Southern Cross Daily Reports
Day 3. (Tuesday 15th November, Port Macquarie to Kempsey)
The sun came up on a fine day at the start of day three and our endless march north. I have never been to Port Macquarie before but there was no time for sightseeing as we were straight into what was a big day. Two closed road stages in Lorne Forest south of Port Macquarie. These sections were smooth and fast,
and after the closed road sections we headed to Rollands Plains north of Port Macquarie for a Khanacross
and then travelling via the 1976 route to lunch at Telegraph Point.
Goeff Thomas/Jon Dickson at Cooperbung Hillclimb
After lunch we had the challenge of Cooperabung Hillclimb, where we had two very enjoyable runs up the hill.
Jim Pope/Peter Liston at Cooperbung Hillclimb
Many years ago, this venue was the Pacific Highway. After the hillclimb we headed to the overnight at Kempsey. But that was not the end of the day, Oh no, after dinner we were out to Tamban forest north of Kempsey for a night trial section, which meant map reading. We wrote a route chart from the map which worked very well. The roads were very rough with lots of humps, some very high. Now this is rallying, at night, in the forest, a bit like the old days when rallies were real rallies, rally cars were real rally cars, navigators were real navigators and rally drivers were real drivers. Great day but very long we did not get back to the motel until 10.30.
Geoff and Jon had a good day trying to keep up with a Datsun 240Z,but he did have some problems with the sump guard at the Khanacross that had to be repaired but only temporality, he fixed it properly during the meal break.
Rod and Karen had a good day without problem.
Rod and Karen Piggott at the Khanacross
Too late for results today.
Jim Pope