MBCNSW Drive to Bilpin

Today I joined an event with the MBCNSW for a drive to Bilpin.   Bilpin is to the West of Sydney and is half way up the Blue Mountains.   It is know for its Apples.   The purpose of the drive was to raise money for one of our club members, Sam.  Sam is the proprietor of the Bilpin Apple Pie Cottage, our destination.   He suffered quite a loss during the big fires last summer, losing buildings and part of his stock.   It was then a long time before he could start trading again due to clean up.   Finally, when things were getting back to normal COVID hit and there was even more impact.

This drive was actually rescheduled from earlier in the year.   On the day it was supposed to happen, there was a big storm and the power was out, causing the original event to be postponed.   I had gone to the meeting point and almost drowned in the 10 meters from the car to the McDonalds.

Today the weather was much better, if still a little wet.   This time I brought the whole family – Apple Pie and Ice Cream is a powerful draw card for small children.   The drive to Bilpin up Bells line of road is quite nice and the traffic was fairly light.    As I had the whole family, I brought the 300SE.   It was a good run for the 300SE as it normally gets used for very short trips around my house.

There was a pretty good convoy of cars for the drive to Bilpin, including a W108, a couple of W126s (my 300SE and two 420SELs), 107, 114 coupe, a W140 in a fairly unusual colour, an A124 and some more modern cars.   Also in the line up was a McLaren.

The whole family enjoyed the pie, and there was a raffle draw where I won a voucher for some car detailing.   As I’m terrible at car detailing, I am sure this will come in handy.

From there, the rest of the group did an extended drive up to Mt Wilson.   We peeled off and went for a walk in the nearby Blue Mountains Botanical gardens before driving back home.