Collecting the Austin Healey
22nd – 24th March
2017
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| Queensland sunset |
What a trip of contrasts – Heavy rain, fog,
beautiful sunset, good night’s sleep, beautiful dawn and sunrise, scenic drive down through the Northern Hunter
Valley, and a safe landing in Sydney before rush hour !! It really was great to be “back on the road
again” !!
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| Mt Edwards in the cloud |
There has been a lot of rain over the last
week or so, not only in SE Queensland, but more so down the NSW coast all the
way down to Sydney, to the extent that there were several traffic reports of
delays either due to localized flooding or road damage caused by the rain. The last time I came south I came on the
coast road and there were SO many road works, so this time I decided to come
down the New England Highway which is inland a little way, and may be a little
longer, but is a lot more scenic than the Newell Highway which is even further
west, and oh so boring ! I haven’t done
the New England for a while, and had forgotten just how pleasant a road it is.
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| Heading up Cunningham's Gap |
I wasn’t due in Sydney until Thursday
evening, and could have left very early that morning, but in the end, due to
the weather and not wanting to arrive in Sydney too late, I decided to leave at
about 3 pm on Wednesday and get 4 hours or so out of the way, sleep in a
roadside overnight parking bay, then have an easy run into Sydney. And at 2.45 pm the heavens opened in Benowa,
and Janet had to walk me to the car under a big umbrella – Even so I got wet
!! Due to the downpour the traffic was
quite heavy, so it took me half an hour just to get past Nerang – Starting to
be pleased that I left early. After
that, the rain eased a lot, and it was a good run out through the back roads to
the run up the steep Cunningham’s Gap escarpment of the Great Dividing Range to
get to Warwick.
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| Rock filled containers protect the road |
As I approached the hills, Mount Edwards
was shrouded in an eerie mist, and once through Aratula a heavy fog / mist
quickly reduced the visibility to almost zero, and climbing the hill I had to
be careful of the big trucks which were travelling slowly and were almost
invisible until the last minute. But it
made for a fun drive up the hill, past the rock filled 40 ft containers that
were put in place about 4 years ago to hold the roadside cliffs back after a
big landslide (and got left in place afterwards), and out onto the plain at the
top, where the mist quickly lifted for an easy run into Warwick.
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| Sunset in the hills |
I decided not to bring any food with me on
this quick dash to Sydney, so I stopped in Warwick for some supper – And
decided to get a Burger King Angus Beef hamburger – I haven’t had a burger for
a while, let alone a Burger King one, so I thought I would see what they were
like. Answer – Terrible !! OMG, I had forgotten how bad they were
!! The service was atrocious – “Fast
Food” it certainly wasn’t – Maybe 30 minutes to get served, and there were only
2 people in front of me ! And I also got
a Coke – which again I haven’t had for a couple of months or more, and I could
not believe how sweet it was ! I have
been trying not to have sugar in my tea and coffee for a while now, and I was
stunned how sickly sweet the coke was.
I ended up being unable to drink all of it !
After my delicious supper, I kept going for
about another hour, and crossing into NSW not far south of Warwick I lost an
hour (day light saving in NSW), and at 7 pm I came over a hill to the most
spectacular sun set – It was like the sky was on fire all around me. As usual with my camera, most of the pics
were a bit blurred and in no way captured how good the sunset was, but I leave
a couple of photos in there just so you can get an idea. Once it got dark, I kept going until just
past Glenn Innes I got to the Balancing Rock rest area, where I pulled over,
jumped in the back, and promptly went to sleep – I think it was about 9 pm NSW
time.
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| Dawn in NSW |
Quite cool during the night, something we
haven’t been used to recently in Queensland !
I ended up having to snuggle way down in my sleeping bag to keep warm –
What a pleasant change ! I slept right
through till 5.30 am, when it was still dark, but after a while I decided to
get up and get moving. After cleaning
teeth etc, I pulled out onto the road at 6.30, having enjoyed the view as dawn
came up over the Australian bush. What a
great morning. For about half an hour I
was driving through streaky morning mist which gave some spectacular views, and
then suddenly, over a hill, and there was sunrise – As spectacular as the
sunset last night
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| The sun appears |
– Almost a continuation !
Just a ball of fire outlining the gum trees and peering through the
clouds on the horizon. Just
gorgeous. I love the sunsets and
sunrises you so often experience in Australia – Maybe due to the lack of
pollution or something, but they are often superb, and living at home in the
cities we often miss them. Hmmmmm –
Might have to do something about that !
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| A magical morning |
The next hour or two was just great
driving, with breathtaking views of the mist, of tops of hills lit up red by
the morning sun while the surrounding countryside was still in the shade, and
views through the hills (we are at about 1400 m ASL up here in this section of
the Great Dividing Range) were almost reminiscent of Mordor in Lord of the
Rings. Just a lovely morning.
The rest of the run down to Sydney was
equally pleasant – A little bit of rain occasionally, but nothing to write home
about. Down through Armidale, Tamworth
(the Country Music centre of Australia),
and Murrurundi, after which there was
section where there were a few road works, but they didn’t hold me up
much and by 3 pm I was coming in to Sydney on the Pacific Motorway. Ashton lives in St Peters, which is near the
airport, south of the harbour, so I came through the tunnel and joined in with
all the other Sydney traffic as I crossed from N to S. I swear
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| Coming into Sydney |
that as soon as you get off the
Pacific Highway and get onto the city roads, all the traffic lanes become about
2 or 3 feet narrower ! And with the
trailer wheels sticking out about a foot either side of Troopie, one has to
concentrate to make sure you don’t wander across the white lines into the next
lane ! Ashton was flying up from
Melbourne so he set up for the neighbor to give me a set of keys so I could sit
in the house rather than out in the street till he got home – Most kind of him
!! Half the job done – Just need to
load the car up so I can leave as early as possible in the morning, and head
home.
Ashton was held up in Melbourne and didn’t
get in till late so it was already dark, and there was no time to load the car,
so after a great supper and a pint or two down at the local pub (which welcomes
dogs so Jasper comes too !), it was home and to bed with a plan to load the car
at 6 am.
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| Ashton with the loaded car |
And despite light rain, the car loaded onto
the trailer with no fuss at all – it j-u-s-t fitted width wise, with the inside
of the tyres just having a few mm clearance on the inside of the tracks, and
the tilta-trailer was weighted perfectly, snapping shut just as the Healey
reached the top. Perfect. We strapped the car down, put tape across the
windscreen and round the side screens to keep any rain out, and I was headed
out by 7.00 am, and after a fairly easy run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
(despite rush hour), was on the Pacific Freeway and headed north by 8.00
am. Too easy.
I stopped at the first gas station on the
freeway to check the straps holding the car on, and all were tight. A quick coffee, and back on the road.
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| Driving through Sydney |
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| Sydney Opera House |
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| Safely stored while we go to UK |
Basically it rained off and on all the way
back to Queensland, but the car towed really well on the trailer, and I just sat
on about 100 kmh most of the way. One
fuel stop was enough to get me home, and with the help of gaining an hour as I
crossed into Queensland, I got home at about 9 pm, with just under 2000 kms on
the clock after the round trip. It was
actually fine in Queensland, just a short distance from home there were "Road Closed" signs - Fortunately the water was only shallow and I made it through. Once home, I put a tarp over the car in case of any rain
over the weekend. On Monday morning I
drove round to my friends warehouse facility and left the car with him, still
on the trailer, for the next month while we are in the UK. Job done, so I can start work once I get
back.
Rest of the photos are here :- https://goo.gl/photos/Ws5863FkyGdqYPYr9
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