Not Meet 2023

14 April 2023 / Written by: Barry Luttrell, Photos: Jenny Luttrell

 Friday Day 1

Holiday traffic, double demerit points and its raining. This may not be a fun trip.

Our NSW group gathered at Raymond Terrace McDonalds for our first briefing before setting out to Gloucester on the Pacific Hwy. Traffic was heavy and we crawled until we arrived at the Buckets Way turn off. OK, so now we can get underway. All good until a set of road works lights caused extensive delays. “Someone needed to rephase the lights”. After approximately 20 minutes delay we have clear road ahead so we continued to Gloucester for lunch. Some of our group had BYO lunch in the park under a shelter whilst the remainder went to local hotels or restaurants.

                       

Lunch finished we are off to the interesting part of our run. Onto Thunderbolts Way, up the mountain and then to Armidale all the time playing dodge the potholes.

Arriving at the Country Comfort Motel with fortunately no broken cars (Tires or wheels)

                       

Booked in and rested up ready for dinner provided by Shaun and his team. Met our Queensland MX-5 members and had drinks and dinner and maybe an early night ready for a big run on Saturday.

 

Saturday Day 2

This is a big day with a 330 km round trip Armidale to Bellingen then return via Tyringham to Armidale. This was the short trip.  Our more adventurous group joined the 460 km run returning via the Corkscrew on the Armidale Grafton road.

After breakfast at the motel three separate groups left Armidale at 30 minute intervals lead by John and Steve (Corkscrew) then Barry and Jenny (Shorter run) and finally Mark and George (Another shorter run)

                       

Traffic was light and first stop was Ebor Falls for a quick look, then onto Dorrigo and extended morning tea at Dangers Falls. Then on to a fun drive down Water Fall Way and the mountain pass to Bellingen.

                                                  

We arrived at Bellingen Butter factory café who were highly organized (assisted by participants pre-ordering their lunches) allowing run timelines to be maintained.

The first group then progressed on to the outskirts of Coffs Harbour then through Nann Glenn and up Armidale Grafton Rd to the challenging Corkscrew climb and finally back to Armidale via Waterfall Way.

Groups two and three combined to leave the Butter Factor and return to Armidale via Waterfall Way. The local police decided to have a random breath test as we were leaving the lunch venue. This resulted in chaos as some 18 cars were stopped on Waterfall Way with the risk of a member of the public crashing into the tail end car. With the random test finalized there was no place to safely regroup so members mostly made their own way back to Armidale.

A small remaining group returned to Armidale via Tyringham, Armidale Rd and WaterfallWay with a stop off at Wollomombi Falls.

Finally arrived at motel for drinks and another outstanding dinner in the motel dining room.

 

Sunday day 3

Today is a morning run to Guyra and afternoon run to Apsley Falls

After breakfast in the dining room, we formed up in the car park and setoff on the New England Hwy to Guyra where we visited the Burgess Garage Motor Museum and Acardia, a very interesting shop in the old Guyra picture theatre. 

                       

Out of Guyra and onto the Old Inverell road and across to Ben Lomond via some picturesque back roads in the New England Highlands. Finally onto the New England Highway and lunch at the Great Hops Brewery. Lunch not so good.

We regrouped at the motel for an afternoon run to Uralla, Gostwyck, and Kentucky. This was a modified run missing Apsley Falls due to lunch delays. Out of Armidale and onto the New England Hwy going through Uralla and onto Gostwyck Rd and onto the All Saints Anglican Church. This is famous for its iconic setting and great photo opportunities especially in Autumn.  Out of Gostwyck and on to Kentucky, a historic fruit growing area. With great roads for some spirited driving this took us across to Thunderbolts Way and then a cruise drive back to our Motel in Armidale.

                       

Tonight is our last meal and we were not disappointed, as again, our chef provided more amazing food to help celebrate Notmeet 2023.

Monday Day 4

Final meal together today it’s breakfast

Final goodbyes to our Queensland friends then off on our individual our journeys home.

The event was a great success.