South Coast Goes to Brass Monkey

25 July 2025 / Story: Keith Monaghan; Photos: Geoff Smith, Keith Monaghan

South Coast Brass Monkey Run

12-14 July, 2025

Geoff, Paul, Phil and myself got together just after lunch, on Saturday near North Nowra Hotel, to head off on the first day off our Brass Monkey Run adventure.

Led by Geoff we headed across Kangaroo Valley and up onto the southern highlands where we took a variety of back roads heading towards the madness of Sydney's traffic. We were lucky we went this way as the highway heading north to Sydney was blocked with a major accident.

The first part of the run was quite enjoyable but then there was the battle with Sydney's traffic as we had to cross it to get to our resting place for the evening at Mount Kuring-Gai.

After settling into our motel, we headed to the local RSL for dinner. Then it was back to the motel for bed in preparation for an early awakening so to meet up with other members of the club at the local McDonald's restaurant at 5:30am in the morning. The restaurant was closed but scheduled to open at 6:00am.  This was a problem for all the coffee lovers as the run was to start at 6:00am.  However, the staff in the restaurant seeing more than 20 cars in their car park and quite a number in the street decided to open which was greatly appreciated by all.

The run started and we headed down the old highway towards the on ramp for the freeway. It must have looked good going through the northern suburbs of Sydney with more than 20 MX-5’s in a row plus a Cobra and a Daimler SP250. We continued out onto the freeway and motored along in the predawn cool, or should I say cold, heading towards Newcastle.  At Jilliby we were joined by another approx. 25 MX-5's to make a long continuous line of at least 50 roadsters all with their tops down and their drivers and passengers enjoying the predawn air.

We turned off the freeway onto the Hunter Expressway just as the sun was rising and the temperature was dropping.  We continued to Singleton where we wandered through the back streets to find the car park of the Singleton Diggers Club for breakfast.

After breakfast, conversations and a round of heads and tails, people wandered out to the car park to look at the various cars that were there and start their journeys home.

Our journey home was a bit different to others as we were going to go to Bathurst via the Bylong Valley Way where we would spend the evening.  The route took us through Rylstone where we stopped for lunch. We continued through the great countryside and arrived at that motel in Bathurst ready for a dinner and good night's rest after a long day of enjoyable driving.  Even though the scenery was spectacular the road was in poor condition.

Monday, after breakfast, we set off for a guided drive, by me, around Mount Panorama. With photos taken we headed off to Goulburn via Truckee Creek.  On the way we did our required dirt road driving in a little village of Tuena.  From there it was onto Crookwell for some lunch.  The road from Bathurst to Goulburn was in great condition and a very enjoyable drive.

From Crookwell we headed back to Nowra via Nerriga. Some of the roads on this stretch were the worst condition we had driven in the whole weekend.

After close to 1000 kilometres, we arrived home after a great driver’s weekend.

Thanks, Geoff, for organising such a great run. It was enjoyed by all.