Our journey took us on the Pacific Highway, past Newcastle. We left the Pacific Highway and drove inland across the Great Dividing Range in New England. New England (Stroud, Gloucester, etc) also incorporates Wales and Scotland in the form of Llangothlin, Glencoe, Glen Inness and Dundee! It terminates in Bolivia....
The countryside is beautiful, all hills, valleys, gorgeous meadows and more cows than you could shake a stick at (whatever that means.)
The speed limits caused us a few problems during the day but nothing we couldn't handle - Jim drove, then me, then Jim again and, at about 6pm, a policeman in a souped up, black, unmarked car, parked in the opposite direction to us, pointed a radar gun, switched on his lights, executed a 'u-ie' and followed us down the road..... Whoops! Jim pulled up, got out of the car and approached the policeman standing behind ours. A short abrupt conversation ensued, 117 km/ph in a 100 km/ph zone was mentioned. We waited, anxiously, in the car. (Fines for speeding in Oz are very steep.) The policeman got back into his car and began to fill in a form in a thick, black, official looking book. Seeing this, Jim went back to the police car and opened the passenger door. The copper shouted, 'Get out of my car - now!' Things were becoming tense....
Five minutes later we were gathered together having our photo taken with the nice policeman as they swapped 'policey' stories, we shook hands and parted the best of friends, with a warning to, 'slow down, take your time a little more mate.' (I can't show you the photo as I promised it wouldn't go on Facebook!)
An overnight stop at Tenterfield Bowling Club and we were off bright and early the next morning, over the state border into Queensland, clocks back an hour, and dropping Alex off with his mates. We carried on into Brisbane.
We explored the Southbank, a gorgeous area by the river. Standing next to a tree Liam heard a thud. Looking down, he spotted what he thought was a child's toy. Then it began to move and eventually uncurled itself gingerly and made the long climb back up the tree. Obviously, when possums turn over in their sleep they sometimes fall out.
From Brisbane we followed the Gold Coast, an absolutely picture perfect coastline of wide golden beaches, turquoise seas and amazing surf, passing places such as: Main Beach, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Miami, eventually stopping at Burleigh Heads to walk round the headland and spot the dolphins which lazily made their way across the bay. We were going to stay at Byron Bay, a pretty, bohemian type of place, but as it is a backpackers heaven and the school holidays to boot, it was heaving so we moved on to Ballina.
The next day saw us make our way to Coffs Harbour, home of the big banana, an Aussie icon - less said the better, and an amazing place called Muttonbird Island which is reached by a causeway, it is the breeding ground of shearwater gulls and is covered with burrows where the birds lay their eggs.
It juts right out to sea, is very steep and very, very windy!
An afternoon on the beach left us covered in a layer of sand, which was ok to begin with but really irritating in the car 3 hours later. There was a sandcastle competition taking place, loads of animals being constructed, the love settee by 3 guys, and my favourite, the cartoon couple.
We stayed in Kempsey that night then headed to Port Macquarie and eventually to Shoal Bay which is at a gorgeous town called Nelson Bay, a detour of about 45 km off the Pacific Highway. We climbed over the rocks at the end of the bay to wait for the dolphins to come into feed at about 6pm.
You may have to enlarge the photo to see them. Wild dolphins are really hard to photograph!!
We reached Sydney at 9pm, the finish of a great road trip alongside a lovely coastline.
We took the ferry yesterday and explored Kings Cross and Potts Point before finishing the day at Harry's famous Cafe de Wheels pie shop in Wooloomooloo! A tiger pie (steak pie, with mashed potato and mushy peas on top and a pool of gravy) hit the spot! In the evening as we wandered back through the botanical gardens next to the Opera House we watched two weddings and a performance of Toad of Toad Hall. It's just fantastic when the weather is so gorgeous!
Sydney summer festival begins today so tonight we are going to see a band called Electric Empire and a theatre/acrobatic performance called As the World Tipped, both outside. I'll let you know how they go.
-Posted by Annie & Jim using BlogPress from THE iPad
Location:Lindsay St,Neutral Bay,Australia
