It was cold this morning.
To be fair, we expected that it was going to be cold. The weatherman does get it right occasionally, and he was right today.
It would have been nice if it was a ”Look Mum, it’s snowing” kind of cold, but alas it wasn’t. It was more of a ”do you know how much the arthritis in my hands hurts in this cold weather?” kind of cold. The joys of getting older 🙁
Neither of us slept well last night. A combination of first night in the van, and a bed that is never really comfortable. I woke with aching hips, probably as a result of the cold, and not really being able to stretch out as much as I’d prefer.
I mentioned yesterday that we’d brought the electric blanket with us on this trip, plus a fan heater. MBW turned her side of the blanket off when she went to sleep, but I had my side set to “defrost” for most of the night.
I woke just before 6.00am and I was sore and cold, so I turned my up to ”toast”. I hopped up and turned the heater on too, and before you knew it the van was nice and cosy.
We did our ablutions and I had a realisation. There had been no photos of me yesterday so I can wear the same clothes again today and nobody will know!
We had coffee and a bite to eat, packed down the van, and we were ready to roll by 8.15am.
Now I have to say that the Kempsey drivers are very courteous. Lots of narrow streets in the Kempsey CBD, plus small roundabouts, and you need lots of room to turn corners. So I’m sitting in the right lane with my left blinker on giving myself plenty of swing space, and people just gave us the right of way. Very nice, and thank you Kempsey!
We were on the highway heading south by about 8.45am.
Sadly today was a bit of a repeat of yesterday (no news), with just a pinch more excitement. We have travelled this road previously (see last years blog) and it is just a highway that bypasses pretty much every sign of civilisation on the way.
We did stop very briefly at a little ”in-the-middle-of-nowhere” rest stop and I discovered that the red Anderson plug that powers Elsie’s ESC (Electronic Stability Control) had pulled out and dragged on the road for a hundred kilometres or so, and had suffered a catastrophic implosion.
So Elsie has no ESC for today’s trip. Will that be a problem? Maybe … it was windy. Very windy.
There are some sections of the road from Gosford to Sydney that have the most amazing rock cuttings. Those peeps in NSW may not be able to win the State of Origin, but they know how to cut through rock.
Some parts of the road between Gosford and Sydney are very open, and there was a vicious cross-wind. It felt like driving a dodgem car through a tornado. And no ESC!!
So we made a conscious decision to puddle along nice and slow – 80-90km/h which meant that every other vehicle on the road overtook us … including all of those Kenworths pushing a giant shockwave of air ahead of them, causing even more turbulence for poor old Elsie 🙁
Fuel economy was woeful today. A big number that you don’t even want to think about. You certainly don’t want to convert it to dollars/km, because that is just plain depressing.
But then if you wanted fuel economy, you’d have bought a pushbike. Or a Prius.
My other observation is that many of the highways are made of concrete, not bitumen. Hardwearing, long-lasting and solid. I’m sure that the roads will still be there after the apocalypse.
But they are noisy. Very noisy, and bumpy. You get this really weird harmonic happening where the car starts to vibrate and you think that you are about to shake yourself apart. You start to think that you have thrown a wheel bearing in the car, and the buzzing in your ears is deafening from the tyres.
Really unpleasant. I can only assume that someone in NSW Roads got a really good deal on concrete because they have used so much of it.
Once we got into Sydney, we just needed to find the Discovery Caravan Park at Lane Cove. That meant navigating the streets.
The streets in Sydney have very narrow lanes, and everyone travels so fast. Typically three (3) lanes wide, and barely wide enough for a horse and cart. Blinkers and stopping at red lights are an option. The signed speed limit is a joke.
I wouldn’t describe Sydney drivers as M&Ms. These ones were L&Ps. Lunatics and Psychopaths. That was one scary drive in from Kempsey into Sydney to Lane Cove.
We got in, set up the van and had a light lunch (at 2.30pm). Then we headed off towards the Northern beaches where we were to meet up with some friends for dinner.
Some spectacular views over the harbour and another pretty sunset. And a cruise ship heading out.
Dinner, gelato, then back home to the van for blogging and bed.
Tomorrow we are off for a drive to Bondi Beach and whatever other sights take our fancy, then dinner with friends (same ones as tonight, as it happens) and a show at the Opera House. But I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.
Ciao
#RoadTripNSW2023