Singleton Coffee and Lies
12 March 2016 / Story: Josh Fitzgerald Photos: Josh Fitzgerald
The sun was slowly making its way to the horizon leaving a warmth in the air suggesting summer isn’t quite ready to let go yet.
One of my most favourite times of day to drive an MX-5 is late afternoon, and we couldn’t have picked a more perfect day for a late afternoon run through the Hunter Valley. Daytime temperatures peaked in the mid 30’s which made our 5pm start the perfect temperature for roof down motoring.
15 members and 3 visitors exited the BP Service Centre at Beresfield following the lead of David and Elaine Gazzard, who after a bit of coaxing and help from the Convenors, were leading their first club run for the Chapter to Singleton for Coffee and Lies.
Heading out through the back of Beresfield and following the Hunter River from Duckenfield to Morpeth is a nice way to escape the surrounding suburban sprawl as the road follows the boundaries of farm lands and grassy acreages. We unfortunately had a member experience engine troubles before reaching Morpeth so advised the group to keep going and we would stop to offer assistance. After a brief poke around everything started running again. Another victim of the common NB cam angle & crank angle sensor issue. Bob decided to head home at this point and we played catch up to the group. This allowed Mrs Convenor and I to get ourselves “acclimatised” in the bendy sections to the new ND purchase that was less than 1000ks old at the time.
Incidentally, but convenient for us, an accidental wrong turn was taken by the group (or as I call it: An impulsive exploration of different roads). Easy mistake to make and quickly corrected but allowed us to catch up and join on the end as sweep again.
Now we were out of suburbia and into the countryside. Sweeping roads over rolling hills soaked in the orange glow of the setting sun was just magic. Minimal traffic allowed us to keep a steady pace and take in the views at the top of each hill before dipping back down and twisting into the next valley.
A road that you wished lasted forever soon ended and we arrived in the back of Singleton at our destination, McDonalds. After a brief discussion in the carpark, a call was made to instead hit up a local hotel for dinner, so off we went to the Imperial Hotel in downtown Singleton.
The staff were very accommodating to our group and the food and chatter across the table was great.
After dinner everyone made their own way home and even though it was late, there was still a nice warmth in the air with the roof down.
A big thankyou to David and Elaine Gazzard for organising and leading the run.
More photos: HERE
