Day 4: Grand Pacific Drive

I chose to call this post simply ”Grand Pacific Drive”, because I would likely exceed the character limit if I named all of the places that we went to today.

MBW tells me that the Elsie’s speedo says we did a paultry 211km today, yet it feels like we were in the car all day. Despite the low kilometres, we had an amazing day exploring the GPD.

Firstly though, I need to get a couple of things off my chest.

Number #1: Road rules in NSW are either very different to Queensland, or they are made to be broken.

Number #2: I clearly need to raise my expectations.

I will explain both of those throughout the blog, so please pay attention.

Yesterday – I think it was yesterday?? – I mentioned that the ground here at the Bulli Beach Tourist Park was very boggy. I mean, I know that there has been a great deal of rain around Sydney, much like in Queensland and Northern NSW, but my tiny brain is probably having trouble accepting the fact that I am just down the road from Sydney.

In any case, and for what it’s worth, the ground here at the BBTP is very boggy. I wasn’t being particularly aggressive or careless when we set up the van yesterday, but I did a bit of damage.

That’s really unfortunate, because now it is boggy AND muddy when I walk around the front of the van.

The BBTP is a pretty little park, right on the beach. We are not right on the beach, but the park is. We probably didn’t get a beachfront space because we used our Senior’s card to get the discounted rate and they probably figured that we were too old and crotchety and incontinent to appreciate the view. Either that, or it was the fact that we didn’t ask for one.

I guess I’ll never know.

We do have water views though. We just need to look out Percy’s window at the people in the tent behind us, and we can see all of the water lying around on their site. I’m telling you, it is wet and boggy.

The park has interesting neighbours too. Dead people. A whole big field of them. Fortunately they don’t make too much noise.

Yep, that’s a whole sea of gravestones on the background. There seems to be a lot of dead people in NSW, and – of course – I have a view on that also. They probably all die from despair because we keep beating them at State of Origin, but that is just my opinion.

Anyhow, today was the Grand Pacific Drive drive day. And what a day it was.

We had a super sleep in this morning. 7.00am on the dot I opened my eyes and looked at the clock, and decided it was time to get up and start the day.

MBW and I have this little game that we play. Whoever uses the toilet last when the little red light (= full) comes on, wins! And the winner gets to empty the cassette … except I get to empty the cassette every time whether I win or not.

It probably doesn’t seem anywhere near as much fun as it sounds, but you do what you can to stay happily married.

The other important thing about this is that I know from Day #1 that NSW just love their reclaimed effluent. (Yikes! I said that those two words should never be used together in the same sentence, and I just did!!) So rather than just discard it irresponsibly, I carefully and lovingly tipped it into the BBTP dump point so that they can reclaim it.

There may be no ”I” in team, but there is one in urine! And there is two of them in narcissist, but that is a whole other rant for another post.

Anyhow, where was I? Sleep in, woke up, toilet cassette, reclaimed effluent (ugh!), breakfast, dishes and we were off.

I’m fairly certain that I gave my hands a really good wash in there somewhere too. I hope …

So we loaded up Elsie with all of the necessities for the day, and set off to the Sea Cliff Bridge which is as close to the start of the GPD as we were going to get.

And what an amazing bridge it is!

We parked Elsie, and got out and walked. Almost from one end of the bridge to the other.

Sorry about that, but someone obviously went to a great deal of trouble and expense to build that bridge, and I thought it appropriate to capture it photographically.

From there we drove back towards the BBTP and stopped to buy some food for dinner tonight and dropped it all back to the van.

We then headed off south to explore the GPD, going through various small (and picturesque) townships on the drive.

First stop was the Wombarra Cemetry which has the most amazing views of the ocean that any dead person could possibly hope for.

I have a working theory that this prime piece of real estate was used as a cemetry because the ground was not good for much else. If these graves could sink into the ground so badly, I wouldn’t want to be living in a house there.

MBW seems to have it in her head that she wants to look at all available lighthouses on this trip. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think it has something to do with lighthouses being built on a pretty point near the water and we can get some nice photos.

Nope, I don’t really understand it either 🙁

We lost probably the best part of an hour trying in vain to get close to a lighthouse near the ’Gong (Wollongong), and all roads that we tried to use were closed because of a triathlon on today.

So it was an exercise in futility.

We found a shopping centre instead, parked and went in. MBW saw the words ”Clearance” and ”70% off” and that was it – we needed to look.

We finally escaped, and went on to find a BCF nearby, so I was able to get the gas bottle filled and get an o-ring for the BBQ hose. You may recall that was something that I really need to check off my list of things to do from the last couple days. Job done!!

We stopped at Lake Illawarra at Shellharbour for lunch.

Next stop was the Kiama Lighthouse and blowhole.

We kept puddling along the GPD, stopping at various vantage points to get out and take a photo, but I won’t bore you with all of those details.

A very pretty drive and a beautiful part of the country.

Weather was unpredictable with the day starting sunny and cool, and eventually changing to rainy and cold.

We were told that we must stop in Berry NSW, which we were told was a very pretty place. And what a pretty place it was. A really quaint, pretty little township … that had a donut truck! Donuts and coffee available at 3.00pm – it was a sign 🙂

So all in all, a really nice day. Nothing particular to do and all day to do it. A relaxing day with MBW seeing the sights and enjoying some time together.

And coffee and donuts. Bonus!

From there it was a straight run home back to Bulli for dinner, coffee, shower and listening to the rain fall on the roof of the van.

I started this post saying that road rules seem to be different in NSW. It seems to be a national sport here to cross double white lines anywhere, any time, and at every opportunity. Maybe it’s OK to cross a double line to get into a shopping centre at a particularly dangerous point in the road with no visibility, but everyone does it here with reckless abandon. I don’t get it – or maybe I’m just Mr Obedient. Who knows?

And someone needs to explain to me the flashing yellow turn arrow. What is that about?

I also started the post saying that I needed to raise my expectations.

MBW was over the moon that she got to see and walk the Grand Pacific Drive and check that off her list of things to do.

I was pleased that I got the gas bottle filled and that I got some o-rings and check that off my list of things to do.

See what I mean about setting my expectations too low?

Tomorrow will be a drive in the country, maybe over towards Mittagong. I’ve mentioned Mittagong so many times on this trip it would be a shame not to actually get there at some point.

As I said earlier, today was only 211km of mostly aimless driving around … and without Percy hooked up on the back, the fuel gauge barely moved. That 211km was also backed up by over 13,000 steps – mostly on the Sea Cliff Bridge and walking around Berry. Hopefully that will offset the damage that the donuts did.

If I remember, I’ll tell you tomorrow about tonight’s dinner (vegetable stack) and the amenities block/s here at the BBTP. If I remember.

Oh, and it’s Anzac Day tomorrow too, so an opportunity to spend some time reflecting on the sacrifice that so many made for our freedom. We need to remember that more than anything else.

Looking forward to it. I hope you are too.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2022