Day 5 - Saturday 7th February

Day 5 - Saturday 7th February

After a very comfortable stay at the Laurieton Hotel, I got another fairly early start, hitting the road north around 7.45am. Weather conditions were the same as what I’d now become used to; indeed it’s getting a bit hard to recall what a cloud looks like! And also difficult to imagine daytime temperatures below 30 degrees. It has to be said, though, that even in Australia, summers aren’t always like this. I spent the month of February 2008 in Sydney and it hardly stopped raining all the time I was there; further north, along the route of this trip, I kept reading of terrible storms and floods, which caused a number of fatalities.
It looks like the biggest problem with the weather over the next few days will be increasing heat - not at all good for cycling. Still it could be worse, I could be back in England coping with what sounds like the worst winter weather in 20 years.
Anyway - the first 32km of the day, from Laurieton to Port Macquarie, was a breeze. The route followed Ocean Drive, which, despite not offering any views of the ocean or indeed any noteworthy scenery until I reached Port Macquarie, was mercifully smooth, flat, and quiet.
I arrived in Port Macquarie before 9.30 and immediately liked the place. It’s a decent sized town, population about 40000, but still has a very relaxed ambience. It features a number of attractive historic buildings, having been the 3rd place on the Australian mainland to be settled, back in 1821. The view of the beach approaching from Ocean Drive, was awesome:



First view of beach at Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie - statue of Sir Edmund Barton, Australia's first Prime Minister - and historic hotel in the background.

Besides the obvious beach attrtactions, PM d,oes have lots of good shops and is clearly a prosperous place. Everyone seemed very friendly and helpful. I spent a couple of hours there relaxing and looking around, and while I was there, having read in the Lonely Planet guide that the next part of the route would involve more unsealed roads, I decided to invest $12.95 on a padded gel saddle cover. This proved a wise decision.

Crossing over the Hastings River at Settlement Point via the cable driven ferry shown above (free of charge to cyclists and pedestrians) the guide book gave 2 choices of route. The recommended option was along a coastal road, obviously the more scenic route but the book did admit that it was a very rough road, unrideable in places. Maybe if I’d been riding a mountain bike I’d have given it a go - but who in their right mind would want to undertake a long tour on a mountain bike? Even with suspension I’d felt rattled to bits on my hybrid the previous day, and this sounded far rougher. The alternative was an inland route along the Maria River Road - which added another 6km to the route.
I’d hoped that this Maria River road would be sealed tarmac - but no such luck. It was every bit as rough as the section into Laurieton yesterday - only even less scenic, in fact it was a 30km arduous, boring slog. To make matters worse there were no refreshments available at all on the way, and not even anywhere to turn off! Even finding a shady spot to rest was difficult.
This 30km section took almost 3 hours; I had to walk some of it. Although the new gel saddle cover did make the ride a bit more comfortable, it was still an huge relief to rejoin sealed tarmac about 5kms outside Crescent Head, the day’s destination.

Crescent Head Beach


The extremely pleasurable sensation of riding on smooth tarmac again after so much rough road gave me a renewed burst of energy and I considered cycling on through Crescent Head to the next town, another 20kms or so. It was just after 3pm and still very hot; I decided to cool off with a drink or two in the very inviting Crescent Head Hotel, wait until the temperature dropped a bit, then ride on.

However after a couple of ice cold beers, the Mediterranean Motel opposite (in photo above) had started to look very inviting; especially when, on close investigation, I found it had a pool, and internet access as well! 5 minutes later I’d checked into a very comfortable air conditioned room and was making full use of the pool. Even at 6pm it was still very hot so it was a wise decision not to ride on.

Crescent Head is a very laid back place, popular with the surfing crowd who were well in evidence displaying their prowess on the beach. There’s not a lot else to do there apart from take a walk up the overlooking headlands, amusingly called Big Nobby and Little Nobby.
I enjoyed a really great meal in the Crescent Hotel; Barramundi and Crayfish beautifully cooked in a curry sauce, followed by a superb strawberry cheesecake and ice cream, washed down by a very agreeable verdelho (Stonefish, from WA).Definitely a place worth visiting!

Crescent Head Hotel - go there for great food! War Memorial in foreground.

Distance covered today : 87.6kms, total so far 491kms. Must try and make up some distance tomorrow, at least there aren’t any more dirt roads to be tackled for a while, according to Lonely Planet.