The Road to Brisbane

Our drive north began at 5am to avoid any traffic, and it paid off as we cleared the city without any hold ups.

We stopped at several Driver Reviver rest stops, one with lovely bacon and egg sandwiches cooked by the volunteer ladies, Judy and Judy,  of the local Lions.  The day was grey and the views generally uninspiring and despite the name, the highway runs quite a way inland from from the Pacific so we didn’t see the sea until we arrived in Coffs Harbour just after midday.

Having checked in to our night stop at the Ibis, we looked round town, had some lunch and walked out onto Muttonbird Island which gave great views back to Coffs.

The island is home to a rookery of Shearwater birds who nest here in the summer and gets its name as local settlers hunted and ate the birds and thought their dark flesh tasted like mutton.  At the moment the eggs are being incubated in burrows while the adult birds fish by day so we saw no sign of them, except for the burrow entrances and the pervading smell of bird.

After Thai curries in a cheerful restaurant round the corner we were ready for an early night, and were back on the road by 8am next day.

We had a bright sunny day for the last leg of our journey, with the road going through a mixture  of flat farmland and some hilly areas.

We had a brunch stop at Oliver’s cafe where we munched breakfast burritos and watched the lizards sunning themselves beside the river.

There was one section of very slow traffic through a little town but otherwise we made great time, entered Brisbane …

… and rocked up at Jan & John’s just after 1pm.