In the Country

We extended our stop at Nambucca Heads to take the opportunity to head away from the coast and go on a day trip into the hills. We drove inland for about 45km and climbed about 800 metres onto a plateau. The road we travelled on was part of a drive called “Waterfall Way”. We didn’t think much of the two waterfalls we passed on the way as any scenic attraction they had was spoiled by the road passing by within metres. There was a pretty waterfall near the town of Dorrigo that we went and looked at before heading off into a National Park to have our picnic lunch. The picnic ground was in a clearing where there were several picnic tables and places to light fires. It was a very grey overcast day and being up 800 metres and in the bush it was only about 13 degrees so we didn't linger long. We stopped off at the Park visitors centre and walked out on a sky walk. This was a short walkway from the centre that went out over an escarpment so very quickly you were above the treetops. There was a view down the valley but it was obscured by a lot of smoke. We never did discover where the smoke came from as it had disappeared by the time we drove back down the valley.

Our next stop was for 2 nights in Bundjalung National Park at the Woody Head camp. We did plan to stay for 4 nights but when we got to the camp we discovered the coming weekend was Queensland Labour Weekend so they were fully booked and as a result we could only stay for Thursday & Friday. The camp was right by the sea in a bay beside a headland. The bay was very sheltered but it was a bit too rough around the corner and out on the rocks for fishing. For both days the weather was overcast with passing showers so we didn't wander very far from shelter. We were able to light camp fires there so lit a camp fire each evening to sit by while we had our meal. (they even supplied the firewood for free)

We intended to visit Byron Heads, the eastern most point of Australia and were going to camp in that area but we had to change our plans. Due to Qld Labour Weekend and Byron Bay having a big ocean swim on over the weekend, to which they were expecting 5000 people, the coastal camps were full. We headed inland and ended up at a rural town called Murwillumba where we camped at their show grounds for 4 nights. We had water, power, toilets and hot showers (not flash but OK) There was a group of Brisbane caravan club people there too, so there were a lot more people there than we expected. Our view from the caravan was over a paddock with cattle (each animal had at least one egret with it) then over a field of sugar cane to a banana plantation then to bushy covered hills in the distance.

We spent a day visiting a couple of National Parks. As you may have realised by now Australia has lots of National Parks scattered throughout. The first park we went to was quite close to where we are staying and when we were nearing the parking area we discovered that lots of others had decided it was a nice day and this was a nice place to go for a walk. There must have been about 100 cars there so we decided to give it a miss and carry on to the next park, another 35km down the road. There was a good gravel road through this park and the road climbed up to 1050 metres where we had lunch in a nice picnic area. We went for a walk down a short track that had information boards; there were quite large Antarctic beech trees, ground and tree ferns and trees like Nikau palm trees. We stopped off at 2 lookout points that gave views over the Tweed Valley below. The Tweed valley is in an old volcanic area with many volcanic escarpments and peaks forming a ring around the valley. (Photo - Tweed Valley & Mount Warning)

One morning we went to a cattle sale. The previous night we could hear the sound of cattle lowing and sometimes bellowing so guessed they were at yards nearby in preparation for a sale. We joined the 60 or so locals in the stands and watched while several pens we put up for auction. There were about a dozen who might have been bidding although most times we couldn't spot who had made the bid, as signals were very subtle.