The One Day Tour - Day 6

From this, Sue detected darts
in her underpants. Odd girl.

A less than optimum night. Sue’s sleep was disturbed by an aching knee, making it hard for her to get comfortable. Peter was disturbed by Sue.

The first few hours took her knee out to the beach for exercise and Peter organised for friends and family of Sue to have automated access to “Travels”. Sue managed to find time to gloat over the advantage she has over colleagues and proved this by posting a photo of Rainbow Beach on Facebook, along with something cryptic about her undies.

Breakfast was taken mid-morning.

From that point, the day definitely got better.

We drove north along Ocean Drive to Port Macquarie, parking above both Main Beach and the breakwall and unleashed the Dahon collapsible pushbikes for an afternoon of peddle power. Port has a lovely walking/riding track which extends from the mariner in town, along the breakwall and past most of the main beaches and it was our intention to explore it fully.

Starting above Main Beach, we road down to the breakwall and had a lively conversation with an ex-farmer who had owned several properties around Moree. He had left Moree in 1988 but continued with the last of the properties until eight years ago. In a clever wheelchair with a motorised front bike fork somehow attached, he was out for his morning “walk” when we met him near the end of the southern breakwall. It’s the nature of the road that conversations come freely and often with complete strangers - although what an incomplete stranger looks like, I couldn't imagine, let alone describe. To refuse such convrsations is not only to be rude but to exclude yourself from one of the key elements of the nomadic road life. We parted after twenty minutes, both parties a little better informed and our day enhanced.

These Dahons collapsible pushbikes are a clever piece of work. Weighing a mere 16kgs, they fold into a space which, side by side, occupies less than half the area of the space behind the back seats in the Forester. Designed and built in Germany, they are a precise, well-engineered machine but more importantly, they are also a comfortable and effective ride. Little is sacrificed in ride or effectiveness and the gearing is as good as any bike I have ridden.

Eddie and me

We rode the bike track to town and stopped for lunch near a statue of Edmund Barton - we all know who he is right? While Sue made my tuna sandwich, Edmund and I partook of a selfie as he told me a ribald joke, bold as brass and stony-faced. Even in his present state, more than a hundred years after his role in Australian history, he'd do a better job than the incumbent, Speedo Sam. Before returning for lunch, I rode my bike into the toilets. No need to lock it up outside because it fits into the cubicle with me!

Everywhere we went, koalas stood beside the track, suffering from bovine decoration syndrome, and decorated in bizarre colours and patterns by local artists. Sue cooed over most of them, photographing many. Her loving thoughts turned back to Westdale and a fibreglass cow called Brie. She recovered in seconds.

After lunch we went looking for a café but there was little satisfaction. No lactose free milk so, as usual, black tea. If only we could take Café 2340 with us around Australia.

It was back to the coastal track after lunch. Things went well until we approached Flynn’s Beach, where the track was at its oldest and more roughly hewn from the rocks and narrow in gauge. We made it as far as the southern end of Flynn’s before Sue announced she needed to call it a day. The knee, you see. Besides, to continue meant traversing stairs and that meant me carrying the bikes.

Turning back, Sue was walking her bike back up the short incline along the track up from Flynn’s. I was riding, in the lowest gear, intent on showing her how easy it was, if only she would give it a go. I was off the seat and applying maximum effort but the torque was so great that as I applied grunt to the back wheel, the front wheel leapt from the surface in front of me, throwing me off balance and bucking me - Mulga Bill style - sideways off the bike, the path and into the bush to the right of the track … and then down the steep, heavily vegetated slope until I eventually stopped in a dishevelled and embarrassed heap.

"There's a bear in there ..."

I give due credit to Sue: she didn’t laugh. She didn’t even take a photo (remarkable for those who remember the Bingara magpie incident). I crawled back up to the track, scratched and bleeding from the knee and ego badly shattered.

The remainder of the ride was more circumspect.

Returning to the car, it took less than five minutes to have the Dahons stored back in the car and us underway.

We shopped at Lake Cathie on the way back to Bonny Hills, before soaking for 45 minutes in the lesser of the two saltwater pools at the caravan park. Dinner was steak cooked in the bbq area and enjoyed with a few beers.

It’s a dreadfully tough life out on the road.

Missing The Road

Beach at Bonny Hills

Last October, we purchased an Avan ... a Cruiser to be precise. It seemed the suitable tow vehicle for us to make the transition to a more comfortable existence on the road.

We started out as car campers in our long-haired student, no responsibility days and then onto box trailer camping when the kids were out of nappies and we needed to pass on our love of the bush. When they left, we stayed with the box trailer, towing it around WA and sleeping in the car sometimes ... even though it was a foot short of a good stretch out. I'll always remember slipping off to sleep while watching the stars through an open sunroof on the Nullabor Plain.

The wife's back forced a concession so we moved into a camper trailer and it saw some happy tours, including north Queensland but eventually, the need for a proper mattress (Sue) and being sick of the work needed to set up and break down (Peter), moved us into the Avan, with a new Forester as our tow vehicle.

Sounds good but the stumbling block has been getting it out of the yard. Illness and other circumstance has stymied us over and over.

The school holidays not long finished in NSW prove the perfect example. Sue had organised long service leave so we could be away for four weeks, touring through Canberra, Victoria and into South Australia before coming back the outback route through Broken Hill. We never left. Frustrated by illness from myself and family members, we amended our plans at one stage and headed for a shortened eleven days up the NSW north coast. We got as far as the first night at Apsley Gorge and had to turn back.

Finally, late last week and with her leave almost exhausted, we left the Avan at home and took a cabin at Bonny Hills, just north of Laurieton on the NSW lower north coast. Sue hasn't towed the van yet and coming up through the hills on the Oxley Highway in the event of me being indisposed,  didn't seem the right place to start.

Lunch at Wauchope

On the first day, we stopped at Wauchope for what turned out to be a delicious lunch at Modishe Cafe. A creation of vegetables, just right for a couple who have gone gluten free, hit the spot and the service was provided by the happiest person I have ever met. I left wanting to hug everyone just by way of paying it forward.

We got to Bonny Hills pretty quickly after that and our small amount of unpacking was dismissed and out of the way. We had sand between our toes soon after. The beach at Bonny Hills is a long one, with a gentle run into the sea. As a result, long walks are all the go and we did several over the three days. Plenty of colourful rocks to pick up and admire and the best trained dog owners in Australia. Didn't see one dog poo but lots of happy people carrying plastic bags in one hand and rover's lead in the other.

On Saturday we went to Ricardo's Tomatoes, just outside of Port Macquarie off the Pacific Highway as you head north. Once you cross the Hastings River, you are almost there. Sheds of strawberries, mostly growing in companion with lettuces and all poking out of poly pipe arranged in deep V's. You simply take a bucket and pick your own, paying by weight when you check in. A big shed of tomatoes is beside the cafe and shop. The tomato plants grow straight out of the bag of potting mix and are held up to the light by strings suspended from the roof.

With lunch approaching, we drove into the heart of Port Macquarie but didn't stay long. The place

Lighthouse Point

was full of beautiful people in town for the ironman race the next day. We headed out to the ocean drive along the beaches to the south and stopped at Lighthouse Beach for lunch at the surf life saving club. After lunch we walked up onto the northern headland and took in the views around the lighthouse ... which included divers around the rocky foot of the headland and a replica of a Chinese junk which was sailing by. Lovely views to the south were savored and recorded.

Going south, we stopped at Lake Cathie, down by the creek and the spot where our youngest, Sam almost drowned before being saved by his older brother Chris, who was maybe seven at the time. It was a feat he would repeat with his sister Sarah, when he held her face above water in a small pool at the back of the pub in Tambar Springs until an adult could help.

The afternoon was more beach walking and taking in the last hour of sunlight as it played on the breaking waves and the surfers riding them.

On the Sunday, it was more beach strolls and a walk to the south past a very tidy looking caravan park up on the southern headland. Here a promenade has been created with lookouts and seating which directs the walker to the view to the north. A perfect place to watch wales I would imagine.

We left about midday, briefly becoming part of the ironman event as we were escorted along a kilometre of road the cyclists were forced to share with us. We stopped at Wauchope for sandwiches made on the fridge in the back of the car and a coffee at a nearby cafe and again at Gingers Creek for a very cold cuppa. The tea was hot but the atmosphere was a bracing 6 degrees. Further on at Walcha, it was raining and even worse at 5 degC. We felt like we had driven out of late summer into the dead of winter.

It wasn't anywhere near being long enough and without the van, it wasn't our future, but we weren't completely defeated. At least Sue returns to work with something other than memories of home.