The Amazing Chase to Braidwood
28 October 2019 / Words and photos by Gary Williams
The “Amazing Chase” to breathtakingBraidwood
Members from the Illawarra, Sydney, Canberra and the South Coast chapters had a great weekend in Braidwood. There was also a Mercedes sports and a Porsche amongst a diversity of MX5 colours and models.
As a sign of all the wonderful, never-before-seen things to come, the Batemans Bay bridge lifted up to let a boat through. Most of us have never seen that bridge lift up.
Everyone was able to do their own thing at Mogo for lunch, however most of us flocked together to the same place to catch up with each other.
Anyone who has been on a run with Greg and Tanya has come to expect lots of careful planning and plenty of interesting activities. Those high expectations were once again met.
Problem: the 2.5km driveway to the historic “Bedervale” homestead at Braidwood runs up and down hills along dirt and gravel and includes several cattle grids and big pot holes.
Problem? What problem? Tanya had arranged for the Hotels courtesy bus to negotiate this trail that would be difficult for an MX5, and our little sports cars were left safely at the motel during our fascinating guided tour of this impressive house that was designed by John Verge, an architect of note in 1836 for Captain John Coghill, theoretically as a country cottage for his family but, in reality, a house that still impresses to this day, given how it has been lovingly restored ever since.
Members got to know each other a little better over dinner at Braidwood’s Royal Mail Hotel followed by some jousting around a pool table, which hinted at some misspent youths. There were still questions over rules at Sunday lunch, so safest and surest option is definitely to have a re-match.
We said goodbye to Braidwood on an icy Sunday morning after an early breaky and headed to the Goulburn Roundhouse Heritage Railway Centre to be fascinated by the dedication of the volunteers putting in weekend after weekend to restore locomotives, carriages etc.
We then travelled to Badgerys Lookout along 4 kms of narrow road, which was great for MX5s. The view of the Shoalhaven River from the top was awesome.
We rendered assistance to a four wheel drive enthusiast that had, apparently, forgotten the poor state of his vehicles’ battery before he drove into the wilderness and turned his vehicle off.
,An adventurous pair of grey nomads weren’t going to let the winding single lane road stop them taking a 40 foot caravan up to the lookout: just as our last attempt at a push start failed... effectively leaving our group trapped in the car park of this lovely lookout... just about the time we were meant to leave for lunch. The combined conflict management and problem solving skills of the group came to the fore and we arrived only a few minutes late for our lunch appointment at the historic Bundanoon hotel where we met up with additional day trip members.
Words and pictures by Gary Williams
