24th June - Port Macquarie to Urunga

Nigel says.....Today we pedalled 142 kms (89miles). Set off from the motel early at 0700hrs to the ferry at Settlement Point. The original plan was to avoid the Highway as much as possible, and the route from the ferry up towards Kempsey enabled us to avoid retracing our steps into town and cut out a good stretch of Highway.

Pleasant ride to the ferry and a flat gentle ride down towards Maria River Road which would take us north towards Kempsey. I think I realised first between us that the road north was unsealed and braced myself for Gordon's reaction. As expected - teddy out of the cot, f'ing and blinding, blah, blah, winge, moan etc. But we went up it - Gordon reluctantly.

The road was council maintained, and actually had a better surface than expected, although there were some rough patches. It was not a struggle, and very flat. I enjoyed it, hardly any traffic, kangaroos bouncing up the road in front of me, sun shining, nice countryside, birds singing, and having to think a bit about the cycling instead of flogging up the Highway. Gordon's reaction was the polar opposite to mine. Gordon is "Mr Hotmix" I am sure he actually goes to bed dreaming of the Highway and smooth road surfaces.

My opinion is that we will see more than enough of the Pacific Highway during the trip, and where the opportunity arises to get off the Highway we should take it. It may mean Gordon sticking to the Highway and I will branch off and meet up with him later. Anyway - please nobody say "unsealed road" or "dirt track" to him otherwise he may faint!

We made it to Kempsey for an early lunch and continued along the Pacific Highway making really good time. The Highway was not as good as yesterday's stretch with some very narrow/non existent shoulders at a number of points. We arrived at about 1630hrs at the Ocean View Hotel - a pub. I have never stayed in an Australian Pub before - it is an interesting experience, but has everything we need, if a little communal.

Unfortunately folks - the batteries in my camera expired this morning so no photos until this afternoon when I could replenish.

Thoughts and comments:

• Cycled in shorts again today
• Getting a touch humid over the last couple of days.
• Spots of drizzly rain this afternoon, and overcast.
• Saw a sign for Brisbane yesterday which said 599kms and today a sign saying 499kms.
• Snack of the day: Foot long grilled chicken subway with all the trimmings in Kempsey listening to Kevin Rudd's resignation blubber.
• Slogan of the day: Urunga where the riverS meet the sea.............
• Tune of the day: Fatboy Slim - Rockafeller Skank (Right about now, the funk soul brother......)

Both of us feeling good, if a little tired. Hopefully, a decent night's sleep tonight and a bit of a later start tomorrow. Next stop Grafton.

Gordon says ...

Christ, it's not that complicated. You pick a road heading north and you peddle up it. Yesterday was a great day, and we increased our average speed from 14 kms/hr to 23 kms/hr - well, I did. Nigel got up to about 14.5. So I said to Nigel - no more crappy cattle tracks for us - it's smooth sailing northwards. He appeared to be nodding. Twenty minutes into today's ride, he steers us towards some potholed mud path to nowhere. The conversation went something like this:

G: What the freaking hell is that? (I didn't actually say freaking)

N: It's a road.

G: That's not a road.

N: Yes it is. It's an Australian road.

G: What! You pompous English git! This isn't Mozambique .... we have electricity and everything down here, you know. We even have cars, and we don't drive them up anything that freaking well looks like that.

N: Yes you do. I know all about Australia ... the outback, billabongs, didgeridoos ...

G: Well, you can jam that list up your ...

N: Time to peddle

And with that, he took off, looking like a cross between Livingston of the Jungle and the cat who got the cream. Almost needless to say, the 'shortcut' was 6 kms longer than if we had stayed on the road, and it took 2 hours longer - with my average speed dropping from 25kms/her to 8 ... yes 8 kms/hr - and I got covering mud - again.

Whe I finally caught up to Nigel, I gave in a brief tour of some of Australia's best adjectives, and headed for the highway. I surmised - correctly - that if I stayed 20 minutes ahead of him, he couldn't suddenly gesticulate towards some cow paddock, and start cycling through it. Even then, with one hour to go before we reached Urunga, after I waited for him to catch up, he turned up with some new marks on his sodding map, indicating our next 'shortcut' to the hotel.

The guy's skin is made of concrete.

PS. Nigel is a liar. He spends most of his time listening to military marching music. He has no idea who most of the names he drops each night are.