It is always interesting to move out from your safe home environment in the city and travel along country roads to establish what is taking place in country Australia. I was fortunate in having such an opportunity with a Toyota Camping van of 2694 engine capacity equipped with bed, gas stove, water container and folding chairs. All that was necessary was a couple of crates of food and a couple of bottles to wine to celebrate any meeting with friends.
My first stop was to be Kangaroo Flat to examine the progress of my E.saligna trees planted as a resource for the local sawmill, under Bob Carr’s instruction. The route would be the Bucketts Way, a scenic route through Stroud passed the Stratford Coal mine through Gloucester , Barrington for petrol ,along Thunderbolts Way through Nowendoc turn right at Brackendale and right again at Tia on to the Oxley Highway. Something I learnt along this section of the dirt road, the vehicle is not dust proof !!
Once on the Oxley Highway its straight east to the Wirrakimbee National Park turn off , and 20 k’s down Kangaroo Flat road to Bloomfield Road, with its 9 letterboxes of contrasting origin.
The trees were doing well, but the little timber hut, with loft is suffering from lack of love.
After pruning the grove of Tasmanian Blackwoods it was off to Tia.
Because the Tia reserve provided some amenitie in the form of a fireplace and a supply of firewood and toilets I decided to camp the night there, and do the two short walks in the morning to the dramatic Apsley Gorge and swimming hole.
In Walcha I hoped to catch up with Tom who had sold his cattle property at Watsons Creek and was in transition to Walcha, but a hand injury with a doctors visit disrupted this plan. The remaining business was a call at the Council to enquire of subdivision possibilities of our property.
My next call was Bellingen and I was advised to take the Waterfall Way, so drove to Uralla passed the Historic Foundry now closed to Armidale with a stop at the Hillgrove gold mine through Ebor and its waterfall, to Bostobrick ,where I picnicked and camped the night in the forest. I wanted to photograph the 600 year old Tallowwood tree in the Norman Jolly Memorial Grove. Oh what a sight for tree lovers !
The next day it was on to North Dorrigo after a feed of muesli and yoghurt. This is really attractive country of rolling green hills, healthy cattle and the odd ploughed red earthed paddock waiting for its potato seeds.
Having read some history of the sawmilling towns of Megan and Cascade I diverted north passed the Dangar Falls to see what had become of these once thriving towns but found that there was little activity except for the odd school. Continuing down Waterfall Way the road is steep and windy so low gear is a precaution till arriving at Thora beside the Bellingen river and its treelined drive to the attractive small town of Bellingen. A little detective work was necessary as I did not have Fran’s address so called at the newsagents and post office without success, but a brightly coloured real estate agent’s office Rob Hamilton came to the rescue as had sold Fran the land and gave me directions to the top of the hill.
We spent a couple of hours catching up with news of their new life in the country ,enjoying their new solar powered house with its north facing aspect and distant views plus a productive vegetable garden . There was morning tea photos to take and a gift of home grown bananas, a very stimulating morning.
Now it was only a short drive to Damien’s at Boambee, he had promised me a sail on his Hartley trailer sailer on the Clarence River and so the next day Saturday we hitched up the trailer and drove to Ulmara where there was a steep ramp to launch .This operation was a little tricky and best done at high tide ,as the ramp did not extend far enough for successful low tide launches .
After an hour tied up to the little jetty we rigged the boat loaded our food ,gas stove and sleeping bags and we ready to sail. Fortunately there was a good south westerly breeze so heading north to Laurance was an exciting sail, little traffic other than the ferry and the odd shoal to contend with. Sailors are bound when making shore to visit the nearest pub so true to convention we had a drink at the Laurance Hotel.
As it was getting late in the day and the breeze had dropped we motored to our next destination Brushgrove and tied up at the new pontoon wharf . It was only a short walk over the bridge to the little old country pub for a Saturday night dinner. There was music in the air and a sense of fun as most of the locals had come for a good time. Damien and I enjoyed a slap up monster seafood dinner with drinks the dining room and as the bar was full it looked like Brushgrove would swing night.! We spent an uncomfortable night on A Touch of Class trying to get comfortable in cramped conditions requires training, so at daylight Damien brewed a batch of tea and we motored back to Ulmara through the mist on a very calm river .
Once again Damien demonstrated superior culinary skills and cooked bacon and eggs while tied up at the jetty. It was then the job to lower the mast and float the Hartley on to the trailer positioned at the bottom of the ramp. Once secured we could take the boat out of the water up the ramp and park in the street near the pub Time for coffee on the banks of the river with friends Neil and Lin while watching the waterski race down the Clarence river towed by throbbing engined speedboats.
Back to Boambee to park the Hartley in the shed and get a decent nights sleep.
An old school friend and his wife had moved from Sydney to Coffs Harbour to be near their children’s families, so before heading further north I called on Louise and Peter to see how they are making out in their new unit overlooking Coffs Harbour . The only formality was morning tea as we exchanged news I was presented with a jar of their daughter’s Anabriar Honey made from the bees at Kremnos which is delicious.
My last call was to Dianah and Mick’s hill top farm overlooking Woolgoolga only a short drive away ,but with a different entrance as the freeway has been constructed to bypass Woolgoolga. This is a house I much admire built in the Greek style with swimming pool complete solar generating unit as they are off the grid. Surrounded by bananas, avacado trees and berry farms and distant views of the blue Pacific ocean.
We picked avacadoes, collected eggs and surfed at the local beach and I had fun throwing an orange for Geoffrey their new dog who is full of energy and playfulness and loves chasing oranges in the orchard. We took in the view from the headland and lunched at the Coffs Harbour Surf Club with whales presenting in the ocean abreast of the beach much discussion and a little therapy, who would not appreciate such a wonderful holiday.
The return journey along the freeway was only broken by coffee at Kew and lunch at Raymond Terrace, so a total of 1614 k’s,no accidents and approx. $150 of gas, with a batch of pictures for memories.
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