Today was a transfer day. So far our transfers haven't really lasted that long...usually a few hours and we're at our new hosts. Today was slightly longer. The journey started at 9am in Tenterfield. There were two vehicles. Peter drove one Ute (utility aka a pickup truck) loaded down with all our luggage and had Mike up front with him. The rest of the team rode with Grahame in his Toyota Land Cruiser. Shawn rode shotgun while Joe, Beth and myself rode in the back.
The agenda was as follows: Tenterfield folks take us to the Drake Hotel in Drake for lunch to rendezvous with the folks from Kyogle and head to Kyogle to disperse to our new hosts. We only had to travel about 90K (55 miles) to the rendezvous point but the journey took three hours. The road we took certainly was the scenic route.
The best way I can describe this road, if you want to call it a road, will only be understood by my immediate family. At my Grandpa Rackers farm, we would load up in a wagon behind a tractor to go check cows. Grandpa drove at normal speed with no regard for ruts or potholes. The result at the end of the ride was somewhere close to a concussion and a sore bottom. The path from Tenterfield to Kyogle was very similar. A mostly dirt path, switchbacking around, over, alongside the mountains and following along the Rocky River. Very scenic and very rough. Technically this was a county road. But the county road criss-crossed over numerous cattle crossings, private land/ pasture, through cow piles, through various depths of low water crossings. Depending on the climb or descent the view changed from a boulder rock face on one side or a very steep dropoff on the other. It really was like a ride at grandpa's farm...cows included!
We only bumped one cow along our journey. We saw at least two kangaroos loping through the fields and viewed a couple of snakes safely from the viewing area in our LandCruiser. The scenery was a mix of exposed rock, grassy pasture, and wooded bush. There were a few times I expected to see Julie Andrews out in a field singing and twirling around. At a couple points along the way, we went through rainforest. The change of plant life, the sounds, the darkness of shade and the drop in temperature signaled the entrance of the rain forest. Also the sounds of the bell birds was quite unique. No one we have talked to here has ever seen one of these birds or knows what they look like but they have a very distinct call. It sounds like a glass bell ringing a single time or something like a miner hammering on a metal spike. Very interesting.
Three hours later we arrive at the Drake Hotel thankful for our arrival and dumbfounded by the scenery we just took in. It was an incredible path and I'm so glad we took the scenic route. I forgot to mention that our LandCruiser had over 500K's or over 310 thousand miles. Go Toyota!
THEN we have lunch at the Drake Hotel. I had the Bacon and Egg burger. On the bun were shredded carrots, lettuce, beet root, a burger, bacon, cheese, and a fried egg. DE-LIC-OUS!
After lunch we said our goodbyes and loaded up in "The Troopy" The troopy is a 6WD people mover vehicle. It held all 5 team members luggage, 5 team members, plus 3 members of the Kyogle Rotary Club. That journey took another couple of hours over similar terrain but on paved roads. Today was certainly an adventure.
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