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Published: March 14th 2014
Washpool NP
Breakfast timeWe had planned to meet up with Becky in Grafton, so we therefore stayed a bit longer here, and fixed some stuff online, however, something got in her way, and she could therefore not join us. This was a shame, though we ended up having an amazing time nevertheless.
From Grafton we headed on inland, driving in the direction of Glen Innes. Our first stop on the route was Washpool NP(national park), where we arrived just in time for still having daylight for cooking. This is for us something rather rare, however it is very nice when we get to cook with light. Christian tried lighting a bun fire, whilst Louise cooked, however it was too wet, and we therefore retreated to the car for shelter and warmth. The firewood was provided for free, which we found really cool. The next day we got up and got ready for a nice 8km hike in the rain. We packed a lunch bag and headed off into the forest. It was a very interesting terrain, which kept changing between rainforest and normal forest. It was nice walking underneath the trees which protected from the rain and the temperature was just perfect for
Washpool NP
Our nice rain capes a longer walk. 8kilometers doesn’t sound like a lot, though due to the many climb ups and downs it’s hard. We walked along a little stream most of the time, and it was very beautiful the moment the sunlight came through the treetops later up the day. There was a funny bird which made an interesting sound, Christian described this as similar to the “loading and firing of a laser gun”, and we head it throughout the whole national park. The only annoying thing about this park was the countless leeches which crawled up our hiking boots and tried biting on to us through our socks. We only discovered these since one bit Louise’s ankle, however one just flick them off and no harm done. Especially Christian was rather “hysterical” about these, though he was lucky enough not to get bitten ;-). After returning from the hike, we took a rather alternative and cold “shower” in the middle of the picnic area using our water bottles as showerhead and the provided water tap (the park was completely deserted, so we didn’t disturb anybody). It was until now our most inventive shower.
After a good night’s sleep we drove across
the main street and entered Gibraltar NP. Here we drove far in, in a completely different landscape. It was dryer than Washpool, and here the campground was filled with Australians making holiday. We prepared the car for sleeping, collected some firewood and Louise studied a guano which was on our campsite before we headed off for a shorter hike to “The Needles”. Also here the flora was changing a lot and we saw heaps of big blue tongued skinks (lizard like) and other lizards. Christian was walking ahead (due to Louise’s fear of spider webs) and suddenly stopped very abruptly. On the path right in front of him was a black snake. Exactly then, our camera was out of battery and before we found the second camera we only got the tail of the snake, it was already taking off into the bush. From then on, Christian carried a stick which he used to clear the path and making any other animals aware of our coming. We emerged out from the forest up to a lookout from where we could see “The Needles”, a rock formation in a very beautiful setting. When returning to the campsite Christian got the fire
Washpool NP
A fallen tree going whilst Louise prepared some stick bread dough and chili con carne. We relaxed in front of the fire, first with playing dices and then reading in our common book together whilst baking the bacon bread over the fire – all in all an extremely cozy evening in the wild. The next day we slept long and played Yatzy all day, planned for a hiked, though we were just too comfortable and exhausted from the previous days that we decided just to relax. The evening repeated itself from the day before, and on the third day we finally left the campsite and drove towards Glen Innes. On the way we passed a turn off to “The Raspberry Lookout Point”, and we were able to see far over the Gibraltar NP in which we had just been and lots of other national park areas. It was a very beautiful sight. We slept on a rest area just outside town, and Christian cooked whilst Louise sorted out pictures on the laptop. The rest area was very nicely located next to a stream and little water hole and well off the noisy highway. But here we also encountered for the first time billions
of flies which are somehow present anywhere in the inland where it is hot and mainly dry. The fact that they constantly flew into our ears and eyes was very annoying but we soon had to learn to get used to this since this would continue all the way through the outback. Due to the remoteness of the rest area Louise got a little scared in the night and therefore couldn’t sleep while Christian was “snoring” worriless that well but luckily nothing happened.
Next day we headed into town, and saw for the first time how the cows move around inland – just simply freely next to and on the road. One has to be fairly careful when driving, due to the many different animals walking around on and by the streets. Many farmers do not even have fences for their stock. First stop in Glen Innes was the “Australian Standing Stones” a Celtic monument. Here we walked around a bit, though due to the annoyance of the flies and the heat, we fast retrieved back to Neville and the air-con. Then we drove into town, went for a short walk passing the town center with old colonial style
buildings, the “famous” park and church. Before we headed off for the highway taking us south we stocked up on food for the trip. On the whole inland trip we mainly planned to spend time in national parks, and we therefore did not calculate with much town-sightseeing, though when arriving in Armidale, we found the place fairly interesting and ended up staying an extra day, just in order to tag along a free guided heritage tour. The night we once again spend less legally in the streets and dinner was cooked at a town parking lot, but we did have a great time. In the morning we hopped on the bus for the tour and drove around town for about 4 hours, visiting the churches, cathedrals, university, schools, art museum and the old railway station. It was nice for once getting driven around and not having to think about navigation and reading about the stuff you see, but actually hear the stories from a local.
After the tour we hurried on to the next stop on our route, leaving Armidale and town-life behind, in order to head for more national parks via The Waterfall Way. The name made us
Washpool NP
Beautiful flora exited about seeing many beautiful waterfalls, however, due to dry season; we were to find many of these dried out. The first stop on our route was at _________ where we were expecting to see a cave in a water channel, however we never found this. We went for a nice walk nevertheless before again hitting the road towards the Wollomombi Falls. This was one of the dried out falls, however it was still very impressive and we went for a nice long walk down the gorge. Here we passed the longest dog fence in the world, with over 5000km crossing along three of Australia’s states in order to keep dingoes away from Australia’s sheep industry. We heard some noise in the bushes and as curious as Louise is, she went to explore and saw an echidna, kind of similar to a hedge hock, just much bigger. It was very sweet looking, though we decided to leave it alone and continued on with our hike. It was astonishing beautiful despite the lack of water, and we enjoyed being in the nature. Returning to Neville we headed up our leftover food from the previous day and played cards all night long
Washpool NP
Christian moving leeches from his pants in the car on the camp ground area. The next morning we slept in before driving on towards New England NP where we enjoyed a nice breakfast with the most amazing view from Point Lookout. We were lucky to come in the morning where the weather was still clear, so we could even see all the way to the coast. Christian climbed some trees whilst Louise was taken aback by the stunning view and like this we enjoyed our morning. After some time we decided to go for a 2.2km hike on “The Eagle Nest Track” and this very fast proved itself worth the effort. It was leading down the mountain side combining amazing views with birdlife and beautiful rainforest. Water was dripping from the huge cliffs hanging above the path and luckily the sun did not come prober through the clouds so the temperature was bearable. The decent was tough but it was part of the fun and despite the track was short it still took around two hours to complete, due to the step ups and downs. We made it back to the car and headed for the “Cathedral Rock NP”, a place Louise had been eager to
Washpool NP
Beautiful nature see. Here we parked the car in the picnic area and once more headed off for a hike, this time longer than the first one. This was now in a completely different setting, the forest was way drier than in New England, and the landscape was somehow more open around the path. We hiked in a circle and around after an hour’s time came the turnoff where one could climb up to the cathedral rocks. It was a rather steep ascent and one had to climb along on the stones in order to get to the top. The sun was baking down upon us and it was a very hot afternoon with no clouds on the sky. Once we reached the highest possible spot we had an amazing 360° round view with nothing but pure nature as far as the eye could see. Since the “mountain” we were on consisted mainly of huge boulders Christian absolutely had to climb on one of them located at the top and got a little scratch on his hand during the process. Therefore Louise had to play nurse with our first aid kit which we always have along so Christian could make it back
Washpool NP
Time for the monthly kiss (Louise: "Im such a lucky girl") to the car alive ;-). We reached our car in the evening and decided to stay for the night since it was a rather cozy spot. While Louise was in charge of cooking Christian could lean back and relax while reading his book and even got served cold coke with freshly squeezed orange. We enjoyed fried noodles with vegetables (unexpectedly we learned to manage without too much meat rather well ;-) ) and after dinner Christian took care of the dishes.
The next morning we left early in order to enjoy our breakfast at the Ebor falls. Since there were two levels of waterfalls straight after each other we made a little walk to see both of them. Unfortunately we again encountered countless annoying flies so we could not even sit down proper and enjoy our oat but had to walk while eating. From the falls we continued our inland journey to Dorrigo, a rather small but cozy village. There we made a short sightseeing walk, bought fruits and vegetables in a really cheap local store and also got fueled up our car with one of the cheapest liter prizes so far which was really surprising since usually the
Washpool NP
Christian searching for wildlife in the flood fuel got more and more expensive the more remote the place was. Also did we use the opportunity to check our mails at the free wifi of the village’s library and afterwards continued our drive through the Bellingen Shire to its name giving town Bellingen. Also here we strolled around the centre and passed an organic fruit and vegetable store where Louise nearly threw herself on a huge bucket filled with passion fruits ;-). Since it is also nearly impossible for Louise to leave such a place empty handed we bought some more healthy supplies and afterwards went to the rather famous local ice cream place. To our surprise the price for one scoop of ice cream was 4,50 AUD while and additional scoop only cost 1,00 AUD so instead of taking each one we shared two scoops (weird Australian logic!). But our flavors passion fruit and blueberry where extremely delicious ;-). Before leaving the town we got some more information about the upcoming places at the Visitor Information Centre where we also could fill up all our water bottles and canister with filtered water which was a very welcome exchange to the usual water with heavy chlorine taste. Our
Gibraltar NP
Man make fire next destination was Coffs Harbor which as the name already suggests was located at the ocean and therefore brought us back to the coast. But before reaching the coast we still had quite some distance through the Bellingen Shire to cover which lead us past a very green and hilly landscape amazing and reminding us both of the “Shire” from the Lord of the Rings movies ;-).
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