The Hunter Valley and Blue Mountains

The Hunter Valley is famed for its wines and we drove past a great many vines.  On this occasion we did not stop at any of the cellar door offerings but instead enjoyed the undulating countryside.  Stopping off at Lake St Claire for a brew, we had the place to ourselves.  The idea was to camp by the lake, but the persistence of the mosquito population quickly changed that plan and so we motored on to a place named Broke which was free from the little critters.  

 

We took the Putty Road next day.  Mike had driven this before and thought it a good route.  Starting out with distant views of a vast coal mine, the start doesn’t look too promising.  However, the scenery quickly changed to winding roads climbing the mountains, then through deep valleys with cattle grazing on the hillsides.  The Yengo National Park showed its best to our left whilst the Wollemi National Park competed for our attention to the right. 

The Wollemi pine was thought extinct but in 1994 a few specimens were discovered somewhere in the park, the actual place remains a secret.  It has now been propagated in many parks throughout Australia and overseas.  There’s even a plantation of them in the UK, at the Marks Hall Arboretum near to where we used to live.

Stopping off at the Grey Gum cafe, a haunt for motor cyclists, Mike enjoyed quite the largest slice of apple pie he’d ever eaten whilst by comparison, Kim’s delicate passion fruit fancy looked positively puny.

Overnight camping at Lake Lyall was beautiful.  Our visitor was a very tame one legged duck who enjoyed sharing our morning tea and biscuits.

Turning west into the Blue Mountains we stopped off at Bilpin, an afrea that grows apples and peaches.  Then on again to towns of Katoomba and Leura.  A pleasant downhill stroll followed the Leura Cascade to where it suddenly dropped over the edge and fell for a couple of hundred metres to the valley below.  The views were magnificent.

The Blue Mountains are so named because from a distance they do actually take on a bluish tinge.  We took in several of the noted viewing spots but undoubtedly the best was Sublime Point, a rock precipice that provides a 270 degree vista, including the famous ‘Three Sisters’ rocks.

Then we spotted some clouds.

Within a few minutes the weather changed from a warm, balmy day into a torrential downpour.  We made it back to Vin Rouge just in time, abandoned any thoughts of camping in the mountains and took a fast drive to Sydney, to stay with friend Peter and Katherine, who welcomed us with G&Ts and dinner.  Bliss!

The Waterfall Way

There’s no doubt that some Australians like to brag that Australia has the biggest and the best.  Sometimes there’s some truth in it, sometimes it’s more imagination than fact.  In northern New South Wales, the coast is separated from the inland (there’s not a lot of remote ‘bush’) by what are known as mountains – the Great Dividing Range.  ‘Mountains is stretching it a bit as there’s not many of them that reach more than about 750 metres.  However, what they lack in height, they make up in grandeur.  Covered in green, usually eucalypts and pines, the Great Dividing Range extends the entire east coast plus a bit in the south.  One relatively small part of this is known as New England and an even smaller part that extends along a highway is called the Waterfall Way.  

We’ve spent the last couple of days exploring and after the recent rains, found that the waterfalls really do live up to their names – Dangar Falls, a spectacular single drop, Crystal Shower Falls, which includes a cave behind the curtain of water, Ebor Falls with three drops one after another. There's other too, just as spectacular in their own way and all flowing freely after the recent rains.

Much of our journey was on unmade roads, mostly in pretty good condition but with a few washouts and fallen trees on the more remote tracks.  Vin Rouge was happy enough climbing the gradients in a low gear (we’re a bit on the heavy side fully laden) and trampling over the branches of fallen trees.  We saw only a little wildlife, an emu, a couple of pademelons (small relatives of the kangaroo), lorikeets, galahs, and some parrots.  Oh yes, we ruined a snake’s day by running over its tail.  We came across a giant tallowood tree, nearly 200 feet high according to the sign.  We even discovered a Lavatree.

The map identified a place that rejoiced under the name of Timmsvale, so of course we had to go and have a look.  It wasn’t easy to find, half way up an unmade road leading to nowhere.  We did find it, a scattering of homesteads mostly belonging to people with the Timms surname.  We didn’t discover whether the population was related, but did learn that the place owed its creation to one Lionel Timms, who not only established a hydro-electric powered mill for turning the huge tees into lumber, but also built a 360 seat cinema in the town of Ulong, which is or was the main population centre.  It’s declined a bit; there’s only 120 people there now and a good many of them seem to have the surname Timms.

Timms Park must have been designed with Land rover enthusiast in mind for it sports, not only playground equipment and a dunny, but also a little road with its own ford for splashing through.  We thought that a nice touch.

The camp site was wonderful.  Perched on the side of a hill, this was the view first thing in the morning.  Need we say more?

Wet and dry

After all the stresses of the last couple of weeks we’re finally on our way.  Both of us are so wound up you can almost hear the twanging.  First stop after three hundred metres is to stop at the local garage and fill to the brim with diesel.  Then it’s a short run to the Pacific Highway and due south.  

After a couple of hours we’ve settled somewhat and pull in to the Byron Bay Cookie shop so that Kim can stock up on essential supplies.  The place seems to have gone downhill and so instead of having a coffee as planned, we carry on into Byron Bay and find a very pleasant little rustic cafe overlooking the beach for the rather late morning caffeine top up.  

We follow the coast road through Lennox Head and Ballina, stopping off a couple of times to admire the surf rolling in.  After the rains, the countryside is looking green, very European, other than the trees are almost all eucalypts and the crops in the fields mainly sugar cane.

Back on the Pacific Highway, now happily reduced from four lanes of maniacs to a single lane with periodic passing places, we decide that there’s no point in rushing things, so drop into the coastal town of Yamba and set up camp in the tourist park.  Must make a mental note to try and find cheaper camp sites.  $27 for a patch of ground and a shower is too pricy.  

Yamba has a small fishing fleet and we dine on freshly caught and cooked local prawns and fresh bread and butter, washed down with a glass or two of a NZ sauvignon from the fridge.  We may be camping but we try to do it in style.  

We’d just finished washing up when we were invaded by swarms of voracious mosquitoes.  Even the special spray we have wouldn’t keep the things way, so we took refuge in the tent and read for a while. 

It was a hot and airless night.  On advantage of a roof top tent is, being two metres up in the air, if there’s any breeze about and with the window flaps open, it’ll find its way in.  Sleep soon overcame us and we were soon in the land of nod, even though it was only about eight thirty!

Four o’clock in the morning and the heavens opened.  We sort of woke up but we’d heard the drumming of rain on the tent before (we always seem to find rain) and so we slept on, not rousing until nearly eight in the morning when the sun peeked through the clouds.  Breakfast over and it rained again, just as we were packing up, so the tent was put away wet.  No problems, we’ll dry it out tonight.

We did find a new use for the waffle boards carried on the side of Vin Rouge.  These are intended to get us out of mud and sand, and to bridge ditches, but we found they made ideal duck boards on the wet, sandy ground.  Good result that.

Setting off, we stopped off at a supermarket to purchase those things that Kim decided were essential that Mike didn’t (salad mostly!) then on through the very small town of Augourie to view the Wooloweyah Lagoon, a large, shallow, inland lake that somehow must be connected to the sea because it’s tidal.  Well, one stretch of water looks much like another and so it was back to the Pacific Highway an on to Coffs Harbour.  It’s a busy place that’s filled with motels so we made a beeline to the marina and took a short walk over the breakwater to Mutton Bird Island.  The island is named after the shearwaters that migrate annually to nest there, digging out shallow holes in the damp sandy soil in which to lay their eggs.  Apparently shearwaters taste similar to mutton, hence the name.

As the afternoon sun was dropping lower on to the horizon, we drove a short way out of town to a nowhere place called Sawtell as we thought it would be cheaper to camp there.  Wrong.  Tonight it’s costing us $30.   Let's hope it doesn't rain.

Almost there

Almost there.  Most things are packed and ready.  We’ve been necessarily delayed by Kim’s dad undergoing hospital tests, but these seem to have mainly positive results and so we feel that we can go.  In any event, Kim can always get back in a few hours if the need arises.

Note trial 'washing machine' up front.  The idea is that the washing will slosh about in the soap suds as we go along, then all they need is rinsing and drying.