Taralga Pub Run

31 July 2016 / Kerry Evans

On awakening on the morning of our Taralga Run and hearing steady rain on our roof and hearing all the dire warnings from the weather bureau, I was wondering if our group should be travelling in amphibious army DUKWs rather than our trusty little MX-5s.

Whilst travelling from home to our meeting place and with the rain still falling steadily, I was wondering how many from our original number would not be daunted by the rain.

On leaving McDonalds at Mitchell we had 14 cars – 12 MX-5s and one Toyota 86 with new members Di and Steve Alford (welcome) on their first run and Malcolm in his Renault Megane (as his supercharged NB was in getting new injectors fitted). Mal generously volunteered to go tail-end Charlie for the run.

The first part of the run was via Macs Reef Road to Bungendore where we were joined by Wal and Jane plus Ross and Colleen, both in their respective NCs. The run from Bungendore via Tarago to Goulburn was a great drive, even though it drizzled most of the way. The countryside was beautiful. We struck a patch of roadwork on the Goulburn side of Wakefield Park (which was not there last Friday week when Tom Ballard and I did our reccie), which, with the rain made quite a mess of the cars.

On arriving in Goulburn we were also met by Annette and Laurie Taylor who had driven up from Wagga to join us. Twenty of the group went to Roses Café and the remainder went to the Services Club for morning tea.

Refreshed and relieved, we reformed and drove the rest of the way to Taralga Pub, where they had reserved a room with an open fire for our steadily growing group.

On arrival we were met by Ben Haynes who had driven from Bathurst in his new ND to join us for lunch.

After a great lunch, we posed for a group photo taken on the steps of the pub (note the Ford intruder on the far left who joined our group uninvited!) and said goodbye to Ben before we left for the run home. From Taralga we went via Laggan, Crookwell, Gunning, Gundaroo and Sutton to home.

This section of the run was on some stunning roads through beautiful countryside. The rain held off which made the driving great and with the sun breaking through the clouds to the west it really lit up the paddocks with a backdrop of very black clouds to the east.

I hope everyone enjoyed the run as much as Rhonda and I did. Even the rain couldn’t deter the friendship and great company of our group. Our little cars performed well and proved they are a pleasure to drive in any weather.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the run.