Sydney to Brisbane, North New South Wales

At least we never had another fire alarm while we were in “H” so we slept quite well. Claire woke up a few times but it’s so dark in there that you seem to sleep better somehow. We checked out and somehow got our satnav back into action in the first time in about 3 weeks and as usual it seemed to play up to start with giving conflicting advice so you don’t know which instructions to ignore. Sometimes it agrees with the signs and sometimes not so we tend to trust the signs more than the satnav. Anyway, it managed to eventually get us on the highway where we had to pay the toll fee and then it told us to keep right but the signs said to keep left so we followed the signs and ended up back in the traffic again. It was like a nightmare, I don’t know what’s happening in Sydney at the moment but it’s full up. We covered the first 20km in about the same time as we covered the next 200km so it was not a good start to the day. What didn’t help is that we have a crap car which we couldn’t get going to start with so I had to go back into the hotel to tell him. He said that I need to start the car with the clutch in, it’s a safety device. Great, I can’t say I’ve seen that one before, you really would have thought it would be something you should be told when you pick it up. The couple that was being served when I went back laughed as if everyone should know that but I haven’t seen it before. Just as I managed to get it going and fought with the seats to get any where near comfortable the laughing couple came out the lift to their hire car. Within seconds their car’s alarm was going mad but we left before it had stopped, or indeed I had stopped laughing.

The main road between Sydney to Brisbane is called the Pacific Highway. The first part of the journey north from Sydney, there is not many sensible places that you can turn off to see the coast as it’s quite far away and no closer roads so we stuck to the highway until we turned off in Newcastle. That also is quite a long drive to the coast along the river but very pretty and I got lots of photo’s. It’s long and sprawly and we didn’t fancy staying there so got back on the highway to go a little further. We grabbed a Happy Jacks which is part of the Burger King Chain and again stopped of at Bulahdelah where we had a drink while the cheeky magpie watched us the whole time. There are a few lakes between there and the coast, I think called Myall National Park but we weren’t sure if we could get through without having to come back the way we came as our maps were rubbish. It was also getting late in the day so we decided to head to Taree where the main road got back to the coast again. Having driven through, we decided on the Midland Motel because it was by the river and had free broadband. As we were checking in we spotted a swimming pool which is always nice but we never got chance to try it. There were a couple of nice bikes outside and I looked for Billy but couldn’t see him. It’s been a really hot day again today and the humidity seems to be getting up again, plus the aircon in the car is rubbish. I never realised that we would get a manual car otherwise I would have upgraded as we have it for 7 days. I can’t say that I’m very comfortable in it but that’s probably the longest drive we will have until we get to Brisbane.

All we did was walk along the river, found a pub and tried very hard to replace the sweat of the day. It was a hotel with a bottle shop next door so we had everything that we needed except for milk in the morning. It’s funny over here, you need a licence to sell alcohol, which is quite expensive and you need a different licence to sell alcohol to take away. That’s why there are so many BYO or Bring Your Own restaurants everywhere, which sounds good but beware, they have a corking charge which varies wildly. When we got back we tried to set up the modem and cables which they handed us over with the keys without success and as the phone didn’t have a cable to the socket I had to walk over to reception. Four or five visits later, the guy from reception phoned the owner that used to live in Newport Pagnall came out and plugged a long cable from the next room, across the balconies into our system and it worked. I must remember to unplug it before shutting the door tonight.

We were woken at about 6.30am by the roar of the 2 bikes staying at our Motel; wow they sound even better than they look, but Claire didn’t think so. Its another glorious sunny day here but we are expecting more rain which is chasing us up the coast from the south but we will do our best to keep ahead of it. Claire managed to get a better map so we should be able to explore a little easier now we know where we are.

Anyway it’s now the 12th of February in England so Happy Birthday Georgina! You can start driving as of today because you are 17 and should get your independence once you have passed your test. I remember when I passed my driving test, I was over the moon, it was better than any other exam or test I have ever taken; I couldn’t stop jumping up and down while I ripped off the “L” plates from my car. I drove off on my own and got lost in the country side and it took me ages to find my way back.
Happy Birthday Georgina, have a great one!