A Lesson Learned

We learned a valuable lesson on the trip between Kingaroy and Port Macquarie. Simply put, if you want to find an overnight stop, do not travel the new Pacific Highway.

Over a period of twenty-four years, the Pacific Highway between the Queensland border, and Newcastle in New South Wales, has undergone major road work, including bypassing all towns along its route. Now this is great for those wishing to go from A to B quickly, not so good for the towns who miss out on travelers passing by, nor for travelers who wish to meander, explore, and take a break in these bypassed towns. As we found out the hard way.

We left Kingaroy around seven am on the seventh of May. The plan was to take a relaxed drive as far as New Italy, which is about five hours drive, if you stick to the speed limit, overnight there then head on down to Port the next day. When towing, we tend to drive a little below the signed limit, adding extra time to the journey. Add to that the fact that we stopped a quite a few times (you know us, we’re never in a hurry to get anywhere,) come four thirty that afternoon, we were well and truly ready to call it a day.

   A friendly visitor at one of our stops.

New Italy is possibly the last remaining rest stop on the Pacific Highway between the Queensland border and Port Macquarie. It has a café, a small museum, gift shop, toilets, and a large parking area suitable for overnight stays.

I mentioned the work being done on the Pac, well, they have just recently finished the section adjacent to the New Italy rest stop. It has changed so much that we drove merrily past it. Never saw it; missed our stop. Bypassed it. Don’t ask me how we did that, but we did.

We drove for another hour, Peter was getting tired, it was getting dark, and we were having no luck in finding a place to stop. Then I saw the sign to Iluka, and there was a caravan symbol on it. We made a snap decision and took the exit.

As the road became narrower, we lost the last of the daylight. The road was in pretty bad shape, courtesy of the heavy rains, and we had no idea where we would end up. We did eventually come to the end of the road, and a little caravan park which, unfortunately for us, was fully booked. Nothing to do but perform a three-point turn, with a fourteen-metre rig, in the dark, and head back the way we came, only this time we stayed on the Old Pacific Highway.

It was seven thirty when we finally found a place to stay in the tiny town of Ulmarra. We wearily parked down a backstreet, between a park and the local police station, it wasn’t until we woke up the next day, that we realised we were only metres from the banks of the Clarence River.

Let’s just hope we don’t have too many drives like this one. 

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!