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Published: March 31st 2011
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On leaving Tamworth, we decided we'd once more head for the coast and turned off the New England Highway onto the Oxley Highway and over the Great Dividing Range. There were many big hills to climb up and travel down. We discovered the Apsley Falls .. well, originally they were discovered by that intrepid explorer, John Oxley, but we hadn't known they existed till we followed a sign to them. The main fall drops 65 metres down a steep slate-edge gorge and then down several more hundred metres to the bottom of the gorge.
The hills got steeper .. we were travelling down to Mt. Seaview where Jason had been to a school camp many years ago. I don't think the camp is there anymore, perhaps taken over and the name changed. We drove into Wauchope where the tibouchinas were flowering everywhere - ours is a picture at home and I thought they'd be finished these few hundred kilometres north. It's good to see Timber Town is still operating - we must go back one day.
We stayed the night at North Haven and in the morning we walked along the breakwall of the river where it goes out
to sea. A dolphin was having a great time near the bar, obviously it was good fishing there. It was such a lovely day, we spent a lot of time sitting by the river in the sunshine, many locals chatting to us as they passed.
The next night we decided to try the caravan park at Lighthouse Beach (Port Macquarie). We had a walk along the beach in the afternoon and hoped to see koalas at night in the caravan park, having been told 'they're everywhere there'. Well, they weren't and we didn't!
Doing something of a zig zag of the area, we decided our next destination was towards Gloucester. As we turn over our motor home club calendar each month, we're greeted with the scene of a motor home camped somewhere remote and beautiful. We were particularly taken with Gloryvale Reserve which was just a few kilometres out of Gloucester and we set off to find it. It was over some winding hilly roads but quite lovely scenery. Once we found it, we parked by a picturesque babbling creek, and it was there that we camped the night - quite remote, no TV or phone reception, the
North Haven Beach
from the breakwall only sounds - the creek and the bellbirds - delightful. Somewhere in that creek were platypusses/pi so the sign said but we don't attract wildlife. All lovely though.
Today we turned off the highway and drove the Lakes Way towards Forster. I always love the waterways of Forster - we drove to the beach and then along the riverside, watching all the time the black sky and the lightening and hearing the thunder. By the time we'd driven to Elizabeth Beach with it's beautiful white sand, the heavens opened and we were given a pretty impressive storm. We sat it out, had lunch, and hit the road once it finished, driving along the Lakes Way. If the weather had been better we would have found somewhere for the night - we thought maybe Port Stephens, but it was drizzling rain until we'd left the area - then it fined up.
We had a look at Newcastle waterfront which we always like, and tonight we'll stay at Swansea - tomorrow we're home.
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