Peat & Jill's Breakout for a Dirty, Dusty Weekend
21 October 2015 / Brian Clayton (Day 1) Ken Tuckey (Day 2) Photos Brendan Barr & Bryan Shedden
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, despite pessimistic predictions from the weather bureau. The crews of 34 people in 17 cars met the leader for our briefing where it was decided, in the interests of safety, to split the group into two sections, Pete to lead the first group and Mark to lead the second group a few minutes behind.
All set, odometers set to zero, CB set to channel 13 and off we go, everyone expecting a magical weekend.
While we have done the first part of the trip many times, it is always exhilarating having a brisk run up Macquarie Pass, notwithstanding the brief slow down caused by a vintage car half way up. On through Robertson and out through Bundanoon, how wonderful to be free of the polluted city air. A brief few Ks on the highway then off at Marulan for morning tea and coffee. The café took our orders at the tables and most of us received our orders of coffee, milk shakes etc.
Next it was off down the road to Goulburn then out the back and on to our lunch stop at Crookwell via, well, now the route to the lunch stop was open for debate ...
After missing the first turn in Goulburn, soon corrected with a U turn, there were some mutterings about the navigator. Shortly afterwards, another intersection, another pause for consultation, a quick U turn and on again. Were we concerned? Not at all, we were still in NSW after all! This trip was turning into quite an adventure and with the top down, the sun shining, the air fresh with all those country smells, all we needed to do was sit back and admire the magnificent views which seemed to appear at every crest in the road. With only a few Ks to go to lunch we find another intersection whose road signs did not match the instructions. To make matters worse it seems there is a typo in the odometer instructions. Which way to go? “Left” says our fearless navigator and off we go. It becomes apparent that “right” was probably the correct answer but, Hella, (pun intended) this is a magical mystery tour. As doubt begins to mount and mutterings become louder, we come to an intersection with the direction to Crookwell clearly marked.
We drive into to town to meet up with group 1, outside the pub ready for lunch. Hey guys, what did you do to your nice clean shiny cars? Oh, I see, you took the right turn at 162km, and what’s that you say, 15km of dirt and dust, what a shame!
After thanking Hella, our navigator for choosing the clean route, we proceeded to enjoy one of those great lunches for which country pubs are famous.
After lunch we mount up for the next phase of our trip, on to Cowra for dinner and our overnight stop.
Compared to the morning, the afternoon trip was relatively uneventful, passing through towns like Rugby, Hovell's Creek and Darby's Falls. Uneventful, of course, if you ignore Ken’s attempt to pass his Akubra through the air into the following car, or Gary disappearing to do a driver change (Car 54 where are you?).
Some of the scenery along the way was truly spectacular and the granite formations on the hills at Darby’s Falls are worth the trip to see. And all the way the friendly banter on the CB. Magical!
Into Cowra, a quick check in at the hotel and off to the Japanese Gardens (well, for some of us). The Japanese Gardens have a well-earned reputation for their beauty and their tranquillity. This was well worth the price of admission even if we only had an hour to enjoy the experience.
For the others who had seen the gardens, pre-dinner drinks and a dip in the pool for some intrepid souls. Then it was time to put on the dress up stubbies and the formal thongs and into Pete and Jill’s trivia competition. What a great time with the highlight being the “heads or tails” competition.
The winning trivia team....
Commentary for day one would not be complete without some mention of dinner. The restaurant was run by some very nice and hardworking staff but their system was straight out of Fawlty Towers. All of our orders were assigned the same table number but when we came in for dinner we sat at a number of different tables. Then the staff had the job of finding owners for the dishes they had prepared. An order of curried chicken came and went three times before somebody put their hand up and claimed it. Needless to say some of us got approximately what we ordered very late in the evening.
But nothing could spoil what was a fantastic first day. There was just enough time for an after dinner party around the pool and a few hours’ sleep.
After a relaxed breakfast (some were maybe a little slow after a late night chatting around the pool), a quick stroll for many to view the beautiful gardens throughout the town, a friendly chat and final briefing, we headed off in two convoys, towards Bathurst. All cars surprisingly clean. The road was narrow, twisty and sometimes rough but wasn’t it fun. We passed through several small but gorgeous towns like Neville, where there were railway carriages set up as a bed and breakfast and Blayney, with its wonderful old houses. We stopped at Millthorpe for morning tea. A quaint and touristy old town, with the best lolly shop plus other interesting shops.
We arrived Bathurst and did the obligatory lap. Even at 60 it is exciting. We pulled over on the esses run off area and took photos. What an awesome spot with such awesome views.
Next stop was lunch at O’Connell pub. "Dusty" Feutrill got lost (again) but Mark took team clean straight there. The food was slow but well worth the weight. We were entertained by an Elvis tribute artist and he was really good. The group split up with some heading towards Lithgow while the rest sprinted towards Goulbourn, on some of the best MX-5 roads anywhere and then sadly we were homeward bound. An absolutely delightful couple of days.
A big THANKYOU to Peter and Jill for a truly great weekend.
