Day 3: Coramba to Mt Seaview
17 January 2019
Master Map
Bikes loaded for the day
We're up a bit earlier and up the road to the local café for breakfast. Then it's back up and down the road to Ulong just because we can.
The bloke in the truck was kind and let us past. The road to Ulong is all like this.
Back in Coramba we head back towards Nana Glen on the eastern side of the river— a very pretty ride I've done once before. On the barman's recommendation we then turn east along the Bucca Road, turning south on the Central Bucca Road and heading into the chaotic traffic of Coffs Harbour. It is made much worse by the heat.
On the Central Bucca Road
Just south of Coffs Harbour we turn west slightly in search of a parallel route south. The first part takes us along Hydes Creek Road. The Cormaus Dirtometer, sometimes erratic, is functioning perfectly today, easily finding a stretch of dirt on the way to Bellingen.
On a whim, I decide to take the Bowraville Road south from Bellingen. Signs warned it was closed, but I have a contingency—Martels Road. Narrow, pretty, and—you guessed—a goodly stretch of dirt.
Escaping Martels Road, the old highway gives us a great run south before we turn off to check out Bowraville. Then it's off to Macksville to find the Taylors Arm Road. Strangely, perhaps, it leads to Taylors Arm where there's an establishment called "The Pub with No Beer". It can't be a pub if it has no beer, can it? We don't go in to see.
The whole hideous notion of a pub with no beer comes from a poem, later made famous as a country song. The story is here and Slim Dusty's rendition of the song (featuring its author, Graham Parsons) is:
The Dirtometer unerringly fires again and we deal with a long, hot stretch of gravel road. It's OK dirt as dirt goes, but it's a relief to get onto the Armidale-Kempsy Road and make good time into Kempsey. We eat at a local bakery, find petrol and figure what we're going to do that night.
Another shower is mandatory, but when I ring the pub at Long Flat, I'm told there's accommodation, but no chef. Long Flat has nowhere else to eat. Not going there.
A phone call to the Mount Seaview Resort and Restaurant pays dividends. The proprietor tells me it's nearly empty and there's a chef. We're off.
Pretty eucalypts on the Pembrooke Road
A comfortable room, a shower, a good steak. And a glass of beer or two and some red wine. The restaurant boasts about 4 tables of people at the high point of the evening.
