Ellenborough - Part 1

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We left Scotts Head... early. Much earlier than I was happy about.

The drive was uneventful, which is the only kind of drive you want with over 2.5t following closely behind your car. We stopped for diesel and got some Subway breakfast to fuel us. Note for everyone... a McDonalds breakfast trumps a Subway one in lots of ways and I won't be making the Subway mistake again.

Our destination was Ellenborough Reserve (no. 318 in the Camps 6 book) and since it is a bit off the normal highway I imagined it would be quiet with few people there. How wrong was I. It was packed! Luckily a couple of people were moving on and we found a perfect spot to pull up and get setup and ready for the rain.

I don't know if my words can do the camp justice. There is no town as such in Ellenborough, no shop, there's just an old church, a police station and some houses. The reserve is tucked in at the end of a side street off the Oxley Highway and is a bit of a point. The Ellenborough River is on one side and joins into the Hastings River which runs along the other side. There's a cleared camping area and picnic area. It is set into a valley, so all around there are tree covered mountains and the camp is surrounded by bush. Kookaburras and whip birds call frequently throughout the day and if you sit and watch quietly the occasional pheasent can be seen ducking out of the bush.

When we arrived it was overcast and there was low flying cloud covering the tops of the mountains, beautiful, peaceful and we hadn't even checked out the river. The river was cold, flowing pretty swiftly and exactly what you expect a mountain river to appear. Ryan has some photos, so hopefully I will have some pictures for the next post.

The couple staying beside us are lovely and happy to have a chat. They are providing us with great company and we are doing much story swapping. Another guy here has become temporarily permenant after he rolled his car and caravan on the Oxley Highway further along from here.

No power or water here, so not sure how long we'll be staying.

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