Braidwood and Bungendore
12 June 2025 / Story: Mike Fowler; Photos: Rose Smith
Braidwood and Bungendore
20 May, 2025
On a chilly May morning a small, but perfectly formed, clutch of MX5 fanciers assembled at the Milton Bakery - the crème de la crème of the South Coast Chapter really. As they stood about in the brisk morning air nursing their single-origin, slow-drip, double shot, almond milk, decaf ristrettos, the leader of the run (me) was some distance down the Princes Highway High at Long Beach, wondering if perhaps he should stir from his bed - or just roll over and go back to sleep. Fortunately, his better half had other ideas (and not for the first time I may add).
Scrambling into clothes, coffee and car, in that order, we made it to the agreed rendezvous on the corner of the Highway and Cullendulla Drive in the nick of time, as three vehicles hove into view. The first was piloted by Geoff and Rose, followed by young Ian, with Tony and Jenny from the Illawarra Chapter as backmarkers. With a mad scramble of gravel, I eventually managed to point my old NB in the right direction and sped off towards Batemans Bay. The other three vehicles followed in hot pursuit, just to see what I would do next.
What I did next pretty much followed the gameplan, which was a right turn at the really big roundabout onto the Kings’ Highway, then through Nelligen, on up Clyde Mountain, over the Great Divide and downhill to Braidwood. There we stopped mid-morning at Provisions Deli, which doesn’t sell provisions and is not a deli. Never mind. What they did have was truly excellent coffee, a log fire and a most obliging young French host. Oh, and they had the most delicious crepes, along with galettes. As all the crepe cognoscenti among you will know, a galette is a savoury crepe - like who didn’t know that! Sadly, since we had lunch to come just down the road, we chose to pass on the crepes, well, most of us did, well some of us - nah, we all had crepes. They were simply too good to miss.
Rose said “time to go Mike, if we’re to make Bungendore in time for lunch”. “Eat my dust” I replied, as we 50kph’d our way out of Braidwood and off towards the mighty Shoalhaven at a rather smarter pace. Traffic was light and just this once we were not seriously delayed by roadworks, the red stop lights being green go lights, a first for me on this stretch of road.
We pulled into Bungendore a mere five minutes late. Lunch was at the Woodworks café in the middle of the metropolis, where I had failed to make a booking. It mattered not – as soon as the maître de spotted our MX5 insignia he found us table space and we set to appraising the bill of fare. It was hungry weather, and the crepes had settled well, so we tucked in. Geoff went above and beyond, working his way through a generous serve of lamb shanks. I and several others enjoyed a big bowl of the seafood chowder, washed down by a quite respectable house red. We got to know Tony and Jenny a little better, and discussed cruises, the difference between Scotch and Irish whisky, and the price of fish.
After lunch Rose and Geoff carried on to Canberra, where they had a date with Tommy Emmanuel, Tony and Jenny took the back roads home through Tarago and Nerriga and I suspect young Ian did likewise. Anyway, we never saw any of them again, ever, but despite that I think we’d all agree that it was a most elevating, congenial and educational day all round. Oh, and it didn’t rain once!
