12 December 2008

Ballina to Port Macquarie





WOW! Thanks so much for your prayers and good thoughts! It made all the difference on this stretch of road. The driving was EXHILARATING! The roads were curving 2 lane highways with many oversized and double cargo trucks coming at us, a few narrow bridges, oil on the road, and rain. A little rain at first to make things slippery, but more to cause a little flooding on the road and hydroplaning at one point. The lines on the roads are all painted white. In the US, the center lines would be yellow.

On the two lane highway, the passing was facilitated by creating an additional lane at varying points along the highway. All traffic was directed to remain left, unless overtaking another vehicle. There were also rest areas. A few kilometers prior to the rest area, a sign read: Stop Revive Survive. There were also several speed cameras on the highway. And a couple of cameras that assessed for fatigue. I don't know how that's done...or what they do if it's determined that the driver is fatigued.

We made reservations in the morning for Port Macquarie - calculating a distance about twice that of the previous day. We got started by 9am. Our first stop, for lunch was at Gosford.

After lunch, we took our mini caravan to Choff's Harbor for a little time on the beach. This beach was named Park Beach and had a small island. The tide was on the way out. We walked a fair piece of the beach.

We saw some beautiful scenery again today. There were sugar cane fields, cows - some with small horns, others that looked like beef cattle, horses, a couple of sheep, bananas, and a rose grower. We also saw signs for wild horses, an antlered animal, and kangaroo. I saw a kangaroo today - but it was road kill so probably doesn't count.

I have logged more then 600km so far in 2 days. Today was the most exhausting because of the conditions.

1 comment:

LizzyT said...

Hi Catherine, I have just been catching up on your amazing journey. I am sure you will and have seen some amazing sights. Good luck with the rest of your time on the road. Janet