Wednesday - Day 1 - 26 April 2023

Day One of The Great Southern Road Trip.  We had an early start and managed to get most of everything done before we had finally packed the car, the cat, said goodbye to M (who had dropped in with crossants to say goodbye) and headed out.  First stop - Aunty Rosemary's Cat Kennels to drop off Nigey. She will be trialling a new feature - a cat tower - and when I left her there, she was busy examining and sniffing the one in her area.

It's good to be out on the open road again  - except for some of the drivers "sharing" the road with us. How do these people keep their licences.  We decided that the worst offenders appear to be tradies - who know their local area and are keen to use that knowledge.  One roared past us at, we estimated, 50km over the limit.    What the?

I am trying to capture images of interesting things we see along the way on the dashcam with the "photo capture" gesture - alas, I'm not always fast enough to get the image - I missed the multi-coloured bus towing the trailer shaped like a hamburger, but I did get at least one decent pic of the images that now adorn the overhead roads on the way down the Highway. 

The food at Service Centres has improved.  We were on a mission to reach Bulahdelah today so didn't venture off the highway at all, except for the Chinderah and Kempsey Service Centres, and Taree but that was a comfort stop and a quick drink.  They were having a special at Chinderah so we had a choice of sausage rolls or .... I know our server said something else but she had me at sausage rolls - to go with our coffees for 50 cents extra - including free tomato sauce!  Kempsey was better - we could have had a selection of salads, fruits or sandwiches - we went with sandwiches and a dessert (green jelly for Sooz, trifle for me!). 

I had wanted to do no more than a 6-hour drive today so we had aimed for Bulahdelah and we pulled into the motel just before 5.  Perfect!  And it was fantastic that their restaurant was open and we were able to secure a table for 7:30, which gave us time to have a relax before dinner.  Sooz realised (from the albums on the wall) that we have eaten there before - and I am still trying to find the original photo (recreated here).  The meal was amazingly good ... pork cutlet for Sooz, lamb cutlets for me.  I don't think we are going to be able to find better on the trip ... talk about peaking too soon!