Woodstock 2023 – one day of peace, love and MX-5s
15 June 2023 / Words and pictures by Rod & Maryanne Nicholas. Pictures by Allan Caldwell and John Chapuis
Sunday. The middle of a long weekend. Sunny and dry. A crisp -3.5o (‘feels like’ -5.7). What more is needed for a good drive?
We headed to the meet point nice and early, even with a fuel stop, as good run leaders do. And yet there were already three cars waiting – I swear our members must have their clocks set to a different time zone. Soon enough we had everyone assembled and with the briefing done we headed off for a day of peace, love and MX-5s.
Several of our runs take a break at Boorowa for coffee, cake, and comfort. This time, rather than take the usual trip up the Lachlan Valley or Burley Griffin Ways, I was pleased to take the run on a path that no one else in the group had covered. I’d been given a ‘heads up’ by Peter Wilson about this ‘new’ way of getting to Boorowa that was fast becoming a favourite for his motorcycle riding group. We travelled to Yass, past the never-ending roadworks and through the town on the main street (once the Hume Highway) to North Yass, unknown territory for some. We zoomed (rather reservedly) along Cooks Hill and Dalton Roads to Rye Park, chucked a leftie along Rye Park Road and straight on to Boorowa for refreshments.
I’d done a recce only a few days earlier and the road was an untested beauty; a narrow country lane with a few good twists and a few good straights, and decently quiet. Pretty, too, in an Aussie bush style. Unfortunately, during the run we saw little of the scenery. A heavy fog blanketed the area only a few minutes out of Yass and continued (with variations in opacity) for much of this leg of the journey. Never mind, I assured those on the run when we stopped in Boorowa, we will definitely be driving this track again.
Thick like pea soup, but not as nice
Our next leg was from Boorowa to Wyangala Dam, where I planned to stop for a peek and a few photos. We’ve been up to the dam a few times now, and it is a delight to see if nearly full to the brim for a change. It’s currently at 95% capacity – the first time we visited it was a sad 12%. I had intended to stop at the southern end but cleverly missed the turnoff (as was pointed out to me by a cheeky couple of members who had actually loaded up the map I’d prepared). Not to worry, I just moseyed on to our ‘usual’ stop as if it was my intention all along. The roads from Boorowa through Frogmore to Wyangala had been recently repaired, although the roadworks were not quite complete, and there were a few uneven bits and potholes. I did a reasonable job negotiating them and as best as I could tell, so did the mob following me.
Plenty of water at Wyangala Dam
The photographer is photographed
The photographer's photograph - most of us mob at Wyangala
Snaps taken, we pointed our fun machines north and hit the Reg Hailstone Way for a 30-minute drive into Woodstock (Reginald Hailstone – Reggie to his mates – was a prominent member of the Mount McDonald community, who championed the Lachlan Valley in which we were travelling, and was instrumental in getting the government to form the Wyangala National Park Trust, much to the benefit of the community and NSW as a whole).
Reg’s namesake road is a delightful drive up the escarpment and along the ridge – narrow and quite twisty, albeit a little ‘scary’ given the absence of guard rails and the presence of a steep drop off into the valley below. Given the frequent sharp blind corners, we were taking care to keep a good corner line and stick to our lane.
Out front, I rounded a bend and ducked for cover (figuratively speaking) as a pair of large 4WDs (of the type heavily adorned with spotlights, dog cages and mud) ploughed through towards us. Hearing some radio chatter, which I assumed* had come from our lot, I remarked to the few in my group with radios something about ‘some blokes think they own the road’. How was I to know the 4WDs were also on ‘our’ channel? The spray was immediate. There were lots of comments about our f@#%ing pi@#y little cars. Lots of instructions about matters that were anatomically impossible. Lots of very nasty name calling. It went on for quite a while, way beyond what I had thought was a reasonable range for our radios. Lots of radio silence from our end.
There’s a lesson in that, I thought, as I led our group to our lunch venue. I was thankful that most had no knowledge about how little love there was for us (at least, among the drivers of the two 4WDs) and how nervous I was about whether they had turned around and were aiming to run over the top of us (they did not). The Woodstock Hotel bunch, on the other hand, were happy to see our group of 15, as we took over their dining room and sold them out of schnitties. It’s not fine dining, nor was it expected to be, but we can’t fault the T-bone and the generous lamb cutlets. No one was complaining about tucker.
Woodstock was rather quiet, although we did our best to bring some life to the place
Our journey home was pleasantly uneventful. A short trip from Woodstock on the delightfully named Sheet of Bark Road to the Mid-western Highway in to (and through) Cowra and then straight down the Lachlan Valley Way to Boorowa and home to ‘Berra.
We knocked up about 420 km, had a great drive on roads that were previously unexplored by many of the group, had a good feed at a great little country pub, and nobody got their lights punched out by non-believers. I call that a win.
As for the lessons learned:
- ‘our’ radio channels are not private
- radio chatter among run members, while encouraged, should be respectful of other road users (whether they deserve it or not), because
- you never know who is listening, and
- not everyone is a fan of the MX-5, and
- those that aren’t may have a stunted vocabulary but are happy to share it, and
- road rage is real, with potentially nasty outcomes, so best avoided.
Peace and love, always.
* Yes, you’re right. Never assume. It makes an ass of u and me.
Rod & Maryanne Nicholas, Run Leaders
