It was a slow and tricky drive up to Dorrigo in the morning but we managed to get to the Rainforest Visitor Centre before it officially opened. That was OK because we could still access the skywalk and the rainforest walks. Not too many birds to see but we could hear the whipbird regularly with its distinctive call. We walked to a lovely little picnic spot in a clearing called the Glade and it was full of birds. We spent a while chasing the birds around as some of them we had not seen previously. We had the place to ourselves. We had intended to eat at the park cafe but it had just opened and the staff didn't seem very interested so we pushed on to the town of Dorrigo where we had a fantastic ... read more

Today was a "rest" day at home because we had agreed that we would spend the whole of tomorrow spectating at the rally. This would involve an early start and lots of walking to different viewing areas. We decided to have a leisurely start by going to the local shopping centre and having breakfast and then trying our hand at standup paddleboarding. Georgi (the lightweight) took to the paddleboard like a duck to water, but Lenny found balancing on the board a little more difficult. We had hoped to hire the paddleboard on a rising tide but somehow our booking got confused and, in some places, we had just enough water to float along. Still. it was good fun (but not as much fun as kayaking).... read more

Yamba was voted the best town in Oz in 2009 by Australian Traveller Magazine. We thought we would check it out on the way south. First of all though were birthday wishes from the family and a surprise cake. We had breakfast and then birthday cake. On the way to Yamba, we stopped at a rest area and had coffee and out came the carrot cake again. It tasted excellent. We arrived in Yamba about lunchtime and decided a walk around the beach to the shops would be in order. Our caravan park was close to the beach and breakwater (like Ballina) and we had a lovely walk looking at the yachts that were moored, and the birds before we got to the beach. Yamba has a few small cliffs to walk around, but eventually we ... read more

We drove over the river (into NSW) looking for a place to have coffee and finally, we spied a coffee vendor outside a shopping centre just as we were driving out of Tweed Heads. He had great coffee and a selection of roasted nuts for just $2. Yum. As we drove down the motorway sipping on our coffee, police cars kept flashing by with sirens going. We counted seven!! We had planned to bypass Byron but Georgi was keen to have a look and there was a lot of roadworks happening so it seemed like a good idea to have a break. Byron is a wonderful place (geographically) but there are far too many rules - there are dictatorial toilets (they sing and then say you must finish in ten minutes or the door will open!) ... read more

We got to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary early so that we could get photos of Georgi feeding the lorikeets. Not so many this time (previously I have seen hundreds) but the birds still enjoyed being fed nectar and water from the dish held by Georgi. We then moved on to a quick tour of the site spending lots of time in the walk through aviaries and with the more special animals. We were particularly keen to see the cassowaries at Currumbin (given that we had looked without success in FNQ). However, Currumbin only had two cassowaries and one had been sent away (possibly for breeding) so there was only one sad looking cassowary in the enclosure. We didn't even take a photo it looked so sad. There are now only about 1,000 of these birds left ... read more