Trip Report - Stephen Gibbins 50^th Birthday Party

Friday 26-Nov-2010 - Day 1:

Up with the alarm clock at 5:30am.

Breakfast and coffee with Heather, load the car, leave home at 6:30am.

This trip I'm using Heather's Honda Civic Sport as it eats kilometres.

Expected at David Jones place at 7:30am, but the M2 was a parking lot!

Arrived David Jones home at Willoughby 8:00am.

Met Dave's wife (Vicky) and youngest daughter (Charlotte).

Load the car and away we go.

Up the Pacific Highway to Buhladelah for a sandwich and a coffee.

Time flies talking crap with Dave.

A bit like sitting in a leather lounge chair, listening to music, talking to a mate, while scenery rolls by outside.

Change drivers at Bulahdelah.

Dave drives to Coffs Harbour where we drop in on his friend Elaine for a cuppa.

Change drivers at Coffs.

Ross drives to Grafton.

Distance from home 685km.

Check into the Quality Inn.

$125 for a twin, very friendly staff.

Head to the Crown Hotel by the Clarence River to re-hydrate.

Nice pub, balcony over the river, cold beer, all good but...

The place was nearly empty and very dead, and the food menu looked sad.

Walked to the nearest (other) pub for dinner.

Good tucker (steak for Dave, Fishermans Basket for me), but also dead, and no views.

Back to the Crown Hotel for a few more beers until they closed at 11:30pm.

Saturday 27-Nov-2010 - Day 2:

Up with the sun at 8:00am-ish.

Breakfast (Bacon/Eggs/Mushrooms for me) at a café in the main street of Grafton.

Drive up the Summerland Way through Casino and Kyogle to the Border Ranges.

The drive from Kyogle (NSW) to Beaudesert (QLD) was simply beautiful.

Winding road, almost no traffic, views everywhere, birds calling,  fantastic.

Excellent lookout with a sweeping view of a massive railway loop.

Dave took a video with his iWank 4.

The border crossing was a cattle grid with lots of cameras, so we smiled for the coppers.

Arrived at Gibbos place in Jimboomba (just north of Beaudesert) about 2:00pm.

Distance from home 985km.

Gibbo lives on 5.5 acres at Jimboomba, 50 minutes south of Brisbane.

They have chooks, a horse, a swimming pool, a huge home with multiple lounge rooms, a massive kitchen, and a granny flat (don't call me granny) for Coline, Steve's mum.

Started with a beer, then helped (a little) to set up Steve's band equipment.

Speaker stacks, amps, mixing desk, drum kit, cables everywhere.

To test it all out, Steve played '801 Live' loud - awesome.

Rang my son Ben for a chat, and he picked the background Manzanera (801) over the phone! Well trained by his dad!

People started showing up for the party about 5:00pm, by which time I was hot and bothered (it was hot), and very red in the face (from Coronas with a lime wedge in the throat).

The band (Vintage) set up and started cranking out my kind of music.

Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, David Bowie etc...

Steve did the singing, with occasional help from his long-time mate Tim (great bloke).

In attendance from the old days were Ross Coster (me), David Jones (my road trip buddy), Jeff Howard and Steve Gibbins, all from North Sydney Boys High School Class of 1978.

Lots of reminiscing, lots of laughs.

I had lengthy conversations with Trudy Gibbins (Steves wife), Coline Gibbins (Steves mother), Gai (Colines cousin), Danny (a former flat mate of Steve and Trudy), Jeff Howard and many more whose names have faded.

There seemed to be a lot of guys named Dave, but maybe that was just a wiring fault in my brain.

Particularly tough work was sitting under the Balinese thatched-roof gazebo, by the pool, listening to Live Rock and Roll, drinking beer, and talking to great friends.

Dinner was a disaster (for me anyway).

A malfunctioning BBQ meant the meat wasn't cooked until 10:00pm.

I was so slow getting to the tucker (busy talking) that all the meat was gone!

Steve gave a short impromptu speech, followed by my effort (read from 16-point notes as my eyes are buggered).

Jeff Howard gave an inspired speech, including visual aids.

He had some of Steve's old diary notes and some photos, all supplied by Coline in a planned collaboration.

More music, more beer, more beer...

By 3:00am there were about 8 of us upright.

By 4:00am there were just 3.

The serious 3 crashed at 4:16am (yes I checked the time).

Sunday 28-Nov-2010 - Day 3:

Up with the sun at 7:00am.

Feeling pretty blurry.

Didn't want to wake anyone so I took my specs, laptop and a magazine out by the pool.

Spent about 2 hours checking e-mail, reading, and watching the local bird life tear around.

Next up was Jeff Howard, in the pool for a swim.

By 10:00am Dave and Danny were also up.

Dave and I decided not to wait for everyone else to crawl out of bed, and hit the road just after 10:00am with me driving.

Drove into Jimboomba for breakfast (Bacon/Eggs/Mushrooms).

Drove diagonally across the Border Ranges, crossing into NSW at some unnamed spot. Smiled for the coppers again.

I drove for some hours through beautiful winding countryside, some dirt roads, across timber bridges, really good fun.

Fist town we came to was Tenterfield, which was effectively closed (3:00pm Sunday!).

Got fuel and a coke, then headed south on the New England Highway.

Arrived Armidale about 6:30pm.

Distance from home 1443km.

Checked into a Motel (didn't catch the name) for $155 the night.

The guy on the desk was amazing.

Gave us a tip on which pub to eat at, a tip on a waterfall to check out, and a brochure on a better way to get to Sydney.

The pub was the White Bull, which was nice, had a good feed, but closed at 9:30pm!!!

We had to nearly fight with the bar staff to sell us a six-pack of Crownies for a nightcap.

Off to bed at 10:30pm.

Monday 29-Nov-2010 - Day 4:

Up with the sun about 7:30am.

Bacon/Shallot/Mushroom omelette at a café in the main street mall.

Nice CBD in Armidale.

Drove down the New England Highway to Uralla, then off down Thunderbolts Way to Walcha.

Side-tracked to Apsley Falls 15km east of Walcha.

Back to Thunderbolts Way, south through Barrington Tops to Gloucester.

Dave and I spent the day talking about the NSW retail electricity market (strange).

The drive through Barrington was stunning, but slow.

Popped out of Thunderbolts Way onto the Pacific Highway just North of Raymond Terrace about 4:30pm.

I then got to drive the painfully boring Newcastle Freeway, then the Pacific Highway to Chatswood.

Arrived at Dave's place in Willoughby about 6:00pm, big day.

Had a cuppa with Dave and Vicky, met the older daughter (Estelle?), then headed home.

Mowbray Road was like treacle (slow), then M2/M7/M4 to home.

Arrived home about 7:05pm to a very-happy-to-see-me wife.

Total trip distance 1,991km.

Great road trip. I wanna go again right now!

Thanks to Dave Jones for his company - very easy-going - never once complained about my verbal diarrhoea.

Why fly when you can drive with a mate and have this much fun?

Ross Coster