Presidents Picnic

28 September 2022 / Story: Neil & Dewi Brewitt; Photos: Dewi Brewitt, Bob Downing, Kerry Warner

MX-5 South Coast Chapter overnight run to Ebenezer Church for the MX-5 President’s Picnic

Our weekend started on Saturday morning, with a meet up at Ernst Arthur Café in South Nowra. Down to a convoy of 2 cars, after some coffee and pies, we started our windy run over Cambewarra Mountain, passing through the quaint township of Kangaroo Valley, crossing the heritage-listed Hampden Bridge over the Kangaroo River, and over the Barrengarry Mountain towards Robertson, where we stopped for another coffee and some delicious pastries. From beautiful sunny Shoalhaven to cold and windy Robertson - spring has not yet arrived in the highlands!

The drive to The George Hotel in Picton, where we met up with the Illawarra Chapter for lunch, was a scenic one, apart from a few pot holes and getting honked by a big 4WD, for no reason whatsoever - it’s not like she was going to run into him! We had a very enjoyable lunch, with our Illawarra friends, as usual.

After lunch, Kerry and Lesley expertly led the 2 Chapters on route to The Colonial Motel, in Richmond – our accommodation for the night. The landscape towards Richmond is nothing like Neil and I remembered, having lived not far from there for years. A number of new estates are currently being developed along the highway, including the new, under construction, Badgerys Creek Airport. We arrived at the Hotel a little after 4pm and made plans to meet outside our rooms for drinks and nibblies at 5pm. We were told that everyone had a lovely time at the back of Senia’s motel room. Unfortunately, tired from the drive, we had a nap and missed happy hour altogether. Hence the saying “Snooze You Lose”. Our dinner that night was booked at the Royal Richmond Hotel where we also got to watch the Mighty Bunnies annihilated the Cronulla Sharks.

The next morning, after a peaceful night sleep and breakfast, we were on our own again, a white MX-5 and a red one, leaving the hotel and heading off towards Ebenezer Church for the President’s Picnic. The other MX5s left earlier in the morning to prepare for the Show and Shine. The drive to the church was definitely enjoyable, passing beautiful turf farms, market gardens and cattle farms along the way. We would have put our cars on show if only they had the ‘Dirty Cars’ category. So, we parked our cars up on a hill, out of the way of the other shiny clean cars, close to the church kitchen where Devonshire Tea was being served! We were joined by Bob, who arrived at the church that morning. It was a lovely day in Ebenezer with wonderful company and surrounded by beautiful cars and tombstones. The five of us – Kerry, Lesley, Dianne, Neil and I were asked to judge the NC models. This was by no means an easy feat as we had TWO cars to pick from (all the other NCs did not qualify as they did not have the correct stickers on their windscreen) but we took it in our stride and diligently carried it out. After lunch, the Club President presented the trophies for the winners of the various categories. At the end of the official presentation, we all made our own way home. We had a great weekend!

Dewi & Neil Brewitt