Women Behind the Wheel - Hunter Style

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19 August 2024 / story by Chris Cameron, Photos by Wendy Mulholland

After weeks of grey skies and showery weather, fortune smiled on us and Saturday morning transformed into blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Eleven shiny mX5’s bearing 21 ladies congregated at Cameron Park MacDonalds – oops, there should have been thirteen, but 2 cars went to Thornton MacDonalds by mistake!

Coffees in hand and group photos taken – thank you Mark – we headed off towards Pokolbin going over Sugarloaf then via Richmond Vale and Mulbring into Cessnock. Traffic was average for a sunny Saturday on touristy roads, but we only needed 1 very brief regroup along the way.

 

A Police 4WD merged into our convoy as we were negotiating the backstreets of Cessnock, but we were keeping within the speed limit and driving sensibly, so they must have decided we weren’t of any interest and turned off to look elsewhere!

From Cessnock we headed past Kelman Vineyard and along Oakey Creek Road onto McDonalds Road then to our destination on Broke Road, enjoying the sweeping vistas of the Hunter’s vineyards in the sunshine.

 

We arrived at the Pokolbin Chocolate Factory right on time to be greeted by our host, Annette, who provided a chocolate tasting and told us about how their chocolates are made. Morning tea in a chocolate factory leads to a LOT of difficult choices! As well as elegant chocolates, fudge, gelatos and an array of cakes and slices, devonshire tea was on offer and proved to be popular with many of our group. Shopping for take-home delectables was also popular, with varying sizes of shopping bags being transferred to MX-5 boots when we left.

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Many of the ladies opted to head home from Pokolbin, but 6 cars came on the return run following the scenic route via Branxton, Elderslie, Rosebrook and Lochinvar. It’s a lovely road to drive with sweeping curves and great scenery and we encountered very little traffic. I missed a turn near the end of the run, so we rejoined the New England Hwy at Lochinvar instead of Aberglasslyn, but if I hadn’t fessed up, I doubt anyone would have noticed!

From Lochinvar, we headed through Bishops Bridge (where I turned into my driveway – good planning!) and the Newcastle-bound cars continued through Sawyers Gully and onto the Hunter Expressway.

A huge thank-you to Annette at the Pokolbin Chocolate Factory for making us so welcome and to all our ladies who got out of bed early on a weekend to come along and make the day a lot of fun. A special mention goes to my friend Lesley-Anne, who thought she was coming for a scenic drive and morning tea then found out she had to both navigate and handle the radio. She did a great job!

The only thing that remains is to start planning the next one!