Righto, I’m just going to come straight out and say it.
NSW drivers are really aggressive. And scary. Far more so than Queensland drivers, in my humble opinion anyway. I’ll need to work up to explaining that allegation, but let me set some context first, so I’ll back it up a bit.
Lunch yesterday was a late one at McDonalds a family restaurant in Yamba. More than my RDI of grease, fat, salt and sugar you may recall.
So we weren’t really hungry by the time we were set up at the Nambucca Bowls Club and the restaurant had opened for the night … so we went for the cheapest thing on the menu. Not because we couldn’t afford it, but rather because we figured that cheap = less food.
That was the theory anyway.
So we ordered two chicken burgers. Chicken burgers that came with chips.
In case you’ve lost count, that’s two meals in a row that came with chips yesterday. Not exactly ideal dietary choices for a couple who use their National Seniors cards every time that they can, and one of whom has his blood pressure managed with pharmaceutical support.
You know how sometimes you order a burger and when it arrives at the table, you figure that you are going to have to dislocate your lower jaw to be able to get your mouth around it? This was one of those burgers.
Not exactly ideal for a couple on the wrong side of 55 who had previously partaken of a late lunch at McDonalds a small family restaurant.
So we got back to the van about ready to slip into a diabetic coma and just needed coffee to close out the day. Nothing fancy, just coffee.
Guess what? We forgot to pack coffee. Bugger. No problems, we will just use the pod machine.
Guess what? The pod machine needs 240V, and we did not have 240V. Bugger again.
So we had a cup of tea. MBW had the usual Vanilla Chai, and I had a cup of my new Jilungin Bush Tea that is supposed to help me sleep.
So no coffee, and a “soothing and relaxing” cup of Jilungin Bush tea and we were off to bed … and I slept the sleep of the dead. I don’t know if that was the lack of caffeine, or the tea, or a relatively guilt- and regret-free day, but I slept like a log.
One of those ”close your eyes and 10 nano-seconds later it’s morning” sleeps. One of those ”I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even roll over all night” sleeps. You get the idea.
Woke this morning and looked out of the window, and this is what I saw …
The next thing I did was check my phone, and this is what I saw …
You will forgive me for not feeling particularly optimistic about the day.
If you’ve ever wondered what life in the van looks like, here is a glimpse.
Anyhow, we did our ablutions, had breakfast, and went in search of coffee. Fortunately by the time we were ready to go, my optimism was slowly coming back.
I had another run-in with the territorial Plover in the middle of the park, but we got everything connected and we were on the road by 8.00am.
Fortunately we remembered to relocate the BBQ out of the back of the car and into the caravan before we left. I know I didn’t mention it yesterday, but that stupid BBQ rattling around the back of the car for 459km and about 6 or 7 hours nearly drove me mad. Every time we stopped we vowed we would move it, and every time we got back in and got back up to 100km/h, we realised that we had forgotten again!
Anyway, that problem was now sorted.
First stop was Kempsey, about 50km down the road from Nambucca Heads. We found a McDonalds McCafe small coffee shop and had our first caffeine fix for the day. Actually, our first caffeine fix for quite a long time.
Then we fueled up Elsie and kept heading towards Taree.
We had started the day listening to the Country Fried Chicken playlist on Spotify, but MBW switched it over to a Slim Dusty playlist. Why you ask? Because we were heading out of town to have a look at the Slim Dusty Centre just outside Kempsey.
We used our Seniors cards to get the discounted entry into the centre, and spent a very nice hour or so browsing around.
We got back on the road, and I have to say again that the motorways in NSW are excellent. Smooth, wide, two lanes, 110km/h … just a pleasure to drive on. And absolutely no stress that you have to get out of the way of other drivers – you just keep plugging along in the left lane and let the other drivers blast past.
We had periods of dry weather …
… but mostly the view out through the windscreen was pretty disappointing.
Which brings me back to aggressive NSW drivers.
It was wet. I mean, it was really raining cats and dogs. I did the safe thing and kept my speed down to 90km/h or so, but we had people towing huge vans go roaring past us like we were standing still.
All of them with NSW number plates.
The NSW Police have a special deal this weekend – get done for speeding and lose double the demerit points. Not even double demerit points would slow these idiots down.
And then there are all of the geniuses (genii?) who drive dark cars and fail to turn their headlights on, so you don’t even know that they’re there until you get sucked into their slipstream as they fly past.
An then there were the morons who have no hesitation to put on their blinker (or NOT put on their blinker) and cut in front of you, only to then stand on the brakes.
I nearly had a ”code brown” a couple of times 🙁
One thing that I have noticed about NSW drivers is that when they overtake you on a dual carriageway road, the instant that their rear bumper draws level with your front bumper, they indicate and start to move across in front of you.
It’s pretty scary, but you come to realise that’s just the way that they drive. They don’t do it because we keep beating them at the State of Origin, or because we live in the Promised Land … it’s just the way that they drive.
We stopped at the Taree Service Centre for a quick bite of lunch (cheese and crackers), and I have to say that is the busiest service centre I’ve ever been to. Cars everywhere, trucks everywhere, and cars parking in the ”caravan parking only” bays just made it almost impossible to park.
I’ve often wondered if it is possible to get through a KFC drive-thru with 18’6” of van on the back, and I very nearly found out today. The drive-thru was my only other option if I couldn’t find a caravan bay. Fortunately that’s a theory I didn’t need to test out.
Lunch over, back into Elsie and we took a wrong turn getting out of town and had to cross a bridge – twice. First time because we thought we were going the right way (we weren’t), and second time because we had to retrace our steps.
Crossing a bridge can’t be that hard … can it?
Not a great deal of room either side of the van, so that was very nearly ”code brown” #2. Steady as she goes …
We survived unscathed, I’m pleased to report.
Other than rain, more rain, idiots, and more idiots, and a really nasty bit of congestion (traffic, not nasal) around Heathbrae, it was plain sailing all the way to The Entrance.
For reasons that I don’t understand – although most likely related to the last week of NSW school holidays and a long weekend – the traffic was nuts heading into The Entrance. Not only was the traffic nuts, but the owners/managers of all of the caravan parks would be delighted to get us onto a powered site at their park for the princely sum of (up to) $99 for the night, and they did it with a straight face. Like that is normal. Huh?
Dunleith Caravan Park has a two night minimum, but considering that the park is mostly empty they decided that they were happy to take our $55 for a powered site for the night.
Power is good, after a night off the grid and a day of heavy rain. The solar panels on the roof have trouble keeping the batteries charged when the sun doesn’t show its face all day. But 240V will top them all up nicely. And the radios, phones, iPads and various other power-hungry devices we carry with us.
Van unhooked and set up, and we went off to find a Coles to buy coffee and other essentials for dinner, then a quick drive to look at the Norah Head Lighthouse.
And what a pretty lighthouse!
I’d show you a photo of the caravan park, but by the time we got back it was fully dark. So I’ll take one in the morning.
Another long day today. We left Nambucca Heads at 8.00am and finally settled in to the van for dinner (after shopping and the trip to the lighthouse) at about 6.30pm.
456km covered today – it doesn’t sound like much, but it was a long day. A great day, but a long one.
Tomorrow will be a bit shorter as we are only heading for Mittagong – maybe a couple of hundred km. We will stay there for maybe three nights so that we can have a bit of a break, see the local sights, and do the Grand Pacific Drive. We will do that over a couple of days.
We do have to stop for fuel again in the morning, and we need to get one of the gas bottles filled. And I need to get a little rubber o-ring for the BBQ hose so that I don’t accidentally create a fireball when I light the BBQ because the connector is leaking gas so badly because it’s missing a little rubber o-ring.
But other than those administrative jobs, it should be a quiet day. I might even stop at a local Bunnings because … just because. Do I need a reason to stop at Bunnings?
Elsie has been behaving herself. Percy has been behaving nicely also. Hopefully I have been behaving to MBW’s expectations, but I guess I’ll find out at my next performance review.
I’m having fun and I’m pretty sure that MBW is having fun too. And I trust that you are enjoying the trip vicariously through the blog.
Time now for a hot shower and a cup of my ”soothing and relaxing” Jilungin Bush tea, then off to bed. Roll on Saturday.
Ciao
#RoadTripNSW2022