Tweed Heads NSW August 21, 2015

Tweed Heads NSW August 21, 2015

Another day, another state. Time to move on again today, and so, in-between showers of rain, we packed up and hit the road. Back out through Eumundi to the Bruce once more, heading south. The rain persisted and made for a more uncomfortable drive than it should be. Somewhat south of Eumundi, just north of Beerburrum we started picking up 2-way radio chat about a truck crash ahead of us and how the road was blocked for 5km or more. As we got closer we understood that only the left lane was getting through but it may as well be completely blocked. Armed with this warning Judy hit the atlas to find us a way round, via Beerburrum and Caboolture, a detour confirmed by the trucks as they too made other arrangements. Just as we came to a halt, the exit appeared and so we along with anyone else with a radio, left the mighty Bruce and headed for the hills. It turns out to be a pleasant drive, and as we like roads less travelled, it suited us fine.

We came back out onto the highway at Caboolture and even though we knew that the road was still blocked up north, you would never know from the amount of traffic. You just have to pick a lane and stay in it: for us that’s not the fast lane nor the lefthand lane but one in the middle. We just kept our heads down until we were down past Brisbane airport when we decided after two hours and 120km that a break would be nice. Taking the service exit we found a huge, and i’m talking massive Shell servo, which also housed a whole range of eateries and a dedicated truckers lounge. Mind you we couldn't find the way in to the car and maybe van parking, so after circling once by driving through all the huge trucks, we abandoned the rig out in the street and walked in.

Back out on the road, we soon came to that marvel of engineering, the Gateway bridge over the Brisbane river.  These silly blighters running over it were not there when we roared over! 

Gateway Bridge, Brisbane Qld
Image : Courier Mail

From here on, it’s a 95km melee of 4, 5, 6 lanes of traffic until well past the Gold Coast. The traffic never lets up and you need to be right on it to survive.

Finally we made it into Tweed Heads and the van park, unscathed. Miracle. And it’s stopped raining!