Fri, 23rd Feb, 2024 Lions Park, Bulahdelah, NSW to Rest Area on Steve Irwin Way, near Beerwah, Qld

21.7 degrees min - very nice. The birds started their singing early this morning.

Warming up quickly. Up the road and across the river then through Bulahdelah. Saw the fuel price here - $2.24/L for diesel.

Back onto the highway. Hotter driving conditions today - over 35 degrees.

Turned off for cheaper fuel in a back street, $1.999/L, just before the turn off into Coffs Harbour. We continued down the road to get back onto the highway and ended up in the middle of a big sporting event at The Stadium. Hundreds of competitors and spectators watching touch football games by the look of it. The side of the road was lined with cars so we crawled along. Then I remembered the slow crawl we went through Coffs last time - should have taken the side street I saw on the map!

Back onto the highway and slowly through town. Pulled up at lights and a red car zoomed out from the side of us and took off across the intersection as the lights turned green. Then she jumped up onto the footpath and just after we passed she u-turned across the busy street and zoomed off! The chap on the footpath must have got a fright as she nearly hit him.

We continued on passed all the roadworks to where the bypass is being created.

Back onto the open road again till we turned off to a big rest area called Arrawarra to have lunch. Our last stop here we had diesel coming out of the injector pump hose - lovely memories! 32 degrees in the camper but there was a nice breeze so it was quite pleasant in the shelter shed for lunch.

Continued northward and onto the Pacific Motorway. The old highway is off to our left somewhere. Wish the drive back to Cairns was like this, dual lane and no little towns to slow down for - much safer for everyone. They are slowly getting there I suppose and of course you have to live through the road works to get all these extensions done.

Pulled into the Ballina Service Centre for a cuppa - 35 degrees in the camper with it closed up. Clear sky so far but now there are clouds building in the west but it is still clear to the north.

Across Tweed River and back into good old Queensland and real time zone so we turned our clocks back and hour (4.30 back to 3.30).

1 day through Vic, 2 days through NSW and probably 3 days to get back to Cairns.

Through the tunnel then we stopped! Major congestion - well it is Friday afternoon.

Lucky we have plenty of time. Crawled along past the continuing road works. It continues for ages while the traffic going south seemed to be zooming along.

All clear again and we are going along nicely and now the south bound traffic is at a standstill.

Back to crawling along. Multi-car accident on the south bound so that will block things up a big more. Watched an ambulance try and get through the clogged traffic.

Moving again - hard to know why the traffic stops and starts but we just stay in the one lane and watch all the others dart about swapping lanes and not getting any further along then we are. Steve’s all calm as we crawl along but he says ‘why would anyone want to live here!’ It is one of those experiences going through peak hour traffic to make you realise how great it is in smaller towns etc.

Exited onto the Gateway Motorway - only 1731km to Cairns! A car zoomed up around us and zipped in and out of the traffic then further along we spotted it broken down in the middle of an exit. Another ‘interesting’ pass-time is listening to all the idiots on the UHF.

Just before the Bridge we saw smoke and realised it was a car on fire. A fire engine had just arrived.

Up the Gateway Bridge - quite spectacular views. Brisbane highrise, then down the other side.

Along a bit then the speed signs reduced us to 60kph - so much for motorway. We crawled along till we met the highway coming out of the city then it opened up again and things started to flow.

6.30pm we pulled off the highway onto Steve Irwin Way and into an old rest area. Another car was parked there with a horse trailer and some road work machine. We set up for the night and cooked dinner.

Amanda posted on FB that she had taken David away for a birthday weekend so no point us stopped in to wish him happy birthday tomorrow in Maryborough. Sent him a message instead. Rang Terry - he is going to Woodgate to catch up with Maralyn & Greg.

Another vehicle came in and they swapped cars on the horse trailer - obviously one had broken and then they drove away and left the broken vehicle there.

Still 30 degrees while we were playing cards - put the fan on to stir the air! Pretty quiet on this road considering we are just off the highway.