Day 14 - Dubbo to St Ives

Dubbo, NSW to St Ives, NSW - 390 kms 5:00 hours.

I am now in Dubbo, just under 400 kms from home. Limping home on a spare tyre, I take it easy for a while.

I got up in the mroning, settling down to do some office work thanks to a late checkout. Or so I thought. At 10:15 I get a knock on my door. No, a late checkout is not on. The message for the request for a late checkout was never received and the manager was in no mood to entertain such a request. He had the cleaners come in on a limited time and he wanted me out of there now! I rush to get ready and get back on the road.

The previous day showed that the space saver tyre never heated up - to my touch, it was the same as all the other ones. So the first rule to get thrown out was stopping every 100 kms. But I still stuck to the 80 kmph speed limit. Parts of roads were bad - potholes galore. But being broad daylight, I could see them and either swerve around or brake harshly.

Driving at 80 down a 110 kmph road is quite annoying - to me and fellow drivers stuck behind me. The number of drivers incapable to overtaking me by getting on the wrong side was surprisingly high. Granted I was a veteran by now and could sometimes cut it too close but I thought this would be a basic driving skill, especially in rural areas. More than once, I would put them out of their misery by pulling over and letting them through. But most roads did not have a shoulder and only an occasional clearing to pull over. It is not easy to spot such a place in time and pull over when the other vehicle was just behind me and unable to react in time to my sudden braking.

It was slow going but I still occasionally pulled over to take a picture or two.

One such place was around Lake Windamere. The rivers and lakes were full and worth a look.

Before that, I had stopped at Mudgee and had a coffee and a snack. I suppressed the impulse to buy some honey. Experience tells me, I buy jars of produce on trips which then just sit at the back of the pantry forever.

Getting closer home, the plan was to avoid motorways as my speed was limited to 80. That was another rule that went out the window. I finally got on the M2 and pushed it to 90 kmph but did not dare to go any higher.

Soon I was home! The odometer showed 9999.9 but it had been doing that for the last 20 kms. So I guess it reaches that figure and remains stuck at that value. So I did over 10,000 kms in all!!