Christmas in July
02 August 2023 / James & Giulia Schiemer
Destination: Millthorpe, Canowindra, Grenfell, Young
On a frosty but sunny winters morning, nine MX-5s and a couple of guests in a lone VW Golf R appeared in the car park of the Little Sutton Bakehouse around 8.45 and 19 people merged. Strangely, one MX-5 immediately turned around and left! Was it too cold? No, a forgotten wallet required a dash to the other side of Canberra - there and back in an hour!
After coffees and breakfast, we mounted our steeds (!) and hit the road, aiming for the next toilet stop at Binda, about 110ks away. We temporarily lost another car at Crookwell, subject to an urgent need to buy some woolly socks! The Binda toilet block proved popular, and the sock people made it before we left. Next stop was lunch at Millthorpe, but not before some fascinating scenery was observed and some great MX-5 roads were traversed, via Tuena, Trunkey Creek, Hobby’s Yards, Barry, and Blayney.
Lunch was at the Millthorpe Motel, and MX-5ers were warned to eat light in preparation for Christmas dinner. Most got the message, although one person ate his meal, finished off another’s pizza and then attacked a bowl of chips! You shall remain nameless!
Shopping followed in the quaint stores of Millthorpe. Then it was onward to our overnight destination at Canowindra through Blayney, Carcoar, and Mandurama. After checking in at the Riverview Motel, Santa Claus (yes, the real one) and the ever delightful Mrs Claus materialised in the car park and proceeded to lead us elves down to Montrose House for a night of eating and drinking with the delightful Tommy and the lovely Denise.
Mr & Mrs Claus
We started with canapés in the Kennedy Room, which transported us to Washington, USA, and then proceeded to the Downton Abbey Room for a delightful three-course Christmas feast. To add to the festive ambiance, our Christmas-themed outfits blended in superbly. After much merriment, we finally bid farewell to Montrose House and proceeded to walk in an orderly(!) fashion back to the motel, about 500 metres. As most people were accounted for next morning, I don’t think we lost anyone!
Morning found us with a thick frost layer to scrape off our cars, and the disappointing realisation that our breakfast plans had gone awry; the booked cafe had decided not to open!
A frosty start to the day
We converged instead on Perenialle Cafe and Emporium and breakfasted to our hearts content, a great effort by the cafe to cope with 19 walk-ins. Then, however, our plans to head for Grenfell were sent into disarray when the run was hijacked by our resident historian, bushranger descendent and sock buyer, Mike Lawless, who garnered support for a side trip to Eugowra to see how the flood recovery was proceeding and to gaze upon the mural of his predecessor, the horse holder for Ben Hall the bushranger. Nangar Road, the only viable way into Eugowra, was showing plenty of evidence of the impact of the recent floods – ‘repaired’ potholes, others waiting for repairs, a completely washed out bridge (involving a low-level detour crossing of the Nyrang Creek) and general roughness in places caused by temporary or poor repairs all meant our drivers needed to be on the alert and travel was somewhat slower than it might have otherwise been. On a serious note, the town had looked after us brilliantly on a previous visit in 2022 before the floods, and it was saddening to see the 2 metre + flood heights of November 2022 marked on walls of all the buildings in the main street. But the town is bouncing back and we’ll visit again next year; it’s a great place and they appreciate our support. It is wonderful to see how far they have come in rebuilding their town. (Check out the story of the flood at this ABC news story).
The pink high tide mark on the tree marks a record high of 11.2 metres, half a metre or more over the bridge
So, after the hijack, we headed for Grenfell (via Goolagong) and lunch at the Cri (the Criterion Hotel). But before leaving Eugowra, we practised several group u-turns (all right, the run leader and navigator couldn’t work out their GPS!).
Lunch was ready for us at the Cri, with the promise of silo mural viewing afterwards. Full of pub tucker, we wandered along the streets of Grenfell and checked out the shops, with some of the boys visiting the local Chrysler museum. After a round-up, we all made it to the silos for group photos. BTW, the artwork on these is amazing!
Young was next in our sights, and a pleasant drive saw us arrive at the Federation, our motel for the night. Although dinner was ‘own choice’, we all seemed to end up across the road at Young Services Club (which owns the motel). After more great food, we headed back to our room (well, mostly, a heap of us ended up in the honeymoon suite which Mr and Mrs Bottcher had been lucky enough to score as their allocated room wasn’t available). Ian is still talking about the bathtub (you don’t want to know!). As an aside, the deal we were given by the motel was excellent given the superior quality of all the rooms.
A disorganised ramble next morning eventually saw us breakfasting at Hussy Specialty Coffee and Kitchen (which was both quick and very tasty), and then it was sadly time for goodbyes as we left Young to head homeward. A few of us stopped for coffee at the Yass Cafe before the final leg of our trip. Others took a different path to suss out some new roads for our crew to travel.
All up, a thoroughly enjoyed weekend and an eye-opener for our guests who’ve discovered the joys of being involved in our club.
