Friendly people & potholes

Those two things will be key amongst my memories of New Years Eve in the Port McQuarrie area.

I always like to begin the new year with a sunrise swim &/or surf in the ocean, so that meant it was time to head down out of the mountains again & back to the beach.

Drawing a straight line from where I was in the mountains due east to the Coast brought me to Port McQuarrie, New South Wales.

I love landscapes and nature, but I also find it is those precious interactions with people that also shape my experience of a location. I enjoyed some wonderful conversations with the people I met in my two days in this area friendly, interesting and generous people. Conversations included a wide variety of subjects from ballet, conspiracy theories, motorbikes, cancer & of course travel exploration. It was also lovely to be in cellular cover so I was able to join with my family through video-calls as they gathered to see the old year out and the new year in.

Cruising around Port McQuarrie on my bike I came across this....

And this....

I met this beast of a vehicle today - check it out!

Between the North Shore and Crescent Head is a 4wdr road.... a very very rutted road.

I was warned by locals to drive around the edge of the larger potholes, rather than through the middle as some of the bigger ones would be deeper than my bonnet.

A lovely couple I met were driving their gorgeous Jeep (big wheels, all set up) and they had water from a large 'pothole' come in over the bonnet, through their firewall & into their vehicle!!

Going around the bigger potholes was good advice which I heeded.

Part way along the road featured in the video above I got in a New Years day kitesurf session.

Bliss.

Kiting is something I was not sure I would get to do a lot of while travelling solo... but I found a lovely bay with just the right conditions & I felt safe enough to launch and go out kiting on my own. I had FUN.

Packing up after the session before the thunderstorm drops its load of water on my dry gear.

A wonderful first day of the new year - here we go 2021, let the adventure begin.