MBCNSW July 2025 Night Drive – Seven Bridges
Our July 2025 night drive was a bit unusual. Instead of the suburban outskirts where we normally drive, this was an inner city route. I generally avoid inner city routes, as they are so hard to keep a group together at night. The advantage they have is they require less travel to get to and from the route from most participants.
The Seven bridges route was not a new one, we did it back in January 2023. It had worked fairly well last time.
We started at McDonalds Drummoyne. Even with a group of 8 cars only, there was not enough parking so if we did the route again, I would change the start point. The turnout of 8 cars was quite good given the rain. I had originally planned to take my 450SLC, but with the rain, I chose the 300TE.
On the drive we had a good variety of cars. Oldest was a 1972 280SE 3.5, followed by a 1977 450SLC and a 1983 380SEC. Then we had the strong W124 contingent with two 300Es, a 300CE and my 300TE. We also had a modern GLA35 AMG.
The point of the route is to make Sydney harbour the centrepice of the drive. The drive was a big loop, starting out north and heading clockwise. We headed North and crossed the Gladesville bridge, followed by the Tarban Creek Bridge. Even getting out of the Maccas parking not was not easy and our group was already split up by the time we hit Gladesville Bridge.
The next part of the route took us up towards Roseville Bridge. Once we crossed Roseville Bridge, we had planned a stop at the start of Wakehurst Parkway, but I had sent an older version of the directions so we missed it.
That didn’t matter as the group was largely together by this point. However, once we passed Spit Bridge, Google Maps had a bit of a panic attack, and decided that the waypoint for Spit Bridge was actually the parking lot underneath the bridge. It then sent a few of our group off on tangent.
It got worse when we arrived at the approach to the Sydney Harbour bridge. Road works crews were just closing the entrance to the Harbour bridge. There was a diversion through North Sydney via Berry St. This was a traffic nightmare, and google had another panic attack and decided it wasn’t possible to get onto the Harbour bridge via Berry St.
These issues with google and the roadworks completely split up our group. A few people decided to head home at that point vs continue over the Anzac bridge. I kept going and eventually headed back to Maccas. For a while I was the only car there, and I was wondering if this would be a drive when only one car managed to complete! In the end three more arrived and we completed the route.
I think while the drive was enjoyable, this drive was a good example of why we generally avoid inner city routes. It was still good to get out for a drive though. I had been quite busy with work this week, and it was good to get out and cruise around in the 300TE.
