We were up and on the road by 8am the day started great, we had a nice drive along the Pacific Highway on our way to Upper Coomera.
My travelling companions were kind enough to agree to stop at the Slim Dusty Centre in Kempsey where I was able to remember some special times with my Dad, I'm not ashamed to admit that I was having a little cry whilst I was walking around and hearing Slims voice.
We left Kempsey and headed for Coffs Harbour to see the Big Banana and have some lunch. I have to say it is much smaller than I expected it to be.
After a bite to eat we were back on the road to Grafton and this is where the day took its first twist, as we drove the highway all the signs were flashing that the Pacific Highway was closed and that we had to make our way to the New England Highway. I am hearing you say that's not much of a twist...well we plug the new information into the GPS and off we go through Grafton and were going well till we found barricades over the road and a gentleman standing in the middle of the road not allowing traffic through.
All good the GPS has an alternate route ready to go we take the turn and head for the small detour, however of course Mother Nature has other ideas, oh look there is another option o on the GPS lets look at that...... no luck that is more like an ocean then a road with a small creek!!
Looks like we are going to have to go to Glen Innes and up the middle, so we back track the 25km into Grafton and up the Gwydir Highway to Glen Innes, nice country however what a twisty, windy bumpy road that was.
Fast Forward to 7:30pm and we arrive in Glen Innes for some dinner and with still 4 hours to go until Upper Coomera and with reports alot of the roads up there were closed we decided to give this a miss and just meet our new travelling companions Dave & Kylie in Toowoomba and head to Noosa from there.
Twist number (i have no idea) where are we going to stop for the night and where can we set up the tent??? Decision made to stay in Stanthorpe now to find a camp spot, well this is going to be difficult considering it is now 8pm at night and everything is closed!
Free roadside camp it is by the looks of things, no wait Mr Roo as managed to get hold of someone in Allora Showground and they are fine with us turning up at 10pm (QLD Time or 11pm Daylight Saving time). On the road again 2 and a half hours up the road to setup the tent in the dark (yet another twist)
We reach Allora Showground at 10pm (QLD Time) and pull in for the night, we stop and jump out on the grass and sink, looks like we aren't staying there lets move to the other side of the showground.
Now things turn to crap......
We pull onto the grass on the other side and this is like quicksand and we sink and get extremely bogged and after 30-45mins of sinking, moving, sinking, moving, positioning recovery tracks more sinking, moving, sinking, moving, positioning recovery tracks even more sinking, moving, sinking, moving, positioning recovery tracks we finally get free and decided that this is crap and we are finding somewhere else
1/2 hour later we arrive in the Toowoomba Region and find the Steele Rudd Park, which had a big gravel carpark so just after midnight we pulled over, unfolded the tent, set up the basic necessities and went to bed.
Catch you all tomorrow.
PORT MACQUARIE
360 PANORAMA (click link)
SLIM DUSTY CENTRE
BIG BANANA
INLAND OCEAN GRAFTON
LET THERE BE LIGHT (our light setup at some stupid hour)
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