{"id":379,"date":"2010-08-08T15:40:32","date_gmt":"2010-08-08T07:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/?page_id=379"},"modified":"2017-08-16T01:30:07","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T17:30:07","slug":"sydney-pg-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/?page_id=379","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Pg 3 (Nambucca to Grafton)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the delicious lunch at the V-Wall Tavern (thank you Pat!), we decided to go for a little walk along the groyne and yet again found that all the rocks had been painted by budding<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_385\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-385\" class=\"size-full wp-image-385\" title=\"Nambucca Heads Rocks - Dolphins\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Nambucca-Heads-Rocks-Dolphins.jpg\" alt=\"Nambucca Heads Rocks - Dolphins\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Nambucca-Heads-Rocks-Dolphins.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Nambucca-Heads-Rocks-Dolphins-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-385\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nambucca Heads Rocks - Dolphins<\/p><\/div>\n<p>artists.\u00a0 Pat told us that there is a competition and prize each year for the best one and some of them were certainly beautiful.\u00a0 Barry stayed near the car, looking out to sea, because he can not walk far, but Pat and I set off, talking even faster than before.\u00a0 Maybe refreshed by the food and wine.\u00a0 We just set an idling pace; catching up was far more important than the scenery or the exercise, and the cameraman followed behind.\u00a0 Poor David has never said so few words in his life.\u00a0 When we got to the<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_386\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-386\" class=\"size-full wp-image-386\" title=\"Nambucca Heads Rocks -Matt &amp; Kat\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Nambucca-Heads-Rocks-Matt-Kat.jpg\" alt=\"Nambucca Heads Rocks -Matt &amp; Kat\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Nambucca-Heads-Rocks-Matt-Kat.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Nambucca-Heads-Rocks-Matt-Kat-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-386\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nambucca Heads Rocks -Matt &amp; Kat<\/p><\/div>\n<p>end of the groyne Pat and I posed for photos so David felt that his presence was worthwhile.\u00a0 By the time we returned to Barry we\u2019d been gone for almost an hour!\u00a0 He showed us where there was a porpoise playing with the swimmers and we enjoyed watching that for a while before getting back into the car.<\/p>\n<p>Barry stopped off back in Macksville for a few minutes and then they took us up the road a little and turned into a side street.\u00a0 Well the big dipper at the fairground has <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">nothing<\/span> on this road, it just fell out from under us; all we could see was the bonnet of the car and a hill coming up from nowhere in the distance.\u00a0 They had deliberately gone that way to show it to us because we had talked of how hilly NSW was and this one was certainly something to see.\u00a0 Looking at Perth with fresh eyes on our return, as you do when you\u2019ve been away, I can describe Perth not as flat, because it isn\u2019t, but as sloping.\u00a0 We have plenty of slopes to make the suburbs interesting rather than dead flat, but very few hills really and those we do have are rarely steep, except for the escarpment running north-south on the outskirts of the suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>As we got back to the caravan to be dropped off Barry asked if we were doing anything this evening and we told him no, so they invited us to go back to their place for dinner as well.\u00a0 Were we spoiled on this holiday or what?\u00a0 We thanked them both and made arrangements that they would pick us up again in about 1\u00bd hours.\u00a0 We pottered around a bit and found the dear little bottle shop, to get a beer to take with us and were soon picked up again.\u00a0 Pat and Barry were excellent hosts, plying us with drinks, and it was just so relaxing and wonderful to be able to spend time with friends and feel so at home.\u00a0 It was so good to be able to see the things Pat had told me about on email, her little water feature that she made herself and the verandah where she loves to sit, her lovely garden with the sub-tropical plants in it.\u00a0 Barry had cooked a chicken curry for us and it was absolutely delicious.\u00a0 And of course, the talk continued as before.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how many words can be used in such a short time, but we had so much to cram in.\u00a0 All too soon it was time to go back to the van and sleep.<\/p>\n<p>Sun 29<sup>th<\/sup><strong> <\/strong> In the morning we went for a walk over the teensy sand hill at the back of our van to the beach to have a look around.\u00a0 We were in a small bay with the waves rolling in, some surfers swimming out with their boards, and the local surf life saving team practicing in their boat.\u00a0 It was a lovely spot and we walked along to the right where there was a hill with a small lookout built on it.\u00a0 We climbed the steps and this showed how the ocean actually came in from an angle on the right and the waves in the bay were much smaller than the ocean ones.\u00a0 The bay would be a wonderfully safe place to swim I would imagine, but we\u2019re not swimmers (we can, but rarely do) so kept our feet dry.\u00a0 Instead we climbed further up the path on the hill to yet a higher vantage point.\u00a0 The view was incredible and so lovely.<\/p>\n<p>But it was time to go back to the van, unplug the power, turn off the gas and pop in to say goodbye to Pat.\u00a0 David was very clever and managed to take us up to a couple of the high roads to look out once more on the views that Pat had shown us from her car the day before and then find her street for us to say goodbye.\u00a0 We exchanged lots of hugs with Pat and handshakes with Barry and then drove away, waving until we were out of sight.\u00a0 It is sad that our holiday was so short and we could not have spent more time with them, but I will always be grateful that we did get to meet.\u00a0 And for all Pat\u2019s hesitance to share photos of herself, she\u2019s a pretty little thing, and much younger than I\u2019d expected.<\/p>\n<p>We went back the way Pat and Barry had taken us the day before to get to the highway, and on to Macksville again where we did not stop but instead turned inland to go to Bellingen.\u00a0 Pat had told me when I was planning the trip that this was a pretty little place so off we went to see for ourselves.\u00a0 It was 30kms from Macksville to Bellingen so we soon got there and saw a small town in pretty, rural surroundings.\u00a0 There was a caf\u00e9 on the far side of the village which was packed out, so remembering our lesson from the Sydney bacon and eggs, we thought we\u2019d try their wares.\u00a0 I think it was called The Gallery or something like that and was perhaps a converted art gallery.\u00a0 They were certainly doing a roaring trade and we ordered coffee and a berry cheesecake, both of which were very nice.\u00a0 All the smaller tables were occupied so we sat at a massive table that was covered in magazines and newspapers.\u00a0 It would have comfortably seated 20 people.\u00a0 We had gone onto the balcony originally, and where we\u2019d walked into the place from ground level, the balcony was about 3 floors high; the ground just dropped away so steeply!\u00a0 But there were lots of smokers out there so we came back indoors.\u00a0 David used their bathroom before we left there and he said that as you come out of the loo you are greeted by a full length window looking out on a sheer drop to the ground beneath.\u00a0 Glad I didn\u2019t go!\u00a0 The other interesting thing about the caf\u00e9 was the biggest mirror I have ever seen; must have been 6\u2019 wide and 3\u2019 high, and not sitting safely on the floor, no no no!\u00a0 It was suspended on an angle above the poor staff\u2019s heads!\u00a0 &#8216;Struth.\u00a0 Get hit by that and you&#8217;d be knocked through the wooden floor for a 3 floor drop just to make sure you\u2019re really a gonner!\u00a0 I decided that I liked working for Directory Assistance \u2013 the worst that could happen to me is being sworn at.<\/p>\n<p>From here we continued on to go and see Dorrigo.\u00a0 The terrain became very mountainous with steep climbs, very sharp corners and sheer drops for the people coming towards us.\u00a0 There was thick bush all around; trees and climbers, and it was all so very, very green.\u00a0 We came upon a lay-by and pulled into it.\u00a0 The attraction here for David was a forlorn lady with an old car with its bonnet up.\u00a0 She reckoned it had boiled over, but with the thin<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_387\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-387\" class=\"size-full wp-image-387\" title=\"Bridge over Waterfall on the way between Bellingen and Dorrigo\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Bridge-over-Waterfall-on-the-way-between-Bellingen-and-Dorrigo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Bridge-over-Waterfall-on-the-way-between-Bellingen-and-Dorrigo.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Bridge-over-Waterfall-on-the-way-between-Bellingen-and-Dorrigo-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-387\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bridge over Waterfall on the way between Bellingen and Dorrigo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>cheesecloth dress stuck in places it would not have been if she\u2019d been wearing certain undergarments, and other men besides David swarming all over her\u2026 well who knows?\u00a0 Her children had shimmied through the safety fence and were descending a dizzying drop to a river well below the pictured bridge to fill up the bottle she carried for such occasions.\u00a0 (David will tell me off when he reads this bit, hehehe.\u00a0 He believed that she needed help you see.)<\/p>\n<p>The attraction here for me was an incredible waterfall which was on the left of the road we were about to drive along.\u00a0 It was falling down a rocky, steep cliff, so it did lots of tumbling, not just a steady drop.\u00a0 It then went under a little bridge that carried the road and poured out much lower down to where the lady\u2019s children had gone.\u00a0 There were signs up saying that you weren\u2019t allowed to walk on the bridge.\u00a0 This was no surprise as it was only just 2 cars in width, but what a shame that there wasn\u2019t a better angle to view the fall from.\u00a0 When we got back in the van to drive, David went slowly so I could take a picture, and it was only then that I realised how very high the fall was \u2013 about double what I had expected and could see from the lay by.\u00a0 Unfortunately another car had followed us out of the lay by so he couldn\u2019t stop long enough for me to take a photo of the higher part of it.<\/p>\n<p>The road continued, higher and higher, steeper and steeper until I imagined that Dorrigo must be a teensy huddle of houses perched on the absolute pinnacle of this mountain.<\/p>\n<p>The road got even steeper with even tighter turns, but suddenly we were at the top and fields stretched out before us.\u00a0 This was a huge shock as I was just expecting a little mountain peak with a few houses, a lookout spot, and a road onwards down the other side.\u00a0 Quickly there was a signpost for a lookout which said 3kms or some similar distance so we thought as we\u2019d climbed this high we may as well have a look so we took the little side road.\u00a0\u00a0 We passed a few small farms along the way and then reached the car park that was the end of the road.\u00a0 I threatened David with things worse than death if he parked the van too close to the edge but he was very good.\u00a0 And another shock\u2026 there were cows grazing in a field the other side of the fence.\u00a0 It was indeed quite a steep hill, but though David said he expected it, the cows did not fall over sideways and roll down the hill.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time going potty over the cows and telling them how beautiful they were while David filmed the view.\u00a0 I worked on a dairy farm in England before school and have a big soft spot for cows.\u00a0 Such gentle creatures!<\/p>\n<p>Now the view WAS impressive indeed and we could see myriad other mountain peaks in<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_388\" style=\"width: 458px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-388\" class=\"size-full wp-image-388\" title=\"Dorrigo View\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-View.jpg\" alt=\"Dorrigo View\" width=\"448\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-View.jpg 448w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-View-300x160.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-388\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dorrigo View<\/p><\/div>\n<p>the distance and yet could almost see forever.\u00a0 It was as green as green everywhere the eye could see and very beautiful.\u00a0 The view stretched more than 180\u00b0 with mountains in every direction.\u00a0 But we could not stay up there for ever and pressed onwards, back down this little road to the main one and on to Dorrigo.<\/p>\n<p>Dorrigo was not much further on, but we passed plenty of fields and some houses before we got there.\u00a0 I was still shocked at all this land and space up there.\u00a0 Dorrigo wasn\u2019t a bad size as country towns go either and we decided to stop off at the little tourist information place.\u00a0 There was a lovely chap in there with all the time in the world for us who told us about the Dorrigo Falls which were coming up soon and that we could walk about 500m to the bottom of them, if we wished, down a pathway.\u00a0 He seemed to be eyeing us up as he said this to see if he thought we could make it, which I found funny because we were a good 20 years younger than him.\u00a0 David asked if Megan (the next teensy place on the map) had a shop because we were wanting to buy a postcard with \u2018Megan\u2019 on it for Dan\u2019s fianc\u00e9e Megan.\u00a0 But the fellow said no.\u00a0 We hopped back into the van and continued the short distance towards the falls.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing we saw, and if memory serves me correctly it was before the falls, was the<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_389\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-389\" class=\"size-full wp-image-389\" title=\"Dorrigo Lavatree\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Lavatree.jpg\" alt=\"Dorrigo Lavatree\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Lavatree.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Lavatree-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dorrigo Lavatree<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Dorrigo Sewage Treatment Plant.\u00a0 \u201cVery nice too and why is she telling me this?\u201d I hear you cry.\u00a0 Well right inside the gate was a large wooden structure supporting a ceramic toilet on the top and 3 on each side on individual \u2018branches\u2019, all with flowers planted in them, and a sign which said \u2018Lavatree\u2019.\u00a0 Very funny, but if that wasn\u2019t bad enough, the big sign at the gate said \u2018Bleak\u2019s Turdle Farm\u2019.\u00a0 Oh dear.\u00a0 I did laugh.\u00a0 And yes of course I did take photos.<\/p>\n<p>Not much further we got to the parking area for the falls and it was only a very short walk to the lookout.\u00a0 The lookout was a small platform which would have held about 6 people I suppose, but I would not have been one of them, I don\u2019t share things that are supporting my weight over a great chasm.\u00a0 We waited for the<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_390\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-390\" class=\"size-full wp-image-390\" title=\"Dorrigo Turdle Farm\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Turdle-Farm.jpg\" alt=\"Dorrigo Turdle Farm\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Turdle-Farm.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Turdle-Farm-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-390\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dorrigo Turdle Farm<\/p><\/div>\n<p>previous family to come away before going on to it and David went to the end with strict instructions not to lean against the rail if he wanted any sleep that night.\u00a0 (I seem to remember these things as I&#8217;m falling asleep but picture him falling and it makes me jump violently.)\u00a0 I did manage to walk part way onto the platform but used the excuse that the top rail was my eye height and blocking the view and sat down on it, feeling much safer on my bottom than my feet.\u00a0 I was very brave and reached my hands through the railings with the camera to get my shots though.\u00a0 I\u2019m hopeless at guessing heights but the falls were quite impressive, maybe 25metres high for a guestimate, and about 10 metres wide.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_391\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-391\" class=\"size-full wp-image-391\" title=\"Dangar Falls, Dorrigo\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Waterfalls.jpg\" alt=\"Dangar Falls, Dorrigo\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Waterfalls.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Dorrigo-Waterfalls-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dangar Falls, Dorrigo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>And I wondered where on earth the water came from considering we were not far off level with the very top of the mountain.\u00a0 I hoped it wasn\u2019t supplemented by the turdle farm, put it that way!<\/p>\n<p>We decided to find the path to the bottom and tried to the right of the lookout but that only led down to a level with the top of the falls.\u00a0 I was in heaven down this path though, there was honeysuckle.\u00a0 I could not believe my nose, which is what picked it up first, I do so love honeysuckle and have not come across any in Perth.\u00a0 [Note written in 2010, I now own one and love it!!!]\u00a0 There were quite a few plants and I couldn\u2019t pass one without having another sniff.\u00a0 Poor David, at least I didn\u2019t photograph it as I did with a heap of other plants that I saw.\u00a0 He reckons I should have been a botanist, particularly when I commented on some leaves being thick so that the sun wouldn\u2019t dry the moisture out of them.\u00a0 Anyway, this was not the path to the bottom so we went back to the lookout and continued on the pathway past it, which soon dwindled away to nothing.\u00a0 We decided to carry on anyway because it certainly hadn\u2019t been in the other direction so must be in this direction, and were soon rewarded when there was a break in the trees and a path disappeared back the way we had come and was dropping quite steeply.\u00a0 The bush around was as green and thick as ever and as we got lower and lower there was some really lush mossy kind of growth on the tree barks, some of which had long thick \u2018leaves\u2019<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_392\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-392\" class=\"size-full wp-image-392\" title=\"Tree bark moss in Dorrigo\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Tree-bark-moss-in-Dorrigo.jpg\" alt=\"Tree bark moss in Dorrigo\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Tree-bark-moss-in-Dorrigo.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Tree-bark-moss-in-Dorrigo-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tree bark moss in Dorrigo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>anything up to an inch in length.\u00a0 I tried to take a photo without David seeing, but he caught me.\u00a0 Eventually we came to a little flat spot where we could look through the few remaining trees to the foot of the waterfall, and also, far above our heads to the lookout platform.\u00a0 David decided that if we had gone this far we may as well see if we could get down the last little bit and found some rocks to climb down, some bushes to push through, and some puddles to avoid, and then we stood at the base of the falls with nothing but the pool between us and them.\u00a0 I could so have dived in and taken a swim but we weren\u2019t sure if anything lived in the waters so decided on safety.\u00a0 It was very humid down there, we\u2019d felt it increasing as we\u2019d dropped lower, so a dip would have been nice, but\u2026\u00a0 Yes, we&#8217;re chicken.\u00a0 The path back up was steep of course, but we\u2019d done so much walking and hill climbing and stair climbing on this holiday that it wasn\u2019t a problem.<\/p>\n<p>As we got back to the car park there was a guy getting out of another campervan and David said to him \u201cI like your travelling companion\u201d.\u00a0 He had a cockatoo in a cage hanging just behind the drivers seat in the centre of the van.\u00a0 I think the guy said that it nagged less than some travelling partners he\u2019s had, but that was to David and I\u2019m not sure I caught it properly.\u00a0 David asked if he was familiar with the area and whether the road to Megan was a wise choice or not.\u00a0 Pat had told us not to go this way but admitted it was a very long time since she\u2019d been this way so we thought we\u2019d ask.\u00a0 He said that he intended to go that way himself, and had before, but not to take the short route because that was not suitable for long vehicles and was full of blind bends and was horrific.\u00a0 He told us that the longer route was OK, unsealed, but used by logging trucks and fine to take, so we thanked him and sat in the van for a while to toss up.\u00a0 The unknown, with Pat\u2019s warning but this stranger\u2019s OK, or back down the mountain, this time on the \u2018falling off the cliff\u2019 side.\u00a0 It was unanimous, neither of us fancied the mountain.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_393\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-393\" class=\"size-full wp-image-393\" title=\"Megan townsite NSW\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Megan.jpg\" alt=\"Megan townsite NSW\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Megan.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Megan-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-393\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Megan townsite NSW<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Megan was about 8kms away and no, there was not a shop, in fact apart from the sign which I took a photo of for our Megan, there were about 3 houses and that was it.\u00a0 So far the road was no worse than any we\u2019d seen before, but we did laugh at one point.\u00a0 There was a white X sign for a railway crossing and it said to cross with care, so David slowed down and looked left and right to see only farm fences.\u00a0 I was looking forward and the tracks had been filled with bitumen, the jolly thing hadn\u2019t been used as a railway in donkey\u2019s years, why on earth hadn\u2019t they removed the signs?\u00a0 We crossed this 3 times all up and I said to David that we\u2019d better not become complacent or we\u2019d get wiped out on the last one that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">was<\/span> real.<\/p>\n<p>At some stage during this we came to the road where we had to choose the \u2018longer road\u2019.\u00a0 It quickly became unsealed, though it wasn\u2019t gravel as we know it, David described it as almost like bitumen that has been dug up and left in bits, but it was dusty and we left a cloud trail far behind us that would have taken a long time to settle.\u00a0 It was not pretty country really; still full of trees except for a couple of felled areas which only served to remind me that a truck may come the other way round one of the narrow corners, but it was not very hilly at all.\u00a0 Just boring with a capital B.\u00a0 I think we did 30 kms on this rough road with pots and pans and cutlery bouncing around and making a racket in the cupboards, and me feeling guilty to be treating a hire vehicle this way.\u00a0 We\u2019d have taken our own vehicle that way too, but even so\u2026\u00a0 Even on this awful road in the back of nowhere<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_394\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-394\" class=\"size-full wp-image-394\" title=\"Logging Track beyond Dorrigo\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Logging-Track-beyond-Dorrigo.jpg\" alt=\"Logging Track beyond Dorrigo\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Logging-Track-beyond-Dorrigo.jpg 338w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Logging-Track-beyond-Dorrigo-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-394\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Logging Track beyond Dorrigo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>there were occasional houses and to our horror a slow speed area for a school zone.\u00a0 We could just imagine the poor teacher\u2019s face that got posted there as they drove down the road to find their new school.\u00a0 Pitsville plus.\u00a0 I\u2019d have turned around and never arrived if it had been me.\u00a0 There was one short tarmac stretch over a little bridge, but then back to the rough surface again.\u00a0 Just as I thought I could stand it no longer we got back to a proper road which widened quickly, and I\u2019m glad to report we did not meet a logging truck.\u00a0 It is only now as I write this that I realise it was a Sunday and we probably wouldn\u2019t have done \u2013 wish I\u2019d have thought of that at the time as I was on edge the whole journey for fear of one hurtling around the corner and smacking into us.<\/p>\n<p>Now a couple of small towns, and suddenly a banana plantation planted on the side of a really steep hill.\u00a0 I got all excited about this.\u00a0 Tropical heaven, and I began dreaming of mangoes.\u00a0 Before long we reached Coffs Harbour.\u00a0 We sure had gone a long way around but I\u2019d dearly wanted to see Bellingen and Dorrigo and we\u2019re glad we did.\u00a0 We had trouble parking in Coffs, as a lot of other places.\u00a0 This time it wasn\u2019t the height causing the problem but the length.\u00a0 In many of the country towns the parking in the hugely wide town centre streets is marked as 45\u00b0 angle parking, nose to kerb (or rear to kerb in some places).\u00a0 Coffs was no exception but we were too long and hung out into the road so had to drive around until we were fortunate enough to find 2 nose-to-tail bays in the main shopping street.\u00a0 We filled them both!\u00a0 If it had not been Sunday we\u2019d have been in for a long walk I suspect, but we were lucky.\u00a0 It was one hour parking and I wondered if we only got \u00bd hour because of using 2 bays but David thought it entitled us to 2 hours.\u00a0 I guess a psychologist would have a ball with that!\u00a0 I can actually see the horrible truth myself.<\/p>\n<p>We wandered down the street in the wonderful warmth, just soaked it up.\u00a0 The weather was improving each day as we headed north and the number of butterflies we saw increased too.\u00a0 There were cafes that were open but all the shops were shut.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine, I\u2019m not a shopper, I just enjoy wandering around shopping centres, looking but not buying.\u00a0 We decided on Subway for our lunch and sat at an outdoor table watching the trucks cross the traffic lights a few metres away, right to left, not coming past us.\u00a0 There were amazing numbers of them and I pitied them as I would hate to drive long distances for a living.\u00a0 They were probably mostly out of Brisbane and headed for the rest of the country, a daunting thought.\u00a0 David knows an ex-bus driver who is now a trucker that does Brisbane to Perth \u2013 5,200 kms (3,200 miles).\u00a0 I would be bored beyond tears.\u00a0 Anyway that\u2019s not our holiday.<\/p>\n<p>After lunch we wandered back along the street to the van and decided to drive to the coast to see what Coffs Harbour\u2019s beach looked like.\u00a0 No surprises, but it\u2019s a harbour, and a big<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_398\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-398\" class=\"size-full wp-image-398\" title=\"Coffs Harbour\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Coffs-Harbour.jpg\" alt=\"Coffs Harbour\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Coffs-Harbour.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Coffs-Harbour-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-398\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coffs Harbour<\/p><\/div>\n<p>one!!!\u00a0 It was set up with lots of fishing boats and facilities for loading and unloading as well as the docks for pleasure craft.\u00a0 We walked along the harbour wall for a distance to have a look and get a feel for the place.\u00a0 It was a popular spot and there were places to eat as well.\u00a0 Very pleasant indeed.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t stay very long though and made our way back to the van and onwards to try to get to a caravan park before the office shut for a change.<\/p>\n<p>This time we just drove.\u00a0 There were a few tiny places but none that meant anything to me as far as work is concerned so we just kept going for the 80kms to Grafton where we\u2019d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_399\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-399\" class=\"size-full wp-image-399\" title=\"Grafton Street Lights\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Street-Lights.jpg\" alt=\"Grafton Street Lights\" width=\"450\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Street-Lights.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Street-Lights-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grafton Street Lights<\/p><\/div>\n<p>decided to spend the night.\u00a0 The first thing that struck me about Grafton was the street lights which I found amusing; there were two poles, one each side of the road with a wire strung between the two and the light was suspended from the wire.\u00a0 It looked as if you\u2019d be able to push it left to right if you chose.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_400\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-400 \" title=\"Gateway Village Tourist Park, Grafton\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Tourist-Park-Entry.jpg\" alt=\"Gateway Village Tourist Park, Grafton\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Tourist-Park-Entry.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Tourist-Park-Entry-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gateway Village Tourist Park, Grafton<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But we found the caravan park, Gateway Village by name, and I have never seen anything like it in my entire life.\u00a0 The grounds were beyond immaculate with the most beautiful gardens you could imagine.\u00a0 I have seen botanic gardens that could learn a thing or two from this place!!\u00a0 There was a lily pond in the middle and the prettiest flowers and palms all around.\u00a0 The vans were really well spread from one another, separated by little garden beds.\u00a0 And the ablution block was something else.\u00a0 It was absolutely spotless, with clean, dry<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_401\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-401\" class=\"size-full wp-image-401 \" title=\"Gateway Village Tourist Park, Grafton, Pathway\" src=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Tourist-Park-Pathwayy.jpg\" alt=\"Gateway Village Tourist Park, Grafton, Pathway\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Tourist-Park-Pathwayy.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Grafton-Tourist-Park-Pathwayy-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gateway Village Tourist Park, Grafton, Pathway<\/p><\/div>\n<p>shower curtains in each cubicle so your clothes didn\u2019t get wet when you showered.\u00a0 It was the only caravan park where I did not keep my thongs on to shower (shoe thongs [flip flops\/ jandals] for anyone getting the wrong idea!).\u00a0 Our washing had been mounting up and we decided to get it done here because of the cleanliness of everything so we gathered it all up and went to the laundry.\u00a0 Then we had to go to the site office to see if they sold washing powder because there was no dispenser in the laundry, but they only sold it by the box, never mind.\u00a0 We scraped up the right money and back to the laundry.\u00a0 Guess what?\u00a0 No change for the machine, so back to the site office once more to get change.\u00a0 Ggrrrrr.\u00a0 Got it done without any more dramas though and hung it out, 3 items to a peg because that\u2019s all the pegs we had, and decided on a swim in the pool.\u00a0 We had the pool entirely to ourselves and after a bit of a slow entry (cool) we had a lovely swim to finish our evening.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/?page_id=396\">Next page\/&#8230;<\/a>  Please feel free to leave a comment in the fields below before leaving this page. Email addresses will not be used in any way, nor displayed for anyone to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the delicious lunch at the V-Wall Tavern (thank you Pat!), we decided to go for a little walk along the groyne and yet again found that all the rocks had been painted by budding artists.\u00a0 Pat told us that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/?page_id=379\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":110,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-379","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3811,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379\/revisions\/3811"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mayl.id.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}