Can you change a plan when you didn’t have one in the first place?

---

Having exhausted the attractions around Nundle and Chaffey Weir it was time to move on, but not before doing a trip up to Hanging Rocks. This feature can be found at the end of a twisty, rutted dirt road off the main Nundle to Barry (no, it is a place, not a person). The view was spectacular, although Geoff and his fear of heights was not happy having a 1000’ drop at the end of his toes. He got the photos, but they do not convey the depth of the sheer drop from the lookout.

As we were in the area, Geoff had made contact with the fellow in Armidale who is still building his GBS clubman (same as Geoff’s). We set sail for Armidale and checked into a caravan park. The car builder had moved into a new house since we were last there, and the GPS said that there was no access to his street. It turned out that it was a new estate and his home was only about 400mts from the caravan park, albeit across the main highway. Geoff was surprised to see the car as it is all but finished and only needs an engineer’s sign-off for registration and it goes without saying that he was given as much encouragement as possible to get the job done. The next day we did a bit of shopping, and then headed off to visit some of the gorges on the Waterfall Way. We have been on this road out of Armidale before, but have not had the opportunity to see the sights with the caravan on the back of the car. We were lucky that there had been some recent rain and the waterfalls were running, although not in full flow, and would be spectacular in the wet season.

So back to the ‘plan’. The next day we woke to the weather station advising that it was zero deg outside and 4 deg inside and a white frost lay all around. Marg was unequivocal in her desire to abandon the joys of the inland route to find some warmer areas closer to the coast. So the ‘plan’ to stay inland until we got to Queensland changed, and the car was pointed towards the coast. On one of our biggest days on the road, we ended up in Grafton, where the weather was a little better, however we have given this area a fair work over in the past so it was only an overnight stop. We stopped at the showground, not remembering that it has very basic facilities and found ourselves jammed in amongst a number of other travellers seeking a low cost night. It did provide the opportunity to study the travellers’ bible and the next day we were on the way to Brooms Head and a National Park camp on the ocean loosely known as Redcliffs. We managed to reverse the caravan into a small designated site (although there were acres of space in the campground) and settled in to spend the night with the crashing surf as the background sound to help us sleep. We built a campfire that night and invited a fellow traveller over to join us for a drink and a bit of warmth. We woke to find a mob of kangaroos grazing 20 metres from the van. They are obviously used to humans invading their dining area as they were quite unconcerned at our presence.

But we needed more than a few kangaroos to keep us at Redcliffs, and we sought out the little town of Alstonville, which is inland from Ballina. It was another showground that played host to us for the next 2 nights. It seems that a lot of smallish country towns are seeing the benefit of opening up the space and facilities of their showgrounds to travellers on a budget. We have heard many travellers say that they a more willing to spend their money on their daily needs in these towns, rather than pay high fees in caravan parks for facilities they do not need. Geoff was particularly excited when he was walking up to the entrance to find a 1927 T model Ford hot rod towing a caravan rolling in the front gates. Now that is not something you see every day!

The plan was to go to Murwillumbah next, and we did, however on arrival we found the showground was hosting a ‘car show’ and fete which would have made staying a little difficult. So after renegotiating the streets of the town, which were not designed for caravan traffic, we changed the plan. Mullumbimby was not far back down the road, in fact it was not far from where we had started, but hey, what were we to do? We followed the instructions from that girl in the GPS and found ourselves heading into the hinterland on a road that was laid by the convicts and has not been touched since. Talk about narrow – never mind narrow, it was just turn after twisting turn, often with sheer drop-offs to oblivion. Judging by the speed of some of the oncoming traffic, it was quite obvious that the locals knew this road very well, and I am sure they did not expect to see a great big caravan using all of the meagre bitumen in the corners coming their way! Now Margaret has praised Geoff (yes, I know it is worth putting in print – I might even BOLD it) for getting us down precipitous mountains in one piece, but this time it was Geoff who said that we would definitely not be using that road ever again. We checked in at the Mullumbimby show ground for 3 days and did a little touring around the area. Marg had a particular desire to revisit Nimbin, and I am not saying anything about her habit, but we made the trip across to the little town that we visited some 7 years ago. Nothing has changed with the hippies still smoking pot in the street and buskers in the street trying not to look stoned. I did however sense that it is a town of 2 faces with the ‘straight’ people tolerating the hash culture because of the money and indeed life that it brings into a town that does not seem to have much else going for it.

The road to Nimbin passed a detour to Minion Falls, so with great anticipation we took that detour. The falls are located in the Night Cap National Park, and wouldn’t you know it there was a perfectly good bitumen road...until we got to the National Park when it deteriorated into a 3^rd grade, unmade goat track with pot holes and dry rivulets to challenge drivers. What is it with the peoples parks that the custodians do not want the people to have easy access to them? I have this rant every trip, and nothing changes. There was no turning back, as the 3^rd grade, unmade goat track with pot holes and dry rivulets ran across the very sharp ridge, with no hope of stopping if you went over the edge, so we continued and were completely surprised to find at least 30 other cars had found their way to the top. We figured that the journey must have been worth it given the locations undoubted popularity. On advice we took a little track into the bush and followed the signs to the falls. They would be really spectacular with more water, with the viewing platform jutting out to give a slightly frontal view if the point where the water starts its drop. There was a sign on the platforn requesting that you do not throw anything over the edge as there may be people below. Geoff confesses that he could not verify that, but Margaret was happy to look over the edge and there were in fact people picnicking under her feet – 100mts under! Although it is not stated, the road is a loop and best treated as a one way, with the direction of traffic the same way that we did it.

Our least leg of this part of the trip was to Noosa, and although we started early we came to a halt about 50 kms south of the NSW/Qld border..A “B double” semi had gone off the road and down an embankment, and the recovery was quite a difficult exercise. We sat on the motorway for nearly an hour with no option to take an alternate route. These things happen, and fortunately not very often so we cannot complain too much. The good part is that from where we left to our final destination it was 99% motorway, and relatively easy.

There will be a small interruption to communication as we will be here for a week or two.

Geoff & Marg.

---

Photos

Wollomombi Falls out of Armidale
The drop from top to bottom would be approx 150 mts. - too much to get into the photo with any meaning.

Our welcoming committee at Redcliffs
RedCliffs camp out of Brooms Head

From the headland at RedCliffs camp
The main camping area to the right and Brooms Head in the left distance.

Not a bad view to wake up to in the morning
Redcliffs

Alstonville show ground
The owner seemed quite comfortable with towing the van in front of the hot rod - not a bad effort for a '27 Ford T!

Next stop is 100mts below.
Minion Falls in the Night Cap N.P

Minion Falls
Nightcap range Falls out of Mullenbimby