Its been a tough couple of days driving. We sadly left Byron Bay as the overcast weather moved in. We drove long and hard and got to Port Macquarie. It was cold and wet and we moved on the next day and got into the groove of traffic and drove to The Entrance near Gosford where we spent the night at an interesting little caravan park that was on what seemed like a lake with the ocean beach just over the other side of the road. It was sort of like camping at Luna Park or under West Gate Bridge. But the light show at night was spectacular. Today we again drove hard (and stressful) through Sydney along the Pacific Highway to Batemans Bay. Today was a big lesson in trust as we put all our faith into our GPS, it has led us to some weird places and today wasn’t any different. We were on a freeway and the next minute we weren’t. But we trusted and we got here. We did see all the sights Sydney had to offer in the hour that we crossed town on minor roads but we never lost faith that the GPS would get us through. (actually we didn’t have any other choice as we didn’t have a clue where to go).
We are going to stay a couple of days here at Batemans Bay (to do some washing). The biggest thing I have noticed since my last trip this way 25 years ago was the growth and progress of the small towns that I remember. 25 yrs ago they were small hamlets miles from anywhere with magnificent but hard to access beaches. Now they are more like outer suburbs of capital cities. In quite a few towns today there were traffic jams. Getting around Batemans Bay tonight looking for somewhere to eat, we struck two sets of red lights within 100mts of each other. (Red light Fred started to work again as we got both red lights). There were so many places to eat here and from memory the foreshore which was a grassy sandy space is now full of apartments and the former water front homes just look across the highway to the back view of apartments. Sad in some ways but you can’t stop progress. We both miss the small towns untouched much by modern times we passed through in our early part of the trip.
We have to start getting ourselves ready for the open spaces of home and I’m really looking forward to a bathroom that I don’t have to get dressed and walk outside, down a path, saying good morning to 5 or so other people making the same trip to get to a WC. Its been a great holiday, too short in some ways. We didn’t see as much as we wanted due to our time schedule but there are many places we’d like to get back to again one day. We learnt a lot about our caravan and what it can and can’t do. And our car has been a real gem apart from the fact we couldn’t always get gas and had to use a jerry can more than once. I’m brimming with fresh ideas, and I want to get my gardens organised, cook some healthy food with lots of space and equipment around me and be able to do laundry without searching for $1.00 coins. But I will miss the thrill of discovering new places and I’ll miss the immediate friendship shown to us by many and we’ll both miss the caravan comradeship on the road waving to every passing caravan as though they were long lost friends.
We are going to stay a couple of days here at Batemans Bay (to do some washing). The biggest thing I have noticed since my last trip this way 25 years ago was the growth and progress of the small towns that I remember. 25 yrs ago they were small hamlets miles from anywhere with magnificent but hard to access beaches. Now they are more like outer suburbs of capital cities. In quite a few towns today there were traffic jams. Getting around Batemans Bay tonight looking for somewhere to eat, we struck two sets of red lights within 100mts of each other. (Red light Fred started to work again as we got both red lights). There were so many places to eat here and from memory the foreshore which was a grassy sandy space is now full of apartments and the former water front homes just look across the highway to the back view of apartments. Sad in some ways but you can’t stop progress. We both miss the small towns untouched much by modern times we passed through in our early part of the trip.
We have to start getting ourselves ready for the open spaces of home and I’m really looking forward to a bathroom that I don’t have to get dressed and walk outside, down a path, saying good morning to 5 or so other people making the same trip to get to a WC. Its been a great holiday, too short in some ways. We didn’t see as much as we wanted due to our time schedule but there are many places we’d like to get back to again one day. We learnt a lot about our caravan and what it can and can’t do. And our car has been a real gem apart from the fact we couldn’t always get gas and had to use a jerry can more than once. I’m brimming with fresh ideas, and I want to get my gardens organised, cook some healthy food with lots of space and equipment around me and be able to do laundry without searching for $1.00 coins. But I will miss the thrill of discovering new places and I’ll miss the immediate friendship shown to us by many and we’ll both miss the caravan comradeship on the road waving to every passing caravan as though they were long lost friends.
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