Fish And Chips Run – Steampacket Hotel – Nelligen

27 November 2015 / Malcolm Bernhardt

The SteamPacket is your atypical country pub, but their fish and chips lunches had been recommended, and they have an excellent outdoor beer garden. Plus, their resident show rooster is friendly. But not excessively so.

A good venue for a quiet Sunday Club Run. And as there were other functions on on the same day, our Run numbers would be quite small, or so I thought. So the busy Kings Highway and the equally busy Woodworks Café, Bungendore (for coffee) should be ok in the circumstances. Well, that was the thinking.

However, 25 participants in 15 MX5’s rolled up on the day. Ohhh Lord.

And my initial intrepidation as we rocked in to the Woodworks Café was realised – the place was jam packed with customers. Completely unruffled, our large, hungry group ordered hot scones, cakes and similar foodstuffs. ‘Well, we aren’t going to get out of here until next week’, I said to myself.

But, the Café was excellent in delivery, our orders were filled and we were fed, watered, bill paid for and back in our little machines right on time. The only delay was your writer who’d misplaced his CB radio.

Bungendore to Braidwood was a pleasant country drive, the only thing worthy of note was volume of returning coast traffic and the police presence oversighting same. The Kings Highway of a Sunday is no place for speeding.

The section from Braidwood east still has extensive road works over about 15k to the top of the Clyde mountain. Police also patrol this area regularly on weekends, as well as the 70k limit downhill section.

That part was steady but uneventful and we made the SteamPacket in good time for lunch. Bowls of hot chips came to the tables as the luncheon plates were being prepared. Clearly, the Woodworks’ hot scones were but a distant memory.

I’d previously instructed Dennis W that I wanted fine weather at 21c. I think it may have been a little higher but it was pleasant nonetheless. It certainly didn’t affect group appetites as the fish and chip lunch was devoured with enthusiasm.

Around 2pm we made our way back up the mountain. It was desirable to avoid the final onslaught of weekend traffic returning to Canberra plus there was coffee awaiting us back at Bungendore to conclude the day’s outing.