Garry and Carols Van Trip: Forster to Bellingen

We spent a couple of very relaxing days at Forster which included a rest, fish & chips on the beach, another rest, a drive to Seal Rocks blowhole and lighthouse and another rest. It was very peaceful and the Smugglers Cove van park was great even though there is a large percentage of permanent vans in the park. The facilities are good for kids with several large pools and play areas. Forster appeared a very quiet place; Tuncurry, over the river, even more so! The main town beach has deep clean sand and has a sea water swimming pool at one end and a great beachfront café for ice-creams. Unfortunately when we visited in the middle of December, there was no chance of the ice creams melting. There are several high rises but plenty of good value in units for the real estate buyer. A text from David C to prompted me to find a TAB and earn another tank of fuel after Willngus won at Caloundra. (Of course in punters language “won” = “recovered”). A walk up the lookout and another couple of hundred steps rewarded us with views over several beaches and the towns of Forster and Tuncurry. The next day we took a drive through the great lakes region and out to Seal Rocks lighthouse. There are several rocky points on the way out to Seal Rocks which were very popular with surfers. The light house is very cute and set on a high headland overlooking a beautiful long beach to the south. The light keepers house and the two assistants houses built mid-1800’s are done up and rented out for holiday accommodation. They look great but the ‘Peak’ season rate of $4,700 / week for the light keepers house was out of our range even though it slept 10. The light house protected ships from a series of rocky outcrops poking out of the waves for several kilometres out from the point. Several ships came to grief on the rocks prior to the light being built.

Seal Rocks Light Keepers House

Seal Rocks Lighthouse

Pelicans awaiting an easy feed

We are starting to think of Christmas and headed away from restful Forster and headed north along the coast but only got as far as Taree and left the highway and went inland a little way to Wingham. The Show Ground at Wingham allows van camping and also allows you to park your van for the day at no charge while you drive up the mountain to Ellinborough Falls. The drive itself is an adventure with about 30 of the 40km’s being dirt road up the side of the mountain range but well worth the drive. Another road comes up from the north but listening to another couple it was just as rough. Ellinborough Falls are the 2^nd longest single drop falls in Australia and also in the Southern Hemisphere at over 200m. They were very impressive with a short walk and platform right at the top of the falls and a relatively easy walk (700m) around the rim of the gorge to another viewing platform directly opposite the falls – great for photos. For the more adventurous (meaning Garry not Carol) there is another track to the bottom of the falls which again provides great viewing, photo opportunities, and swimming for cold blooded humans. The photos I took are very special to me as the 641 steps involved each way was an experience I didn’t know my heart was up to. The sign calls it a ‘track’ but at 500m horizontal to 175m vertical it is nothing other than a series of steps and resting platforms for the entire journey – great fun and worth doing just for the opportunity to pass a few young 20 something’s resting against the rail puffing and blowing on the way up. I must mention the little café at the parking ground. Run by 3 local ladies who bake their own pies, sausage rolls, pasties, and quiches which are excellent quality and reasonable priced. Don’t bother packing lunch, the vegetable pasties are great and the cup of tea was the cheapest we have seen on our trip so far ($2.50).

Ellinborough Falls

At the bottom, only 641 steps back up!!

Back to Wingham to pick up the van and on to Port Macquarie for 2 nights. We chose the Melaleuca Top Tourist Park which was run by John Wright (no relation) and was very friendly with the best camp kitchen facilities we have come across yet. We also bumped into a really friendly couple next door who have also recently retired and gone touring. They were interesting to talk to and I was able to buy a spare base plate for our vans wind down legs because one had cracked. Graham had had to buy a set of four so was happy to part with one for a fair price. Port Macquarie has a large central shopping district and nice town beaches. A short drive south along the coast to the Tacking Point Lighthouse was rewarding (although very windy). Beautiful views along the coast are available. The next morning started fine and sunny so we extended for a 3^rd night and set of for Wauchope and Timbertown early. The attraction has had some rough times in recent years being run down, taken over by the Council, run down even more, and now back in private hands and recovering well. We went on a steam train ride, horse drawn carriage ride, and watched a bullock team demonstration, blacksmiths at work and a steam driven saw mill in action. The park is in recovery mode but we still recommend it as a great place spend several hours to teach the kids about yesteryear. Entry is reasonable and the young people presenting the demonstrations are very friendly and keen.

Timbertown Steam Train

Art Gallery full of good local art

I've never been this dressed up!!

A real Treehouse

Timbertown main street

Bullock team hauling large log

Neat train

Tacking Point Lighthouse

Tacking Point Lt/hse from lookout

Heading on we drove in through South West Rocks (plus some other beach we didn’t mean to visit because we were Facebooking instead of reading the map!!!). The feature was a visit through the jail built in the 1860’s and extended in 1900. The buildings were made out of local granite and situated on a headland with great coastal views. The cells are intact and the attraction is well presented with all associated story boards and videos by the Parks & Wildlife Service. It was very interesting reading about the inmates during different periods of convicts through to Germans interred during WW1. There is a van park immediately adjacent to the jail on the beach front but at $54 / nite for a powered site we headed on to Nambucca Heads and the Big 4.

South West Rocks Jail 1860's

View north from jail wall watch-tower

Inside jail wall at the beach

Wing added in 1900-1902

Inside the silent cells for bad prisoners

The Nambucca Heads park really impressed us with direct access on a beautiful long empty beach, great facilities for kids, excellent grassed sites with garden borders and a variety of good looking cabin accommodation. It was super quiet being long and narrow with the beach along one side and national park bush along the other. The beach side has about 50m of tree covered sand hills to block the sea winds which left the park with a gentle breeze. We enjoyed long evening and morning walks along the beach collecting shells until our pockets were full. The park is a little hard to find, being through town along a narrow road beside Swimming Creek and across a small timber bridge. The reception staff were very friendly and recommended we take a walk thru the park to choose a site before checking in. We highly recommend this park and could easily return for an extended stay. Alas we left and headed for Bellingen and the Show Grounds in town. Bellingen is a very pretty town with a wide swiftly flowing river and lots of single mums and shoeless people wearing 70’s clothes. Apparently the town likes to be called ‘art-y’. The show ground is cheap ($10/nite) and like everything around town covered in lush green grass and huge shady beech trees.

Jasmine & Matt

We caught up with our niece Jasmine and her partner Mat who live nearby at Fernmount. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon evening with them and Mat, being of German origin, appreciated the 6 pack of imported German beer even more than I did. One of Jasmines activities is body art and by the look of the paintings on her face after a day care breakup she is very good at it. Jasmine and Mat seem very happy and relaxed together. Friday has been spent touring up the river valley into the mountains through the Dorrigo region. The National Park office has a skywalk platform which extends out from the rim of the range over the forest with views out to sea more than 40km’s away. This was impressive and after morning tea we set off on a walk through the forest to the Crystal Falls. The falls topple over a basalt ledge into a pool. The path leads under the overhanging rock behind the falls. There is a suspension bridge over the gorge immediately in front of the falls giving a great spot for photos. We were impressed the number of huge trees, quantity of ferns of all types, and the number of huge crows nests growing in the taller trees. It was a beautiful walk and no leeches or ticks were encountered. A short drive through Dorrigo leads to the Dangar Falls which are right beside the road and carry a larger volume of water than the other falls we have seen. The river falls into a large swimming pool and there is a beautiful picnic ground at the Falls. A short 400m walk leads to the bottom of the falls with several platforms provided for photographers. The river at the falls was the site of one of Australia’s 1^st Hydro-electricity plants. A small weir was built across the river and water was channelled to a reservoir. From the reservoir the water was sent through 2 wooden drop pipes down 70m to the2 X 100KW generators which produced 3200v power for the butter factory and town of Dorrigo in 1922. After calling at Griffiths lookout on the edge of the range we returned to Bellingen for a wander through the shops and were amazed at what valuable clothes we must have thrown out 35 years ago. Beautiful fine handkerchief dresses are selling for $400 and you can buy a towelling dress for less than $100!! Can’t wait to see what’s at the Bellingen Markets in the morning.

On the skywalk towards Coffs