Day 28

Start:  Batemans Bay

Finish:  Brawley Point Road

Distance:  22

Total:  473

After a fantastic night of rest at the Sunseeker Motor Inn in Batemans Bay, I had another good day walking north along Prince’s Highway, getting slowly closer to Sydney. 

The day started off as it always does with a plan developed months ago when I developed the details of this walk. However, every night I review in detail what I’ll be doing the next day.  Then if my day will include catching public transportation like a train or bus at the end of the day, I always check in the morning before I hit the road to ensure there are no changes to the trans schedule. So today I was suppose to walk 22 miles to a bus stop at a road intersection about 12 miles short of the town where I would be spending the night. I had written down during my planning that the bus was scheduled to arrive at 4:22. But when I double checked the bus company app this morning before I started walking there was no bus scheduled anytime this afternoon for that bus stop. That’s when I realized the bus only goes to that location Monday – Friday. Today was Saturday. Oops!  Plan B. Hitch a ride. 

The holiday weekend traffic was especially heavy today. My route parallels the coastline so there are lots of beaches that have access roads off the highway I’m walking. So the beach traffic is heavy plus as I said earlier, these Aussies are crazy about campers, or what they call caravans. And they tow these caravans with vehicles that I would never dream of using to pull a camper. I don’t see how they keep from burning the poor little cars and trucks up pulling these big campers. 

The morning went well and I made it to a neat little roadside cafe called the East Lynne Store that doubles as a motorcycle museum. It was a good lunch stop and the old vintage Indian motorcycles were interesting too. 

I made it to my road intersection finish line at about 4:00, with 22 minutes to spare to catch the bus that wasn’t coming. The crossroads also had a gas station, normally a perfect place to hitch a ride. So I stood out beside the road, doing my best to not look like a threat, with my thumb stuck out in the traditional “please give this poor sole a ride” pose.  After about 20 minutes of waiting, and having seen probably 500 cars and trucks go by, a couple pulled up, jumped out of their car, and invited me to ride with them to my destination of Ulladulla. They introduced themselves as Andrew Burns and Linda Kendall and we had a great conversation during our 30 minutes drive. They had actually seen me standing by the road, passed by, and turned around and came back to pick me up. They were true trail angels and I appreciated their kindness. 

Tomorrow I’ll need to devise a plan to get back out to that intersection where I stopped walking today. Since it’s Sunday there’s no bus service so I may be riding my thumb again. 

That’s it for today. I wish you all a great weekend. JB.