Three Gees

14 October 2020 / Words by Patrick McBride. Pictures by Patrick McBride and Rod Nicholas

Sunday 27 September 2020

When the second car arrived at the Hall Lay-by, I thought they were a nice match together, two Soul Red NDs. The next four cars to arrive were also red, making a splash of shiny red along the fence. I was wondering if today’s event would be the Red Car Run with all the cars the same colour when Rod Nicholas arrived in his white RF. People were eager to start driving because the Hall Lay-by has a lot of noise from passing traffic and there was also a swooping magpie to keep us alert. We set off with seven cars, all red in colour except for Rod’s white RF. At Gundaroo Colin McNally joined us for part of the drive, and yes, his car is red.

The back roads we drove took us through lush green countryside showing the benefit of the best rainfall in years. Sadly, the good conditions had also fostered the growth of Cape Weed and many open areas displayed the yellow daisy flowers of this exotic pest.

At our Gunning halt we bought takeaway drinks and freshly-baked scones from the Merino Cafe, a cosy place inside with a nice courtyard which unfortunately we couldn’t sit down in and enjoy during these Covid-restricted times. A couple of doors away was a local market stall and a few of us walked down to buy bananas and other fruit to take with us. The roads were largely empty of traffic and our line of MX-5s cruised along together until Goulburn. It’s so nice to see MX-5s out together. As was the case at Gunning we had to sit outside with takeaway drinks and food. The Roses Cafe offers a huge variety of food and across the road is a nice park, neat and spacious with lots of flowers. We settled into picnic tables for a leisurely lunch before hitting the road again.

Most of the drivers elected to avoid the highway home and to continue driving along the back roads through Lake Bathurst and Bungendore. We halted at Tarago for a last photo before dispersing.