Day 57

Start:  Kempsey

Finish:  Eungai 

Distance:  21

Total:  906

I really never know what to expect from the weather when I go to bed at night. Last night it was forecast to clear off and be partly cloudy today.  That’s not what happened. I’ll explain. 

Today I had a very specific schedule to keep.  I needed to walk 21 miles to a train depot in the bush, in the middle of nowhere, that doesn’t even have a gas station nearby that’s open, and I needed to be there by 2:50 to catch a train to my next motel town. If I miss the train, there is no place to stay and it’s 12 miles on to the next town. The 21 mile walk takes me seven hours with no stops. So in the middle of the night last night I thought I heard it raining but I was too lazy to look outside until 6:00 this morning when I discovered that in fact it was raining right down. Faced with a seven hour walk, and a deadline of 2:50 to meet, I needed to leave no later than 7:50. And I always pad that a little so I figured not later than 7:30 to be safe. So I got packed up, ran across the street in the pouring rain covered with my backpack rain cover to McDonalds to buy breakfast and bring it back to my room to eat, and sat waiting for it to quit raining. It did not. At 7:30 I had no choice but to cover up with my poncho and start walking. It rained until I’d walked about five miles, then quit for the rest of the day. 

I walked on an awesome road today. Before the freeway was built, there was a road called the Pacific Coast Highway that was very nice with wide shoulders. It went through many small towns. Now that the freeway has been built, it bypasses many of these small town, like the one I’m staying in tonight. But the old highway still exists, much like Route 66 in our country, and I spent my day walking along it. 

Near the end of my 21 mile day I got off my nice road and literally followed a backroad into the bush to a somewhat hidden train platform called Eungai. I made it with about 30 minutes to spare.  The train was right on time and it took me one stop down the line to Macksville where I’m staying tonight and after I ride the train back to Eungai tomorrow morning, I’ll walk the 12 miles into Macksville and stay here again tomorrow night. I don’t want to jinks myself, but the weather forecast shows no rain for the next 3-4 days. 

That’s all for my Sunday of fun. I hope your Sunday is fun too!  JB.