October 13th 2011
We left Tin Can Bay on Wednesday with the intent of making a night stop-over at Yandina, this town is home of the Buderim Ginger Factory and the Macadamia Nut Factory. Therefore a mandatory stop to top up with ginger products, macadamia samples and a nice cup of hot chocolate at the cafe. It is a very busy tourist stop and is the major drawcard for the town.
The next day, we crossed the border into NSW and on to Murwillumbah, our third visit. Unfortunately, the caravan park has deteriorated a little since we were there in 2006. We decided to go there because of the NSW school holidays, inland is less busy than the coast and no holiday loading for site fees. On our previous visits we had made friends with the proprietors, Stuart and Gwyneth. They would be heartbroken to see how their hard work has been let go. We did find that long term resident Margaret was still there and pleased to see us, one friendly face. Three days was enough for us to revisit a few of our favourite venues, The Natural Arch Waterfall, just over the Border Ranges; Clarrie Hall Dam and to Mount Warning. The dam is a beautiful picnic spot, the Mount is quite different. Being the core of an ancient Volcano that formed steep crags of the Border Ranges, Mt Warning is said to be the first part of Australia to greet the sun every morning. The walk/climb to the top is reputed to take over 5 hours, so we only did enough to show us that we would be making hard work of it.
From Murwillumbah to another inland location, Mullumbimby, to camp at the Rugby Leagues Ground, from there, we were able to do a bit more sightseeing along the coast and into the ranges. We revisited Nimbin, (The “Grass” Capital of Australia) again after driving through beautiful forest ranges to see Rocky Creek Dam and to Minyon Falls. This time at Nimbin no one came up to us to ask if we wanted to buy any “grass”. We didn’t but were disappointed to find things “not quite the same”. Some say that if you haven’t been to Nimbin, you haven’t been anywhere!
Brunswick Heads, was very busy, being a favourite family destination in the holidays, quite a tent city on the shores of the estuary with dozens of family groups enjoying the break. We saw enough though to mark this up as a great place to visit again, the fresh fish and chips at the Marina were good enough to go back for.
Byron Bay, a very popular holiday destination for thousands of overseas and Aussie youth, is the place where one can visit the lighthouse at Cape Byron, the most Easterly point of mainland Australia, . Not that we think that the youth come to see that, it is the popular beach, the weather and the surf that attracts. On our visit, it again was very busy and not a town for “grey nomads” to R&R.
As we walked up the hill to the lighthouse, we were rewarded by a distant view of a pod of three-four whales. They were moving steadily on their way south but still put on a bit of a show for visitors to the Cape.
After Byron, a bit further south, we did find a spot that would be worth adding to our itinerary at a later date. Near Lennox Head, we found a caravan park at Lake Ainsworth that would be ideal for a stop-over, having the lake one side of the road, the lovely beach on the other.
CASINO
Moved on to Casino, a larger town that is the centre of cattle country along the Richmond River Valley; beautiful country with great drives around the many State and National Parks and forests, scenic surprises around every bend. One day saw us driving along the Richmond River to Evans Head, the mouth of the river. There is a magnificent look-out above the river estuary, facing north and viewing miles of pristine (and empty) beaches. Again, we earmarked the caravan park for possible future visits.
Along the valley, we came across the small town of Coraki, another caravan park on the river bank that would be worth a stay, fishing should be good, and the people we met were friendly and welcomed travellers.
Another day, a drive out to Kyogle, still on the Richmond River; Kyogle is surrounded by the ranges and forests, great cattle country and a busy service centre. The town was due to have its annual Bull Riding Event and Show Weekend. On to Toonumbar Dam for our picnic lunch, followed by a lovely forest drive through the Richmond Range National Park. The roads are unmade, winding their way through the forests, alive with small marsupials that we think were paddymelons, we also saw a lone Echidna, spotted the lovely Regent Bower Bird, a rare sighting. The road along the ridge-tops follows the Cambridge Plateau Forest Drive, 35km of narrow track. We only saw a couple of other vehicles along the way and had a pleasant afternoon drive. We were quite surprised at the southern end of the trek to exit onto the Casino-Tabulam highway at a familiar spot. We remembered that on our very first visit to northern NSW, we had earmarked a free camp that when we got to the turn-off with the caravan in tow, saw the sign about “4-wheel drive, impassable when wet”. We then changed our mind about trying to find the camp at the park. After coming right through the park, it was self evident that trying to find the camp with van in tow would have been disastrous.
School holidays in NSW are over so we now can head back down to the coast. We decided to stay at the North Beach Holiday Park at Mylestom. The small town, a “locality”, is south of Coffs Harbour, set between the ocean and the estuary of the Bellingen River. A very quiet spot, Mylestom has lovely walks along the river, or along the beach if inclined. Eight Mile Beach is deserted, early morning fishing, alone with the pod of dolphins just off-shore, it looks a good surfing beach to me.
We took a drive along the Bellingen River Valley to the township of Bellingen, still cattle country and up to the mountain town of Dorrigo. Dorrigo boasts “...where the mountains meet the sky”. The surrounding country is the highest parts of NSW outside of the Australian Alps. At Dorrigo, we visited the Rainforest Centre, walked down through the rainforest to the lovely Crystal Showers waterfalls and later visited the Dangar Falls. Both falls are easy to get to; it’s just that the walk back up-hill is exhausting.
Dorrigo is also home to what is said to be the largest collection of railway steam locomotives and rolling stock, “.....possibly the largest collection in the world”. The yards are not open to visitors but you can drive along the side road to view the steam locos, we counted ten along the track nearest the road with many wagons and rolling stock across a wide area.
There are many NSW State and National Parks around this area and many waterfalls, the highway from the coast across the mountains to Armidale is named the Waterfall Way, and one could spend weeks up here exploring the many walks and sights of the Great Dividing Range.
On Friday we took a day visit to Coffs Harbour, a drier day after they had had 56mm the previous day. We had lunch at the marina and a bit of distant whale watching from the causeway to Muttonbird Nature Island Reserve; a walk around the retail centre and some shopping to top up the pantry. A nice day out!
Next week, we will be moving onto a second beachside venue, yet to be decided, as we wind our way down the East Coast of New South Wales. Please enjoy a look at the photographic updates in the attached albums:
Click on the link below to view the album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/TinCanBayToMylestom?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLjLltGrxajroAE&feat=directlink
