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Published: October 22nd 2012
Our next stop was Noosa, a developed seaside town packed with boutiques, surf shops, upmarket restaurants and bars, a great spot for a short stay with lots of money to spend! Paul patiently followed me meandering around and commenting on what I would purchase if I had the dollar! We spent a few hours on the beach, really busy as it was the last few days of the school holiday. We spent the rest of the day driving down the coast road seeing all the little surfy towns. We bought a 6'3 tooth pick of a board along the way but didn't bother trying it out at Surfers Paradise, we found it anything but. Instead we headed to the beautiful Byron Bay and had a great three days on a campsite next to the beach, getting in the water, but not on the board (!) and walking around the town centre amongst the bare footed locals. It felt like home to us and had we found a free camp we would have stayed longer or forever, it was ace.
From here we headed inland and took a route called the Rainforest Way which took us through all the charming hinterland
villages on a narrow windy road until we reached the hippie town of Nimbin. Famous for the legendary 1973 Aquarius Festival, people stop here to pick up some green stuff, so, we found what we were looking for and made our way to an overnight truck stop. We woke to a family of 6 kangaroos next to our van, complete with joey in pouch! We had breakfast at the quiet town of Emerald Beach before travelling further down the coast taking in the views on the ocean drive. We had the most amazing lunch stop at Valla Beach, peanut butter sandwich in hand, with the best view of a couple of whales playing and putting on a show for us, we even heard their whale song. No one around but us, unforgettable. We spent the night in Port Macquarie, a family feel of a town with great beaches and a real sense of a community, which many of the places we have visited lacked. Watching the 4 year olds learning to surf as we sunbathed put us to shame! Port is also home to the world’s only koala hospital, run by volunteers with no government funding. All the koala have
been rescued, injured as a result of road accidents, tree falling or dog attacks (predominately staffy bull terriers). This amazing sanctuary has a free guided tour around the yards and we witnessed the koalas awake and feeding. Our lovely tour volunteer Margaret spent a while chatting to us (we recognised her North Yorkshire accent) and told us we should seriously consider relocating!!
We drove through the beautiful Manning Valley to find our free camp for the next couple of days, an amazing spot in Coopernook National Park. A gorgeous forest clearing filled with orange trees ready for picking and free to take. It seemed strange being allowed to make a fire, considering the threat of bush fires, but Paul took advantage making one from scratch and we had a great few nights sat next to our camp fire drinking whiskey and watching the flying foxes swooping above us. Of course there were no showers so we were ready to head to the hunter valley in the search for running water and wine!
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No Relocating!
Sounds a lovely area, but please come home! XXXXX