The Pacific Highway.
Aah, “the Pacific Highway”. What kind of image
does that name evoke? I could see it in my mind – a delightfully quiet
road, with the sides lined by swaying coconut palms and little shacks
beside the road serving ice cold cokes in a bottle. Of course,
its nothing like that – but then we already knew that, having travelled
it before in a McCaffreys bus. But last time we travelled most of it
overnight, so it was just a series of black stretches punctuated by
small towns or service stations (I remember well “The Big Prawn” roadside
restaurant, distinguished by the big prawn stuck on the roof). So what
is the Pacific Highway really like? Well, from Sydney for the first
150 miles it’s a motorway, and just like motorways at home - its boring
and repetitive. But then the motorway kind of runs out, and it turns
into a normal road, occasionally swapping into a dual carriageway. Because
it’s a holiday weekend here (Monday 6th is Labour Day, our second Labour
Day of the year), the roads are devoid of lorries, and are busy with
cars and utes (an Ozzie invention, a Ute, or Utility Vehicle, is a two
part car – the front half is a saloon, and then the back half just isn’t
there at all, and instead it has a platform, sometimes with sides like
a pickup). Amazingly, since last time we visited Oz, they’ve invented
the ‘posh ute’, by making the bodies really sporty, but the back half
still looks like a dumper truck. Anyway...
Today,
with the miserable weather, the Pacific Highway looked really
special, with occasional bursts of driving rain. Just so that you too
can feel in the Oz-mood, we took a photo (how sad is that?). The other
feature on the photo, apart from the rain running down the windscreen,
is the grill at the bottom of the windscreen. We don’t think they’re
Roo Bars, because they’re not made of steel the size of scaffolding
poles, which is what all the 4x4’s have on the front. So we think these
are to stop stones hitting the windscreen, in which case they don’t
appear to work because there are 4 huge chips already on it. Whatever
they are, it means I’m going to be staring through bars for the next
two months (quite right, some would say!), and Sarah’s got an excuse
to leave the driving to me - she says she can’t see over them from her
seat!
But it isn’t all rain and roads. For lunch we stopped beside Boomerang Beach, when the sun shone brilliantly and we felt warm and happy.
We
drove a further 200 miles north today, passing into ‘Lake Country’ –
on the right we kept seeing the sea, and on the left we saw a series
of big and small lakes. This was another area we’d missed last time,
because it was night, so it was good to drive. All the time we spotted
wildlife for the first time, like kookaburras, parrots and pelicans.
Today,
with the miserable weather, the Pacific Highway looked really
special, with occasional bursts of driving rain. Just so that you too
can feel in the Oz-mood, we took a photo (how sad is that?). The other
feature on the photo, apart from the rain running down the windscreen,
is the grill at the bottom of the windscreen. We don’t think they’re
Roo Bars, because they’re not made of steel the size of scaffolding
poles, which is what all the 4x4’s have on the front. So we think these
are to stop stones hitting the windscreen, in which case they don’t
appear to work because there are 4 huge chips already on it. Whatever
they are, it means I’m going to be staring through bars for the next
two months (quite right, some would say!), and Sarah’s got an excuse
to leave the driving to me - she says she can’t see over them from her
seat!But it isn’t all rain and roads. For lunch we stopped beside Boomerang Beach, when the sun shone brilliantly and we felt warm and happy.
We
drove a further 200 miles north today, passing into ‘Lake Country’ –
on the right we kept seeing the sea, and on the left we saw a series
of big and small lakes. This was another area we’d missed last time,
because it was night, so it was good to drive. All the time we spotted
wildlife for the first time, like kookaburras, parrots and pelicans.