Mazdas go to Mudgee
19 August 2025 / Words by Rod Nicholas. Photos by Rod & Maryanne Nicholas
Mudgee has been a popular destination for our Chapter. My records show a Ken Keeling expedition in 2014 to experience the Food & Wine Festival (although Ken probably led a few before that) and half a dozen since then, not counting visits to Mudgee on other runs. My run was intended to be the first stage of a five-day spectacular, but I lost track of time for planning and settled on a three-day drive.
Not surprisingly, the twenty registrants were all at Hall for the briefing well before the advertised departure time, and we set off promptly for our first stop in Taralga. The Short drive from Crookwell to Taralga set the scene for the rest of the day – it's a delightful section of road that can put a smile on the dial of any MX-5 driver.
Excellent coffee at the General Store fuelled us well for the next leg to our lunch stop at Oberon (via Shooters Hill). I’d planned to head to Sofala and Hill End before reaching Mudgee, which scared a couple of drivers off and they left on a more direct route. (I think they were just keen to get to the motel to grab the best rooms and have a rest.)
As usual, I map out all the run in Google maps but somehow, I failed to ‘waypoint’ Sofala, with the result being that my GPS took me on a ‘more direct’ route to Hill End. By-passing Bathurst, we found ourselves in Eglinton and then on the Turondale Road to Hill End. The road was quiet, winding its way up the hills through even more quiet rural areas (you could almost hear the banjos duelling) with only a few roos, wallabies and wild goats to observe the line of MX-5s zooming happily along. Hill End was quiet, and we didn’t have much time to look around, but the king parrots were out looking for a feed and we were able to accommodate them.
It was then a quick 70 kms into Mudgee, carefully avoiding the roos and the occasional pothole.
Our accommodation—the Horatio Hotel—is one of the best we have stayed at on our trips. Large rooms, king beds, and delightfully quiet even though it's on a main road. After a bit of a rest, we sauntered off up the road to Kelly’s Irish Pub for a tasty dinner and a beverage or two.
It’s here that I must admit to a shameful lapse in planning for this run. I was carefully avoiding the weekend (and the busy tourists up from Sydney) but completely forgot that folks in the hospitality business want a couple of day off for a weekend, and typically choose Monday and Tuesday—the cheek of them! This meant the breweries I wanted to visit were both closed, as were several of the wineries around town. Given I had made the experience of enjoying a pint of Mudgee Mud[1] a major highlight of the trip, this was clearly a major planning blunder. To make matter worse, my hope that the Mud on tap at Kelly’s Irish Pub was dashed when I learned the owner of the pub was also an owner of the ‘rival’ brewery in town. Oh well, the best laid plans etc etc. (A quick search of the local bottle shop revealed tinnies of the Mud at a very reasonable rate—problem solved!)
Day Two dawned cool and sunny for our planned trip of about 180 kms from our digs to Rylestone, then a peek at Dunns Swamp, Kandos, Windermere Dam rounded off with a visit to an olive farm. Rylstone was quiet but we stopped anyway for a rummage around the local lolly shop. Our visit to Dunns Swamp (Gangcuddy) was on the suggestion of Mike and Jo, who assured it was worth the effort even if there was a bit of dirt involved. And so it was! A beautiful billabong on the Cudgegong River, a short stop there failed to do it justice. We took a half km walk around the rocks, took in the views, took photos of the views and indigenous art and then took off. It would have been a great place for a day-long walk or a couple of days camping.
On the Kandos, which is (apparently) famous for its cement (surely exciting for some people), but was largely deserted on a Tuesday (not even the visitor’s Centre of Museum). We grabbed a light meal from the local bakery, then left (after the laddies had rummaged through the ‘craft’ shop) for the viewing platform at the Windermere Dam. Very pretty. Some left from here for the hotel, others chose to drop in on the Aril Estate Olive Farm for olive and olive oil sampling.
A few didn’t join us on this action-packed day, spending their time resting or wandering the streets and local wineries, even walking ‘The Drip Track’, which (I am told) was a beautiful trail along the Goulburn River.
Dinner was pizzas and local wines, enjoyed at our hotel.
Day Three was the trip back home. A couple of cars took the direct route (down the highways) back to Canberra, rather than the longer tour I had planned. I led the troop—now down to ten—out to Gulgong and Wellington for our refreshment break, then down the Mitchell Highway to Molong. This was straightforward driving, uneventful apart from the one bloke in a van who tried his luck passing two semis and thankfully avoiding a head-on with me (I had to brake rather hard to avoid him), and the roo that jumped onto the road between my car and John following me (more hard braking from John). From Molong, our lunch stop was Canowindra, but I took the group on a slight detour through Cargo. Why? Because I’d never been there, and now I have, I see no need to repeat the experience.
Our pub lunch at Canowindra (another very quiet spot on a Tuesday) was quite pleasant, but the rain had settled in and was making life less pleasant than it needed to; a route rethink was needed. I dropped the plan to travel through Woodstock and Wyangala to Boorowa, choosing the more direct route to Cowra and Boorowa on home. This saved about 30 km and 45 minutes, and avoided the quiet, curvy country roads in favour of the more travelled way. Whether it was necessary is debatable, as the rain eased, but it is always good to get home while there is still plenty of light.
Mudgee was a long way to go for only a few days (we travelled about 1,100 km, at an average of 6.1 litres/100 kms) but the roads were good to great, the cars loved it, and the company was (as always) a delight. So all up, a good time was had by all. We even got a drop or two of the Mudgee Mud (most of a four-pack found its way home with me).
For those who are interested, the map links are:
Day 1 – Canberra – Mudgee
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RNLgkZRz7DRg2aTT6
Day 2 – Mudgee and surrounds
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JxALzXKURxQ8k4Nw9
Day 3 – Mudgee – Canberra
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WN3isEvRgxBNjB5g7
There are plenty more photos on our Facebook Group page and Rod Nicholas’s Flickr page.
[1] For the uninitiated, Mudgee Mud is a smooth imperial stout with hints of aniseed and liquorice undertones, brewed by Mudgee Brewing Co. It gets its nickname from the murky river water used to brew the local beer.
