Central Coast Views Run
22 September 2016 / Story: Phil Mayo Photos: David Gazzard
The Central Coast presents a dichotomy to MX-5 run organisation – it has some beautiful coast line and parks but it has very busy roads to get to those vistas with narrow curbed roads with lots of roundabouts and traffic lights. Also the Hunter Chapter draws some of its members from the Central Coast so there is a need to spread our runs throughout the Chapter locale.
I have done a similar run previously and it proved a challenge trying to keep the group together without the opportunity to pull over to regroup. However we needed to work out a system to handle these environments especially with the Chapter participant numbers growing, so it was decided to run this event as a “Way Point” run. The Google Map locations for each way point/regroup point were emailed to members in advance as well as the usual run sheets, so should the group inevitably be separated, members had all the information to navigate individually or lead the separated group to the next way point, all at the click of a button.
The forecast for Sunday did not look good - showers increasing to rain, but the morning broke with just overcast sky so maybe it was going to be ok. We met at McDonalds Morisset at 9am for morning tea. As people arrived and the conversations started we wisely moved to an outside area so the roar of the chatter did not scare away the customers.
At 10am, 16 cars headed out to pass over the causeway at the Southern end of Lake Macquarie passing both Vales Point and then Munmorah power stations. Then over the Budgewoi bridge that separates Lake Munmorah and Budgewoi Lake. Our first stop and opportunity to spot a whale was Norah Head. As we pulled up in the car park the light rain started but that didn’t stop us filling the lookout and some members walking down to the Light house. Josh Fitzgerald brought out the largest pair of binoculars ever but still no whales could be seen.
We then continued along the beaches and then past Tuggerah Lake to our next waypoint a lookout at The Entrance , the sprinkles had increased slightly. Our next stop was at Crackneck Lookout in the Wyrrabalong National Park – a known whale watching point. However no whales today – but we did hear that it is a very romantic, dark spot at night, thanks Elaine and David. The rain put an end to the wildflower walk planned for here so we headed off to the Breakers Country Club at Wamberal for lunch and a lot more chatting. This is a beautiful new club and made us very welcome.
After lunch our numbers halved to 8 cars and we climbed The Skillion at Terrigal a 200 m slope leading to a lookout that usually gives views from Pittwater to Lake Macquarie but today the rain increased so we hurried to the shelter of the cars.
The rest of the run was done in the cars down the coast to Bouddi National Park, then down the windy road to Brisbane Water through Killcare, Hardys Bay, Pretty Beach finishing at Wagstaff with the rain pelting down. We all made our own way home with everyone agreeing it was a good run despite the rain.
More of David Gazzards photos: HERE
