Up the Coast

Heading down (up) the pacific highway

December 4 - Arrive in Sydney.  Pick up the car.  Attempt to get away from Sydney airport out onto the M1 and the Pacific Highway.  Don't you know all roads lead back to and around the airport?????  After several valiant tries, we make it.  Of course, signs indicating which road you are on would help.  That will be a constant theme all the way to Brisbane.  By the time we are on the right road, we're taking bets on our success rate - and we are in a comfortable rhythm of driving and navigating.  I'm driving and she's navigating, lol.  My goodness, Sydney is hugely spread out.  Even taking the tunnel under the harbour, and the express ways, it still takes us 2 hours to get 'heading down the pacific highway' as the song goes (though actually I think that's Atlanta highway).  

It is far more hilly than I ever expected.  As much as possible we head off the main M1 highway - which is like the 401 but much better - and take the Pacific Coast road, which is also good, just two lanes.  Then we will come out of the hills onto huge flat alluvial plains where there are farms and ranches.  Around 4 pm we come into Newcastle.  Through sheer luck we find the beach and surf club.  I love missed turns.  Lots of kite surfers by the headland (photo on left).  This is Nobby Beach, and the Nobby Beach Surf Life Saving Surf Club (photo on right)

After a little break here, we switch driving and head off.  We haven't yet decided how far we will drive today yet.  So we keep heading up the road until it looks like it will be dark soon.  Data access is great throughout most of this part of Oz, and a search on TripAdvisor reveals great reviews on a little highway motel in Taree.  A quick phone call gets us a room, and they even call down to the local surf club to see if they will open by the time we get in.  The surf clubs are wonderful places to eat - very reasonable and very good food.  So we sourced them out most of the way up the coast.  We arrived around 8:15pm, checked in, ordered our breakfast, and headed out to the club for dinner.  Seafood plate and veggie pasta, oh so good.  Back to the motel, and fell into bed.  

December 5 - Surprise surprise breakfast was delivered hot and fresh to our room the next morning through a little drop window.  Complete with fresh cappuccino.  We have a side stop to make though.  Lyn's cold has developed into something more and she sounds awful.  She's feeling quite awful.  So to the medical clinic we go.  Diagnosis is bronchial infection, so antibiotics and cough medication are prescribed.  We head out of Taree about 10:30.  Our next stop is Coffs Harbour which we make about 2:00pm just in time for lunch.  Again to the surf club for seafood.  (can you guess we're a little focussed on food? - but's it's so good and freshly caught)

Salt & Pepper Squid

Prawn Salad

Leaving Coffs Harbour the route takes us up towards Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads.  We detour into Maclean - a truly Scottish town.  Even the lampposts wear tartan, and the public facilities detail some of the history.  We got there just after 4:30 and even though business said they closed at 5pm, very little was open.  No afternoon tea stop here.

Onward through Woodburn and Ballina.  The road takes us to Lennox Head and this spectacular view from a lookout above the town.  In the far far distance is Bryon Bay point lighthouse.  Half an hour later we roll into Byron Bay and are greeted with their claim to fame - The Giant Prawn.  We laughed about that all the way through the town.  By the time we got through Byron Bay the sun was starting its descent.

We decide to head to Brunswick Head (past Byron Bay) for the last night on the road.  It's starting into evening, and we set the GPS to take us back out to the motorway.  Which it does - through a very unexpected shortcut - only one car wide, full drop off on the right side, steep inclines and large ruts.  The scenery, when we could look, was wonderful - the drive however was a bit nerve wracking.  Our car is a Hyundi Elantra - nice for the highway - not designed for this.  After about 30 minutes we pop out right at the motorway entrance.  We were quite happy from this point on to stick to the main highway.  Again, we had booked from the road - Brunswick Heads only has 3 hotels so there wasn't much decision making to be done.  We arrived around 8:30 to find that our hotel was under construction, and looked quite unfortunate from the outside.  The owner assured us it was just the outside - they were building a new cafe.  True to his word, the rooms had all been renovated and were modern, very clean and comfortable.  We dropped our bags in the room and went next door to the Brunswick pub for dinner.  

December 6 - On the road around 8:30 our destination this morning is Fingal Head for the beach there.  We get directions for the coast road and leave Brunswick Heads.  Takes us about 2 hours, but what a great little beach.  Totally uncrowded, with some families, and a couple of people surfing.  Including one fellow on a SUP.  Had a dip, then lay out in the sun for bit.  Have to be careful though - the sun is very strong here and it is 33 degrees.  Doesn't take long to fry pale skin.  Lots of SPF.

From Fingal Head we take the coast road up through Gold Coast to Surfer's Paradise.  It truly is blingy, gaudy, all hotel strips and shops.  But the beach is immense and no wonder it is surfer's paradise.

In the photo on the right, the tall building is the Q building.  On top of the building is a structure ending in a spire.  You can go to the top floor of this building, cable on, swing outside and climb the exterior right to the top of the spire - if you're into that sort of thing.  Like the Sydney Bridge climb.  Amazing Race challenge??


We stopped for lunch at, you guessed it, the surf club on the esplanade, then headed out to the motorway for the final leg into Brisbane.  Finally arrived at the house in Brisbane around 4pm after stopping for groceries.  Unloaded the car, put the groceries away and then went for a dip in the pool.  Now we can sit for a few days.  What a fun trip up the coast - we haven't done a road trip together in many years, so glad we decided to take the time to do this.  Now for Brisbane...