hill to the lighthouse at the top. After Smoky Cape we stopped off at Arakoon to view the old Goal (only from the outside as hunger pangs and thirst encouraged us to move on to the South West Rocks pub and lunch).

Lunch was a particularly convivial affair, though one or two male members (names deleted to protect them from potential spouse retribution) became somewhat distracted by a young lady in high heels and a short orange dress - must be because all of the MX-5s were parked around the corner and out of sight!