Day 63, 14/9/2019 Saturday, Morisset to Jugiong clear sunny 10-18

We’re woken by a tuneful butcher bird. It’s a coolish morning and we’re thankful to be able to turn the heater on. I ferret out a pair of jeans and a jumper and contend with a runny nose a sure sign of Southern climes.

We turn on the GPS as we’re descending on the Newcastle Expressway towards the Hawkesbury River. Gazza Garmin springs to life and demands

“Take the emergency lane and turn left!”

“Christ!” says Woody “We’ll end up in the bloody Hawkesbury!”

On the radio there is much ado about the length of wombat intestines being the cause of their cube shaped poo. I’m not sure if I needed to know that.

We crawl through the Pennant Hills bottleneck wishing it is next year when the new tunnel will be open. Even though it’s a Saturday we’re thankful that we left at 7:30 because we don’t reach the Nepean River (in Sydney’s south) until 9:30 and it’s much better than traversing Sydney on a weekday. The M7 Motorway is lined with police in vintage vehicles, hundreds of bikers and groups of spectators waiting for a convoy of 11,000 to pass through commemorating fallen police officers. We guess that we must be just ahead of them.

We grab a pie at Goulburn and continue on cursing the concrete roads, admiring the blooming wattle and fields of canola and listening to ‘Conversation Hour’ podcasts.

We turn off the Hume Highway at Jugiong and enter another world. Sometimes that’s all it takes…

Summary 442kms (a big day but good roads), toilets, accom $5, horses and a pub