Day 18: "you're over the speed limit"

Big drive today, 250km south to Coffs Harbour. Anyone who's been to Australia will know about their speed limits (slooooow) and how people stick to them. I assume they're adhered to because there are large fines involved, how else do they pay for all the speed reminder signs? (large and frequent photos of cops with cliched strap lines and the like). The main road south has limits of 40, 50, 80, 100 and 110km (That's 25 - 68 MPH) mainly 80 and 100 (50 & 62). It's single carriageway with overtake lanes every few Km - the only problem is that the lanes are so short, if the person in front is going anywhere near the limit you have to seriously exceed it to have any hope of overtaking before the lane runs out. As a consequence of all this, the most frequently heard phrase in the car over this holiday has been "You are over the speed limit!" which the Sat Nav barks out every time we go a couple of K over. Sometimes it will do it when it feels like we're traveling at little more than walking pace. When I get back I'm going to see if all this makes Oz a safer place to drive or whether it's just a way of controlling the masses.

--Caitriona edit. The drive today reminds me of a rainy English summers day on a drive to Cornwall, but the weather doesn't make a lot of difference as we have this ground to cover. The road signs are a reminder of how far Sydney is away, it's in the 600's now. --/Cait.

Along the way we pass one of the many "big things" that Australia has to offer. We've seen a few and Cait is insistent that we get a picture of one after passing and failing to get a picture of the "big prawn" in Balina. To appease her, we pull over to get a picture of the Big Banana. (--Cait. The kids think it's hilarious, inside the banana, there are pictures of the other big things, a boot, a pineapple, an avocado, a sheep. They shriek with laughter at each one, so I KNEW they'd like it! --/Cait.)



It rained for most the the day today. Apparently this is most unseasonal (on the beach yesterday we spoke to a family that had been to the same place for 32 years and swears by blue skies). It has certainly screwed lots of stunning photo opportunities - what would have been blue/green seas and golden sands end up being languid greys. Still, we shouldn't complain given the weather we're missing as it's still t-shirt and shorts weather.

We pitch-up at Coffs Harbour YHA, check in and take a stroll over the jetty to Muttonbird Island to look back at the mainland Nice, but grey:






Tom is deliberately looking annoyed in this one.


Dinner after the stroll was in a very nice Italian BYO place. What we bought was a delicious local red, something we will definitely be bringing back with us. Unfortunately it was so nice we polished off the bottle and Cait is now in bed with the kids and it's only 8pm! This leaves me in the company of the youths down in the communal area :-).

I nearly called this entry "Mummy's horrible" because this is what Sarah whispered to me in this photo - not sure what prompted it.




Forecast for tomorrow is cloudless skies, how ironic that we plan to spend it in the cover of a rainforest canopy as we explore for the day up in another national park (assuming the kids don't bend our ears into some beach time).




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Coffs Harbour