Despite reports of major flooding in northern NSW and the Pacific Highway (the main road to Queensland) closed in various places, we decided to drive up there anyway. It was to be a 2,000 kms round trip, in unknown conditions, but when the sun is shining on you in Sydney, it’s hard to imagine that you won’t get through to Brisbane. So on Monday morning, February 20th, we set off up the New England Highway, an inland route that is through rolling plains rather than coastal seaside towns. With the sun shining we drove up through the Hunter Valley, not stopping at any wineries along the way. We drove through Aberdeen and stopped for lunch in Scone. As we neared Murrurundi huge black storm clouds were building in front of us and by the time we reached Wallabadah we were inside those clouds. Rodney kept to a steady speed, just under 100 kmph and I stopped nattering quite as much. Then all of a sudden, a massive truck came right up behind us, loudly blasting his horn. I squealed in shock, which probably scared Rodney more than the sight of the truck driver’s eyes in the rear vision mirror!!! We couldn’t go any faster, being already on the speed limit and the windscreen wipers were really struggling to remove the heavy rain. Fortunately, before too long, the road started to head up a hill and the evil truck slowed down and dropped back. It felt like we were in the old movie “Duel”. We both kept looking back in fear, but thankfully, we never encountered him again. We then passed the ‘Big Golden Guitar’ in the country music town of Tamworth, we shot through Uralla and finally pulled up in Armidale at the White Lanterns Motel. After a good night’s sleep and a very good shower, we continued north on the New England Highway. We thought it needed renaming to the New Scotland Highway as we passed Ben Lomond, Glencoe, Glen Innes and Dundee and it revived good memories of sitting in our campervan on the banks of Loch Lomond; surprisingly in much the same weather…..! After passing Bolivia (!!??!!!), we reached Tenterfield, home of ‘The Big Orange’. We left New South Wales around midday and crossed the border into Queensland, the ‘Sunshine State’; not much sun was shining on us, it was still drizzling. As we approached Ipswich the surrounding fields had become lakes, with trees standing in huge swathes of floodwater. And just to keep them topped up, the heavens opened on us again, the road markings disappeared and passing trucks continually swamped us in their spray. We seem to be living in a permanently moist environment; after the wettest year on record in the UK, we really had hoped for a drier time in Australia. If any of you are living somewhere it’s not raining, please let us know and we’ll pop over!
With perfect timing, we arrived at Jo’s house just as she arrived home from work. She had previously warned us, but it was still strange to walk into an empty house; no furniture, but lovely shiny new floorboards throughout. So while we chatted, we brought all of Jo’s furniture in from the covered patio and from the spare bedrooms. Meanwhile Max (Mr Miniature Poodle) was of no help at all, apart from highly amusing us. He seemed to be assessing how fast he could run across the shiny floorboards before needing to apply brakes to avoid crashing into the walls. It took him many attempts to work it out and probably lots of bruises, though the thick curly coat, may have prevented the bruising. He was hilarious and kept us entertained for ages! On Wednesday, unlike us retirees, Jo had to go to work, so Rodney and I spent a while putting more things back in the kitchen, then we drove into Paddington for a stroll and found the Kookaburra Café where we had a tasty lunch. We then parked the car at Southbank and wandered west beside the Brisbane River.
We watched the people lazing besides Streets Beach. We meandered through the Rainforest Walk, passed the Queensland Art Gallery, the State Library and spent some time in G.O.M.A. (The Gallery Of Modern Art). It was a lovely afternoon and we felt like we were back in tourist mode. Later, back at Jo’s, we both fell asleep on her outdoor sofa; it must have been jetlag from changing clocks by one hour when we crossed the Queensland / NSW border!!!??! After a Thai meal, more chatting and another good night’s sleep, we said our farewells to Jo and Max and headed back south. Thank you, Jo, for having us to stay, it was so good to see you again after so long and thank you Max for amusing and entertaining us with impressive ball skills.
The drive down to Bangalow took us just over 2 hours and on a sunny blue-sky day it was far easier than the drive into Brisbane on Tuesday. Give us a dry road any day! We found our friends Nial and Athena in their new home up in the treetops and after lunch in Byron Bay we walked slowly along the beach. We stopped for coffee on the way back and then stopped again at the pub before returning to the house for a barbecue; the four of us know perfectly well how to live the good life. It was a good day with friends.
The next day, in yet more pouring rain, Rodney and I drove to the Tweed Art Gallery near Murwillumbah and enjoyed studying an exhibition of ‘Rolling Stones’ magazine covers and in total contrast an exhibition of works by Margaret Olley. We drove through the rolling hills of the area to Nimbin which is still a very hippie village that seems stuck in a time-warp. And all the time we chanted “Rain, rain go away and DON’T come back another day”. Spike Milligan wrote “There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in, but they’re ever so small that’s why rain is thin”. He obviously never visited the Northern Rivers area; it comes down in huge blobs here!!! For dinner that night Nial cooked up one of his famous curries and then we spent the rest of the evening enjoying some live music in the local pub in Bangalow. You guys know how to look after your guests and we’re very grateful to both of you, thank you.
After farewells to the McIvers and a plan to catch up again in Sydney later in the week, we drove across country to Rosebank. Lots of roads lead there, but we kept coming up against very flooded causeways. We finally gave up and phoned Tim and Lynne to tell them that we were at the Rosebank Café but couldn’t get through to their house without a boat, or at least a 4-wheel drive vehicle. It turned out there was yet another road in, so Tim drove down to meet us and lead us through the potholes and rain to their fabulously whacky old homestead with lovely views over the fast-flowing Coopers Creek. We had a tasty lunch at a local café and then, with the rain still coming down and the water levels rising over the causeways we felt the need to leave the area before we couldn’t get back down to Bangalow. We’re really glad we got to see you both, Tim and Lynne, and next time we visit, we’ll make sure it’s a sunny day and we’ll enjoy a stroll around your country estate.
On Sunday the monthly market in Byron Bay was cancelled due to the excessive rain, so after a short stroll around the shops we drove north up to Kingscliff. We enjoyed a very long lunch with Alan, an old work mate of Rodney’s and his wife Jan. The sky was still full of grey bits, wet bits, some white bits and a few illusive blue bits and with the sea a foaming mass we thought we would try and drive back down the coast road to take in the views on the way back to Byron Bay. Unfortunately there were more floods and a closed road at Pottsville, so we had to return via the Pacific Highway which unfortunately doesn’t have any views of the Pacific….
With no change in the weather being forecast, we decided there was no point in hanging around in beach resorts. So on Monday morning we set off south. Perhaps, unknowingly, we are a couple of rain magnets; any farmers needing our help, do please call us! We had a lovely lunch at the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club and watched the waves crashing over The Solitary Islands out at sea. To burn off the calories we walked along the breakwater, dodging the waves that crashed over it at intervals. We rambled to the top of Muttonbird Island to gaze back over the yacht harbour, the beaches, the town and the range of hills behind. The stormy weather made it look rather gloomy, but it’s still a remarkable view from up there.
Back on the Pacific Highway we continued to wear out the rubber on our windscreen wipers and pulled up for the night at the Riverview Motel in Taree. The fabulously cheap and oh so traditional Aussie motel also threw in free wi-fi and a pretty good free breakfast…. brilliant! So the next morning, after checking emails and with full bellies we continued down the Pacific Highway past yet more flooded scenery; at least the sun was shining at last. We took the turn-off to Tea Gardens (what a great name for a town) and Hawks Nest where we grabbed the beach towels and plonked ourselves down on the stunning sweep of sand at Ocean Beach. We didn’t go in the sea, apart from a quick paddle, as it was still very rough. In fact the waves were creating a creamy foam that lay along the sand and blew about in the breeze; it was fascinating to watch. After a couple of hours sleeping, reading and totally relaxing we pulled ourselves off the sand and back in to the car for the last leg of driving back to Sydney.
All in all, the trip north had been a big drive and we had passed a few ‘Big’ things en route: ‘The Big Golden Guitar’ at Tamworth, ‘The Big Oyster’ at Taree,’ ‘The Big Banana’ at Coffs Harbour, ‘The Big Prawn’ at Ballina, ‘The Big Lawn Bowl’ at Lake Cathie, ‘The Big Orange’ at Tenterfield, all of which are quite humorous. But the last ‘Big’ thing we encountered was the very bad ‘Big Rock’. It was supposed to look like Ayers Rock (Uluru) but it was nothing like the size, nowhere near to the real Ayers Rock, though appropriately it was near nowhere in particular. Sorry, it just wasn’t worth a photo…..