Murfomurf
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone, I have just returned from a 4 000 km round trip to my High School reunion, and it was somewhat exciting driving down a windy mountain road to the town where I grew up. Most Australians would have heard of Port Macquarie in New South Wales- it was an early destination for transported convicts and has a convict-built C of E Church finished in 1824. It is also a big tourist and retirement destination, now drenched with motels and holiday apartments, previously campsites and caravan parks when I was a kid.
The road from Adelaide, South Australia where I have lived for 50 years (much to the chagrin of my cousins, all in Sydney), is mostly a decent two-lane bitumen highway, with occasional freeways near Adelaide, Sydney and Newcastle. On the way over we stayed two nights in motel accommodation booked via mobile from the car when it started to get dark. Our first stop was in Tooleybuc (pronounced as written) at their modern Country Club Motel which had a good dining room at the attached Club (we had barrramundi fillets- yummo), comfortable large units and twelve resident cats!
The following night we stayed at Forbes where it was bitterly cold and we had to walk a bit to find a decent place to eat. However the motel was warm and quiet so we were OK for the next day's drive. Unfortunately we spent too much time in the town of Wellington warming up at the local hippy-style cafe and trying to find a loo! Apparently since a high-security jail has been built locally, the level of civilisation has dropped somewhat and everything gets vandalised as soon as the paint dries. A local supermarket (I tried three) allowed me to use their staff restrooms but strictly escorted by a check-out operator with a large ring of keys! I guess locals just go home.
By the time the sun was setting at about 16:30 we were on the Western side of the New England Tableland that divides the broad farming land from the coastal plain, so it was anticipated the drive would be hard but not perilous. We had been told that extensive roadworks had cleared the land-slips and rock-falls caused by months of drenching rain, but that was an optimistic forecast. I had the wheel as I knew the road from childhood (when it was unpaved, with big ditches and slippery enough to turn the car in circles when wet...!!!). We didn't have the best experience descending that gulch- the roadworks were only half-finished, it started getting foggy and drizzling plus there were a few logging trucks (B-doubles) coming off the mountain fully-laden. At last a truck pulled into a roadworks depot and allowed me to pass (hooray for him!) but it was still quite scary when parts of the road were still down to one lane and the automatic traffic-control lights were not turned on. In places there were boulders the size of trucks on the road to edge past and little waterfalls carrying slippery clay where I had to drive on the wrong side with my fingers crossed. The mountain climate is temperate rainforest and all I can say is that climate change has not improved things!
We reached Port Macquarie at about 20:30 and signed ourselves in to our motel in the town centre, which was still laid out roughly as I remember. We were right next to the docks and managed a delicious fish and chips dinner which warmed us up nicely. The next day I met up with friends I hadn't seen for 56 years and we all recognised each other! More story if I'm allowed- plus some photos, another day.
The road from Adelaide, South Australia where I have lived for 50 years (much to the chagrin of my cousins, all in Sydney), is mostly a decent two-lane bitumen highway, with occasional freeways near Adelaide, Sydney and Newcastle. On the way over we stayed two nights in motel accommodation booked via mobile from the car when it started to get dark. Our first stop was in Tooleybuc (pronounced as written) at their modern Country Club Motel which had a good dining room at the attached Club (we had barrramundi fillets- yummo), comfortable large units and twelve resident cats!
The following night we stayed at Forbes where it was bitterly cold and we had to walk a bit to find a decent place to eat. However the motel was warm and quiet so we were OK for the next day's drive. Unfortunately we spent too much time in the town of Wellington warming up at the local hippy-style cafe and trying to find a loo! Apparently since a high-security jail has been built locally, the level of civilisation has dropped somewhat and everything gets vandalised as soon as the paint dries. A local supermarket (I tried three) allowed me to use their staff restrooms but strictly escorted by a check-out operator with a large ring of keys! I guess locals just go home.
By the time the sun was setting at about 16:30 we were on the Western side of the New England Tableland that divides the broad farming land from the coastal plain, so it was anticipated the drive would be hard but not perilous. We had been told that extensive roadworks had cleared the land-slips and rock-falls caused by months of drenching rain, but that was an optimistic forecast. I had the wheel as I knew the road from childhood (when it was unpaved, with big ditches and slippery enough to turn the car in circles when wet...!!!). We didn't have the best experience descending that gulch- the roadworks were only half-finished, it started getting foggy and drizzling plus there were a few logging trucks (B-doubles) coming off the mountain fully-laden. At last a truck pulled into a roadworks depot and allowed me to pass (hooray for him!) but it was still quite scary when parts of the road were still down to one lane and the automatic traffic-control lights were not turned on. In places there were boulders the size of trucks on the road to edge past and little waterfalls carrying slippery clay where I had to drive on the wrong side with my fingers crossed. The mountain climate is temperate rainforest and all I can say is that climate change has not improved things!
We reached Port Macquarie at about 20:30 and signed ourselves in to our motel in the town centre, which was still laid out roughly as I remember. We were right next to the docks and managed a delicious fish and chips dinner which warmed us up nicely. The next day I met up with friends I hadn't seen for 56 years and we all recognised each other! More story if I'm allowed- plus some photos, another day.
Docks?. More like an millionaires marina 
