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Published: November 24th 2013
Monday 18th
We decide to detour in land for a few days and our first stop is the small town of Bangalow. It's a quaint little place stuck in a 70's time warp. The shops sell tie dyed clothes and "old" antiques which look like rubbish ! Still it's a nice little place.
Our next stop about 40 mins later is in Lismore. A sprawling town by the Richmond river. The tourist information suggest their riverside walk and we take it into town. It's completely unremarkable ! Next we visit the back alleyways which have been decorated by street artists with murals. Many of the painting are really good.
We then drive out of town to Rock Creek Dam. The road's pretty tricky in the 'van with lots of hills and sharp turns. We arrive just as it starts to rain. Donning our waterproofs we take the trail up to the dam. It's not large but the views quite nice. We complete the platypus walk without seeing any.
We then set off for Minyon Falls and take the signed road. It quickly becomes an unsealed road and we drive on and on with it getting rougher and
rougher. We wish we'd turned back after about 5 miles but are now committed to the route. The 'van shakes and bounces all over the place. After nearly an hour we reach the Falls. They're not very spectactular but are located at the top of a huge gorge with fantastic views over the countryside.
We drive on and find the Falls can be reached in minutes from the opposite direction over a proper road !
We then take the road to our final destination for the day as it starts to pour with rain and I can hardly see out of the windscreen. The road winds and rises and falls and it's a difficult drive. Eventually we arrive at our final site for the night in Nimbin. The town's famous for the Aquarius Pop Festival in 1973 when lots of people wanting an "alternative" way of living met and many stayed on after to form communes and an alternative way of life. There's lots to look at tomorrow of their lifestyle.
Tuesday 19th
First thing we take a stroll down Nimbin high street. It's made up of little shops and cafes all with '70's signage and
logos and most sell '70's style clothing and things of the time. The people who originally came to live here are now all in their 60' and I'm sure what we see now is just for the tourists. They will have moved on from the '70's. It's quite sad to see so many people walking bare foot and dressed in '70's style clothing thinking they are also "alternative".
We visit the "famous" museum which is full of the normal '70's anti establishment posters and is tacky. It's run by young people who would never have understood the times.
The town appears pretty shabby and has attracted mainly scruffy, dirty people. There were several on our camp site. Over all I'm not impressed by what the place has become although I'm sure the original people have behind the scenes achieved a lot.
We then drive about 30 miles to Casino in the Richmond valley. The drive is through sheep and cattle land. At Casino the tourist office give us details of a river walk. After 20 mins we abandon it as there's nothing to see !
We drive on for about 80 miles to Tenterfield. The drive
is a lot harder than we expect as the road winds round very steep hills to an eventual height of 3000 feet. The views along the way are of the Great Divide Mountains and are stunning ! Just like the Lake District only without the lakes---------- or the rain ! A difficult drive but worth it for the views.
We pull into a small site with views of the mountains and enjoy a sunset over the tops of them.
Wednesday 20th
A day for exploring the general area. First we take a short drive and an even shorter walk to Thunderbolt's Hideout. Captain Thunderbolt was a kind of Ned Kelly outlaw and this group of rocks is where he hid and eventually got shot. It's just a group of huge rocks forming a sort of cave.
We walk on to the Second WW tank traps. A set of telegraph poles set in the ground to prevent any advancing Japanese tanks. Most have rotted away and this looks even less impressive than Thunderbolt !
We continue our drive into the country and stop at Bald Rock NP. We take the 3 K walk to the summit
of Bald Rock, the largest exposed granite rock in the Southern Hemisphere. It's quite a hard climb and takes us 45 mins to the top after climbing the last section over bare rock. The view from the top is probably the finest we've had in Australia. It's a spectacular view over the countryside for miles and miles in all directions. Forests with mountains in the background and not a building to be seen.
We take the very steep route back to the car in 20 mins and have our picnic.
Finally we drive round to the town's railway museum. The railway from the town to Brisbane closed in 1989 and there is a good collection rolling stock and the station buildings have all been preserved.
That's all we have time for today so it's back to the site for a late afternoon cup of tea !
Thursday 21
st First thing a sort drive of about 60 miles to Glen Innes, a small town built on a cross roads. We have a very quick walk around before driving off and pulling in a few minutes later at Australian Standing Stones. A sort of modern Stonehenge dedicated
to the Celtic countries that helped form Australia. It’s very cleverly done with the number of Stones representing hours in a day and aligned to the summer and winter solstice.
We drive on for about another 30 miles and turn off into Gibralter National Park. We have decided to stay in the Park over night. There is a long drop toilet and an open fire pit. That’s it !
We park up and go for a walk to the Lyrebird Falls. They don’t turn out to be very much but we do see two lyre birds. On the way back we stop off at Boundary Falls. They’re not spectacular but do form a very attractive pool at the base.
We go back to the ‘van and have a drink with our only neighbours in the Park, Denis and Robyn. We get on well and they ask us to come and stay with them and their family on their farm for New Year !
We set about cooking dinner over the fire pit and I light the bark to start off the open fire. It’s real Boy Scouts stuff ! we successfully cook our pork chops and
enjoy an open air meal.
We sit around the fire until it’s very dark listening to rustlings in the under growth and then I have to escort Christine to the toilet !
Finally we retire to the ‘van smelling of wood smoke.
Friday 22nd
We wake up to the deafening sound of birds and crickets. We get away soon after 9 and drive about 60 miles and stop at Grafton, quite a large town built on the river Clarence. We stop and make a cup of coffee and then drive down to the river's edge to have a look. It's enormous but our stop is spoilt by a number of drunk Aborigines.
We drive on for about 50 miles and arrive at our destination for the next couple of days, Coffes Harbour.
The weather's turned again and later it rains and continues in the evening. Before hand we take a walk along the sea front to towards the harbour but return before the rain starts.
Saturday 23rd
This morning we drive a few miles up the road to Boambee Creek reserve where we have arranged to hire kayaks for the morning. This
is a risky venture as our previous trips in double canoes have resulted in us paddling round in circles and arguing like mad ! We decide on a kayak each this time and are driven 4 K upstream to start our journey.
At first Christine thinks it's bumper kayaks as she rams me from behind and then hits me mid ships crying out torpedoes away !
We settle down and paddle upstream for about 20 mins and see spoonbills and fish jumping. We then turn around and start back. We see more birds (don't know what) and more fish. Then an osprey circles above and minutes later it skims over the water with a fish in its talons.
We paddle on for about an hour and a half and start to get weary as the wind and current are against us.
Finally after two hours we make it back with numb bums and arms as long as an Oran-u tangs !
After a coffee and cake we head back to our site and take a walk out to the beach where a two day surf competition is on. We catch the last few boat races
out into the surf and back. They all look like Hasselhoff from Bay Watch !
We quickly go back as the sky darkens at 3 and we have another huge storm and the rain continues till after 8. We are marooned in our van for the night.
Sunday 24th
We check out and wander over to the surf club to watch more boat racing. The surf's very rough and the boats have a hard time getting through it. In true Aussie style the commentator is very patronising of the women rowers. We then watch some of the teenage swimming events. They have to swim out through the breaking waves, turn right at a line of bouys, swim back and race up the beach. A distance of 1.1 K. It looks exhausting and they still have the stamina to run along the beach to finish.
We drive a few miles down to Uranga and stop by the estuary for a coffee and watch the fishermen in small boats. It's a very pleasant spot.
Another 10 miles further on and we reach our next night's stop at Nambucca Heads. Our site is right on the river estuary
and over looks a small lagoon. We have a walk along the sea wall and up to the Captain Cook memorial and lookout. The memorial stones there but the plaques missing ! From the lookout we get yet another stunning view over the estuary and sand spits.
We decide to top up our tans around the pool for the rest of the afternoon as we've not lazed around much lately.
Our peace and quiet is disturbed by a number of kids, one particular little boy has a very healthy pair of lungs-------- unfortunately. I have the dream of drowning him many times as I try to doze off !
We go out for dinner but have to be early as the restaurant closes at 8.
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Jeff Jane
non-member comment
Party
Had a great party plenty of friends and relatives (missed you two), good band lots of dancing. Post some pictures of the van, interested to see your facilities. Glad your enjoying yourselves and not sleeping all the way round!!