Day 1: Home > Kempsey

So, here we are again. Another roadtrip. This one is #RoadTripNSW2023.

This roadtrip was supposed to happen about a month ago, however one of us broke our foot. No name, but not me. The photos of MBW in a moon boot and crutches will be the giveaway anyway, I guess.

I’m going to be on my best behaviour. I haven’t had any official warnings, but I assume that there are various topics that are not allowed, including (but not limited to):

• Toilet activity, itself including:
  • Code yellow
  • Code brown
  • The toilet light game
  • The effects of coffee and cold weather
• Anything that makes MBW look bad

This trip will include most of the regular cast and crew, including:

• Elsie (the car)
• Percy (the van)
• MBW, and
• Moi

Brandon (remember Brandon … or was it Brayden??) won’t be joining us this year. Brandon was the name of the voice in the satellite navigation, but we had the head unit in Elsie changed just the other day to something newer and shinier (and with Google Maps), and we now have a new lady giving us directions.

I’m not sure if she has a name, but I will do some looking in the manual to figure that out. In the meantime, we will call her Dolly. You will have to figure that one out for yourself.

So just to provide some chronological context for you, there has been a lot happening this week:

• The Titan – the submersible submarine that takes wealthy sightseers down to look at the Titanic about 4000m below sea level – went missing after losing communication contact with 5 people on board
• Queensland absolutely flogged NSW in game 2 of the State of Origin
• It became public knowledge that the Titan had never received appropriate safety approvals because these approvals ”stifle innovation”
• Did I mention that Queensland flogged NSW in the State of Origin?
• Bits of debris ”consistent with the wreckage of the Titan” were found lying on the floor of the ocean, and the US Navy report that they heard a bang which they described as evidence of a “catastrophic implosion”
• Troy and Jen got married at the Glasshouse Mountains. Don’t worry if you don’t know who Troy and Jen are – it’s more for my benefit than yours

We got home from the wedding about 10.00pm last night and were feeling pretty wrecked, but fortunately we had pre-packed the van and everything to go in the car was in boxes at the front door. Up at 6.15am, packed the last few things, made coffee, and we were on the road by 7.45am.

What a cracker of a day. Barely a cloud in the sky, and a nice brisk 12 degrees or so to start the trip. Heading for Kempsey today, about half-way to Sydney, then back into central and southern NSW almost to the Victorian border, then back up the middle of NSW towards home in a couple of weeks.

I realised that there is a section the Highway that we have never travelled on – about 400m of bitumen in total. It turns out that this 400m of bitumen goes past the Sleepy Hollow rest area, which is exactly the spot that we consistently get to and need a … short break. So we always pull off the road and into the rest area. One day we will take a break somewhere else and travel that bit of bitumen …

We stopped for a second short break at Ulmarra for lunch around 11.30am. The Ulmarra Food Co is one of those hidden gems we found a couple of years ago and is a ”must stop” location for any future trips into NSW. We caught up with some friends in Ulmarra who are also heading to Sydney, and who left home not long before us.

MBW had a cottage pie and I had a Butter Chicken pie. Yum!! Plus coffee (of course), and then an apple danish with ice-cream for dessert. We also made a small investment in the company by buying a couple of frozen pies (Lamb & Rosemary, and Beef & Vegetables) for dinner one night soon.. Can’t wait for that!!

Really not much to report after that. We chugged along at around 100km/h in the 110km/h zone. We encountered the usual assortment of M&Ms (Maniacs and Morons) on the trip, and had a couple of NSW Highway Patrol BMWs go blasting past, but that was about all the excitement.

Had a bit of a sing-along to whatever country playlist MBW had playing at any given time … which could be embarrassing if we ever need to hand over dashcam foootage to the Police for any reason and they have to listen to us 🙁

Arrived into Kempsey at around 2.30pm and pulled into the Kempsey Showgrounds ($25/night for power and water) to set up. Last time we were in Kempsey we stopped into the Slim Dusty museum for a look, but we won’t be doing that again this trip.

Did a bit of sightseeing (if you can call Bunnings, Woolies, and fuel ”sightseeing”), then back to the van for a caffeinated beverage. You have to collect your grey water here at the Kempsey Showgrounds … I don’t really understand that when you can see how dry everything is here, but what do I know?

A beautiful sunset tonight, and still not a cloud in the sky.

We brought the electric blanket and portable heater on this trip. While I got down to tee-shirt and jeans during the day, Kempsey tomorrow morning has a forecast ”feels like” temperature of -1 degrees. Brrr.

Anyhow, it is a slow news day. I need to make dinner for MBW then I have an online course to dial into at 7.30pm .. so that will give me a couple of hours to have a hot shower and make myself beautiful.

This is what today looked like … 457km and 6h 15m of drive time.

Off to Sydney tomorrow. We won’t make the same mistake we made last time we bypassed Sydney … their toll road treats caravans like a semi-trailer and you pay around $80 in tolls for that 20km or so around the city. We will tell Dolly that we don’t want to pay tolls and see how that works out.

I’ve run out of things to say. And I’m hungry. See you tomorrow.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023