Sunday, 18 October 2026
Today marked time to start heading home in earnest after our short Queensland holiday. We self-catered breakfast in our room and then ferried our luggage down to B2 to re-pack the truck. Bernie drove the truck out of the basement car park while I wheeled the luggage trolley back to the foyer and returned the keys.
It was unbelievably easy to exit the city taking Route 33 (Coronation Drive) along the Brisbane River to flow straight onto the Pacific Motorway (M3). In fact, once we turned onto Route 33, Syri’s instruction was to continue straight ahead for 293 kilometres. How easy is that?
When we reached the junction with the Gateway Motorway (M1 heading north to Brisbane) the route numbering reshuffled and the M3 became the M1 (Pacific Motorway heading south). Shortly before 10.00am we drove past the Gold Coast theme parks in the rain. Not very nice weather for the people visiting the theme parks!
We crossed the border into NSW at 10.17am … still on Queensland time. No early resumption of EDST on the wrong side of the border today. At 10.23am Bernie’s iPhone flipped to 11.23am but mine was stuck on EST. It was 11.30am before we were all on the same time zone … and now will be until daylight savings finishes in April next year.
We made a pitstop at the Mororo Rest Area, which proved to be a popular stop along the Pacific Motorway. The motorway was a smooth and fuel efficient journey … until we made our way over the big hump of a bridge that takes the motorway over the Clarence River. After hundreds of kilometres on the Pacific Motorway, we turned off onto Big River Way to take slight detour through Grafton. It’s peak jacaranda flowering time so we thought it would be worth a look. Despite warnings on the digital motorway signs ‘Cane Burning Grafton – Tweed Heads Use Caution’ we didn’t see any cane fields being burnt. I guess it must be the season for it though?
It was about 1.30pm when we arrived in Grafton, so the first thing on our agenda was lunch. With it being Sunday our options were very limited. The local bakery is often our first choice, but Prince Bakery & Take Away was closed so … no pies, pasties or sausage rolls for us today. Fortunately we found Rubony’s Café – still open for lunch – just a few shops along the street.
After our BLT Turkish bread rolls we collected our cameras from the truck to take some photographs of Grafton’s famous jacarandas. When I checked a few days ago about the best time to see Grafton’s jacarandas I found out that it is right now! We photographed a couple of jacarandas in Queen Street and then walked to the clocktower at the intersection with Pound Street for a photo.
From Pound Street we drove to See Park which is also supposed to be a prime jacaranda viewing place. The trees in the park were a bit disappointing but we found ourselves on Turf Street near the racecourse and the trees there were spectacular. If only the sky had been blue and the sun shining, I am sure the purpleness would have been even brighter.
Our tourist stop for the day done, the SatNav was set for Sawtell which was only about an hour away. I was busy digesting my BLT (aka sleeping) until Bernie woke me up as we were motoring into Coffs Harbour or more AROUND Coffs Harbour. Bernie had programmed the BP Coffs Harbour South into the SatNav, so Syri dutifully guided us into the industrial back blocks to find the BP Truckstop and servo. Petrol Spy had revealed that we could top up with Premium Diesel at a reasonable price if we refuelled here. Ahem, Bernie just had to buy two promotional chocolate bars in order to reduce the bowser priced by eight cents/litre. What a tragedy, ha, ha.
From the servo it was just a short drive to make our way into Sawtell to find the Sawtell Motor Inn. We checked in and transferred our luggage while the kettle boiled. I needed something to wash down a promotional chocolate bar for afternoon tea!
Although the weather was threatening, with rain seeming imminent, we decided that we really needed to take a walk along the beach to counteract the hours spent in the truck today. We headed off via the MU-X were I was planning to collect my sun hat. However, realising just how iffy the weather was, I decided instead on my cap and raincoat! Even Bernie decided to pop his raincoat on.
We walked along the street to the Sawtell Surf Lifesaving Club, where we made our way onto the beach. We turned left (northward) and walked along the beach as far as Boambee Head. The sky was grey, the ocean was grey, there was rain out to sea so, it was a rather gloomy walk. On the plus side, there were some magnificent yellow-tailed black cockatoos about, so that made our outing worthwhile. Oh, and it was good to get some exercise of course!
After watching a cocky tearing apart a cone on a banksia, we started to head back towards the surf club with the rain having come ashore. Just as well we opted for the raincoats! Arriving at the beach access point, we made our way back up from the sand to rinse our feet and put our thongs on for the walk along the other side of the street to the motor inn.
About 7.00pm we wandered out to have dinner at the Sawtell Hotel. We sat in the Sports Bar surrounded by televisions showing sport. Baseball in front of me and cricket (Australia vs SA) behind me. Bernie was happy to order a seafood pasta meal while I enjoyed a miso salmon bowl.
We left the hotel and happened upon Gelato on First … just before they pulled their roller door down to shut up shop for the night. What good timing. Never mind the kilojoules eating chocolate for afternoon tea and gelato for dessert. Besides, it might be our last opportunity for a holiday ice-cream?
