160. Day 106 – Nearly to the Sydney Opera House and the end of the journey

Thursday 22 August 2008

We woke to find it raining – the first rain since Norway and a light shower in Russia.

It was great for the garden and we left Repton at 9.11am with the temperature at 58° Fahrenheit (14° Celsius). We crossed the Bellinger River as the rain eased off, we were soon driving through Macksville with just a cloudy sky above us.

**Parked outside our Bongil Beach house**

We were rather excited to be driving this last leg, however we were very aware of our speed, as we passed many speed cameras and were anxious that nothing would go wrong, so close to our finish. The Pacific Highway has improved over the years, there are still sections that are currently being worked on now and other sections that need widening and diverting around towns.

**The Pacific Highway stretched ahead near the turn off to Grassy Head**

**Farming area near the turn off to South West Rocks**

We were listening to one of our favourite Australian country singers, the late Slim Dusty when we passed this sign reminding us that Slim was born in Kempsey. His family and friends with the aid of the State Government are planning on building a museum here about his life.

**Famous Australian country singer – the late Slim Dusty’s birthplace**

We had to slow down to 50kph to drive through the little town of Fredericktown and then across the Macleay River into Kempsey.

It wasn’t long before we were crossing the Hastings River and the turn off to Port Macquarie. We knew this area well from the years that Dick’s parents had lived up here at Laurieton on the coast. We had owned a small farm at Ross Glen on the banks of the Camden Haven River, Dick built the Camden Haven Airstrip. We remembered when our girls were young and we had spent most weekends up here, flying up after school on a Friday in the twin Comanche and home again on the Sunday afternoon. It was amazing to see the huge road construction going on as we crossed the Camden Haven River near the turn off to our old property.

**Crossing the Hastings River near Port Macquarie**

**Wattle growing beside the Pacific Highway just before Kew**

**The new highway construction between Coopernook and Herons Creek**

**Heading towards South Brother Mountain named by Captain James Cook**

We passed many old farm houses with dairy cows grazing on the green grasses near Taree and then onto Nabiac.

**Farm house on Jones Island north of Taree**

**Dairy cows beside the Manning River near Taree**

**Wattle growing and look out for Koalas**

We drove down the hill on the freeway near Bulahdelah we found that the highway went down to one lane each way as we drove through the town – another area that needs a by-pass. It was great to see more road construction going on just south of here. We crossed the Karuah River and noticed some strange ropes and cables stretched across the highway. These are put there for the Koalas and other fauna to use to cross from one side of the highway to the other. We wondered if any of the animals used them.

**Fauna crossing over the highway near Karuah**

**A happy dog in the back of his master’s ute at Raymond Terrace**

We continued south through Raymond Terrace and onto the F3 to Sydney. The rain started to fall again, as it was getting late and we were rather hungry, we pulled into a truck parking area near the Hawkesbury River and made ourselves a cup of tea and a sandwich.

**Passing another road train on the F3**

**We stopped for our last lunch at a truck stop beside the highway**

It was getting dark but we decided to take a detour down to Bobbin Head, through Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park before we drove to our home at Terrey Hills.

**Driving through the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park**

As we drove through our front gate and parked our Earthroamer at our front door we were really excited and rather relieved that we had almost done it!!!! Just the trip under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and onto the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday to go.

Total today 537 kms 40,320 kms since Anchorage, Alaska

Click here for the next day when we arrive at they Sydney Opera House to complete the drive around the world!

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