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Published: March 19th 2015
Spoonbills
Lake LiddellThe journey from Lightning Ridge to Tamworth was interesting as the landscape changed from the drought hit pains into irrigation areas with cotton fields at various stages of growth turning dusty red and grey into lush green fields. Typical of outback NSW, each planted field was huge.
Between irrigated areas there were obviously mixed farms growing grain and fattening sheep or cattle. The closer we got to Tamworth, the better the country side looked, probably due to summer rains which the western parts had totally missed out on for the past two summers.
Tamworth is quite a picturesque town sitting in a river valley. Plenty of lush green in this town. We stopped here overnight with the hope of having a sticky beak around the city. However, parking was almost non-existent for a motorhome in the city, so we gave up, drove past the Golden Guitar and headed south east looking for a cheap camp for the night.
There was a further improvement in the countryside as we drove through the rolling hill country. Not only was the change from flat and dry to rolling and productive a real change after driving up from South Australia, but the
Glowing Lake
Lake Liddell driving itself became much more interesting and kept one busy. No longer half an hour between seeing another motorist, but every few minutes we shared the road with other travellers. You will find a couple of Dash Cam photos of Hot Rods towing their caravans towards Tamworth. There is a major Hot rod Show starting there and accordingly accommodation in Tamworth was becoming scarce.
Our quest for a cheap camp proved a little frustrating as camping ground after camping ground was either unsuitable or closed down. As a last resort Marg said there was a camp at Lake Liddell but we had no other information, particularly access. As it turned out, it was a great choice with powered sites at a modest price. Good showers and toilets too - just what the Doctor ordered.
We had the choice of three sites and took the one where the truck was most level and then went walkabout before dinner. Geese, ducks, swamp hens. pelicans and spoon bills, plus of course the ever present minors and parrots.
Sunset looked really promising, so I sat down at the lakes edge shooting away happily. Unbeknown to me, a storm was approaching across
the lake hidden from my view. The front arrived with amazing gusts of wind, the sunset was blacked out in a couple of minutes, and after a mobile call from Marg, I hurried back to the motorhome just before it rained.
We awoke ahead of sunrise at Lake Liddell and were greeted with a very richly coloured dawn sky reflected in the lake. Just to complete the scene, the early Pelican was out looking for breakfast, or was it pre breakfast exercise?
After the storm that ruined the sunset for us the previous evening and wind blowing at storm level, the calm colourful morning was great.
The days journey was short, just under 100ks to our family who live in the Newcastle area.
It was great to catch up with the family after 10 months. Margaret appreciated her lessons in using her I-Pad better. Teacher was 6 year old Caleb. Very competent. He demonstrated how competent he was by adding many kid appropriate games to Marg's I-Pad. I must admit I got sucked into one - a T20 cricket game which is quite realistic. The challenge was on to see who could get the highest score.
Hot Rod Towing Caravan
There was a Hot Rod show starting the next day in Tamworth. Guess that was his destination. Not me although I was ahead for a while.
After a few days we headed north to Brooms head, an easy drive from Newcastle, unless I'm the navigator. Three years ago we drove up Waterfall Way and I was keen to revisit. To visit this area we decided to drive through Stroud and Gloucester to Armidale and then down Waterfall Way. The first section of the journey climbs from the coastal planes through the Great Dividing Range and Barrington Tops. The road was like driving secondary Tasmanian twisted roads, climbed incredibly high, and shook our teeth out. Bucket Way as it is known was really in poor condition, probably as a result of the logging trucks using this road regularly.
The scenery was great, particularly the rugged formations of Barrington Heights. Sadly we found no good stopping spots to get photos.
The height from this road down into the valleys was quite amazing, and for my co-traveller who isn't all that keen to topple off the edge of twisty roads, just looked straight ahead, mostly.
Eventually we left Bucket Way and joined Thunderbolt Way. New name, same standard of road. It was from here
that we photographed from the peak of the road down into the adjoining valley.
Once we left the current working forest area, the road improved a little, and then we joined the New England Highway to Armidale. We could cruise at 100ks at last. The aforementioned highways were either 80 or 90k max roads. the twisty bits more like 60ks.
The Waterfall way turnoff is just a little short of Armidale, and Tommy advised us to turn right in 450 meters at the round-about. Large yellow signs indicated that the road was closed at this point, and to travel via Armidale. We saw one more detour sign steering us into Armidale, then no further info. Tommy has been testing our patience lately, and again he took us through the strangest route, but eventually joined Waterfall Way.
By and large, this road was in top order, so we were able to whizz through the first half of the journey really easy. Great rolling farm land again until we come to the point where the decent starts down the great dividing range.
The largest falls to visit are the Ebor falls. The lower falls are a single drop,
Clouds
Lake Liddell the upper falls a double drop. There has been plenty of rain in this region lately, so we looked forward to seeing these flowing well.
Further down the road there are two other waterfalls that come down the hillside and cross under the road. There was a good flow on these two falls as well. After extreme rain, these become a combined waterfall and car wash.
We had hoped to camp just past the second of those falls, the Newell Falls at Roses Park. We were concerned when we got there and found it a little wet and soft underfoot, so headed onto Bellingen, and from there to the Pacific Highway and Halfway Creek where we have camped several times.
We got into Bellingen and Tommy surprised us with 'Turn left Now!!!'. We did, and after a turn right ended up in the Bellingen Show Grounds camping area. Now while we had talked about camping at Bellingen, we were ultra surprised that Tommy showed us this camp. But he wasn't done yet. Tommy had taken a shortcut between two streets and then put us on a road he said would take us out to the Pacific Highway.
Spoonbills
Lake Liddell This road finally got so narrow that two wheelbarrows would have trouble passing, and the potholes joined hands with tar stained hands. We stopped at one rare wide section to let other cars through. One was a local concerned that we were lost. Tommy knew where we were, but we sure didn't. She confirmed that this was the picturesque shortcut, and about 4ks down the road we would link with The Old Pacific Highway, and a few more ks onto the Pacific Highway. We proceeded with a degree of caution and finally, as promised joined the highway.
We zipped along the highway, crossed Coffs Harbour and arrived at Halfway Creek about 9.5 hours after leaving the family. If we had just come up the Pacific Highway, we would have done the trip in 4.5 hours.
After a good sleep, the final leg of this journey was to Brooms Head via Grafton, but Tommy wasn't done with us yet.
He had us turning off the highway into a lane between two rows of sugar cane that he alone was privy to. If the other shortcut was a dud, this looked even less promising, so we passed on
by. A few Ks later he had us turn right off the highway and jump down 4 meters to a road that goes under the highway.
Finally he told us to exit now, and this time there was a sign saying Brooms Head, and he agreed with the ever reliable Marg Marg that this was the preferred route. Later, using Google Maps, Marg discovered that by taking the first track through the cane fields, we would after many wriggles and potholes, have saved 100 meters, but probably died of exhaustion and fear.
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Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Well done
Some great photos and comment home looms ever closer now.