MBCNSW January 2026 Night Drive – Old Pacific Highway and Peats Ridge Road

The old Pacific Highway is an old favorite and was actually the first of these night drives, back in 2021.  It had been a couple of years since we did it, so I added it back to the schedule with a slightly adjusted route.

Due to the W123 event and the Australia Day long weekend, we had the drive a couple of weeks earlier than normal.  January can be quite hit and miss when it comes to attendance.  Some people are still away but on the other hand people who are around are generally less busy.

However, it had rained quite heavily the day before and it was a very overcast day, which kept numbers down.   In the end the rain mostly held off, and we experienced only occasional light showers.  It was possible to see the big storms in the distance over the ocean, it looked like the scene out of Lord of the Rings where the huge storms over Mordor can be seen from Minas Tirith.

We had three cars on the day, a pair of SECs, my Nautical Blue 560SEC and a Lapis Blue 380SEC.   We also had a late model VW golf, primarily so the owners son could build up his hours on his L plates, not ideal for his pristine W124.

Due to the time of the year and the threat of rain, there was almost no traffic.  It turned out to be quite a cruisy drive.  The route took us up the Old Pacific Highway from our meeting point at McDonalds Mount Colah.   Instead of turning into the section that goes down into Gosford, we turned up along Peats Ridge Road, and did the loop with its long sweeping turns, back towards Gosford that way.  We had originally meant to take all back roads, but I got a turn wrong so we did one exit on the motorway.

Meeting point was McDonalds Gosford West.  Unlike some McDonalds which advertise being open 24 hours, but actually only have the drive through open, this one was properly open.  That meant we could get a snack before the drive home.  Even with the smaller numbers it was a good drive.  I was home by almost exactly midnight.