Corindi Beach and Grafton (22-25 March)

---

From the Waterfall Way we reached the Pacific Highway once again and travelled north through Coffs Harbour and Woolgoolga. We intended to stay in Yuraygir National Park and drove the 17km in off the highway towards the coast. We arrived at Station Creek camp ground around 5:30pm, found a site that looked nice enough and began to set up. However, before we got very far we noticed that we were being mobbed by swarms of sandflies. This changed our opinion of the camp site dramatically such that we decided to camp somewhere else. We had passed a turn off to Pebby Beach on the way in and thought that we might try there, but on the way we passed someone coming the other way who advised that the sandflies were “pretty horrendous” there too. The tide was also coming in fast, which meant the access to Pebbly Beach was a bit dicey, even if we wanted to brave the sandflies, which we definitely did not.

In the end, we backtracked to Corindi Beach Caravan Park, which was only about 10km back down the highway from the Station Creek turn-off. This was a very nice caravan park set on grassy lawns right on the coast and overlooking the beach, not to mention that there were no sandflies!

The next day (Monday) we went for a swim at the beach and did some school work in the afternoon. After dinner that evening, Alex, Annelies and Thomas walked to the community hall and joined in with a bingo fund-raiser for the local primary school. The manager of the caravan park (Anne) had mentioned it so Alex thought it would be fun to go along. They made up a table with another couple from the park and Anne and thoroughly enjoyed the evening, despite the presence of some serious bingo player who got a bit upset with the jovial fun being had by some of the contestants! Anne won a round and asked Annelies and Thomas to choose a prize. To the great surprise of Alex, they chose a box of fruit and vegetables. Anne generously insisted that we keep the prize so we had veges sorted for a while.

On Tuesday we packed up and decided to head to Red Rock for the morning. We walked out to the headland and then went for a swim at Little Beach, located on the more sheltered inlet side of the point. Anne had told us how you could float in the current at Saltwater Creek inlet as the tide was coming in. When we were there, the tide was going out, but there was a strong current and we all had fun floating out the inlet to the sea, making sure of course that we left the flow before getting too far offshore. We had lunch at Red Rock (fish & chips) and then drove into Grafton.

We stayed with Eric and Margaret who own a 25 acre property just 5 minutes from South Grafton. We had never met Eric and Margaret before but they are parents of our friend Matt in Melbourne, and they welcomed us as if we had known them for years.

After afternoon tea, we all jumped into their Prado (Eric put one of the third row seats in especially for us) and we were taken for a tour of Grafton. We drove to the Crown Hotel and went for a walk around the town with its lovely old buildings. We had a drink at the pub overlooking the Clarence River and Susan Island and then stopped at their daughter Robin's place so that Thomas could meet their Border Collie 'grand-dog' called Sally. Back at their place, Eric, an avid bird watcher, took Mark, Alex and Annelies for a walk around the property while Thomas helped Margaret cut up the veges for dinner and then prepare an apricot crumble for dessert (eaten with custard). Yum!

On Wednesday, we hopped back in the Prado and headed for the coast, with Eric making sure we avoided as much of the highway as possible. We travelled the back roads to Ulmarra, took the ferry across the Clarence River and headed for Lawrence. We then took another ferry across the Clarence to Woodford Island and drove through the Scottish town of Maclean on the way to Yamba. We had morning tea at Yamba and then all went for a nice long swim and body surf at Turner Beach. Afterwards, we drove up to Clarence Head Lighthouse which had great views of the head of the Clarence River and Main Beach. We picked up some fish & chips for lunch and devoured them at Whiting Beach. Coincidentally, while browsing the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper after lunch we discovered that Yamba had just been voted Australia's top town!

We headed back to Grafton where Margaret prepared a roast-beef dinner with fruit salad and ice-cream for dessert. It's a hard life but somebody had got to do it!

We had a great time at Eric and Margaret's and hope that we can repay the generous hospitality some day.

---

Photos

Eric & Margaret's Dam
Note the specially mowed duck path

Saltwater Creek inlet
Flows out of the Corindi River

Saltwater Creek
Going with the (tidal) flow!