Macksville to Pacific Palms

In order to avoid the pacific highway and have nicer and quieter roads to cycle on we had planned to go a bit inland. But we soon experienced again that, especially inland, every day would be a mountain stage. It is so hilly, so undulating, that after a day in which you haven't gained any height at all, you appear to have climbed many hundereds of meters. For instance, from Bellingen we tried a route a bit inland. After app. 10 k the road appeared to have ruined by a storm some years ago and we had to return to the highway. It was a 22 k detour and we stayed on the the same altitude, never higher than 60 meters above sea level. Still we had climbed more than 600 meters. Imagine this and the loaded bikes.

There was a moment that we decided to avoid mountains for a while. That's why we are now following a route very close to the coast. Sometimes we are on the Pacific Highway, which is 4-lane now. Apart from the noise (not too bad) the riding on this road has been good. Rear wind, perfect bitumen and low hills. Temperatures have been high, but so was our speed. So far so good. We are in Pacific Palms now on a clean and silent caravan park and we still have 3 or 4 days to go before we will reach Palm Beach. Or Palmie as our Warmshowers-friends seem to call it.
The caravan park is so quiet that a kookaburra is sitting 2 meters from our tent and even on my bike!