Day 5

We seem to have finally escaped the gravity of Sydney and are back in the country but this time it has palm trees and is warmer than the Southern Highlands (most places are). 

I can tell I’m not in the city because when Spike and I go for an early morning walk, people coming the other way look me in the eye and cheerily say, “Good Morning.” or else they actually stop for a chat. We did a spin this morning around the outer burbs of Old Bar, which itself is kind of an outer burb of Taree. No one would describe Taree as a “pretty town”, so lots of people seem to work there but commute from Old Bar, which is relatively salubrious and also has a great beach.

Regarding chatting; I’m learning that “everyone” in caravan parks is extremely friendly and chatty. They love to stop and have a natter about where you/they are going, weather, politics – anything, and then having chatted for five minutes they often say, “Well, see you later mate. Nice chatting to you. Have a safe trip.” People are nice.

This morning Christine and Anna set off together with Christine acting as a pilot to get Anna through Taree. Then it’s another 120ks of bitumen for her. She is doing extremely well, not pushing too hard, has no injuries or aches yet and seems to be really enjoying the whole thing – we all are.

By the way, the Ford, with big van in tow, is averaging 18.3L /100Ks, which, in old money Google says is 12.8 mpg. So, it’s not too bad. I seem to remember a Falcon I had in the ‘70s doing about 12mpg but it wouldn’t tow the skin off a rice pudding.

The country between Taree and Kempsey is timber country in parts (still) and along the river flats appears to be very productive dairy. Last year they had a big flood – a regular occurrence. Some of the cows got a free ride down the Manning River and finished up about 10ks away on the coast. Some survived but many who took the ride then succumbed to an ingestion of salt water which, it seems, does not sit well with cows.