Yamba

We spent a little over a week at Barry’s place and I must say it is a peaceful place with no traffic, the birds and the bubbling brook.  Barry and Garry put in a big effort on the house surrounds  however they did tail off towards the end of our stay to allow time to fit in 18 holes of golf in Murwillumbah and a trip into a couple of nearby National Parks.  The golf was fun even though the weather had turned uncomfortably hot in the last few days.  The course is challenging and well designed into the hills and waterholes.  A par or two always makes it memorable though.  

 Another burn rather than $22 per ute load at the dump!!

 The big old shed gets a clean up.

The shed got cleaned out, the grass got mowed again and there were another few fires of rubbish.  A lot of rocks large and small were gathered from around the creek and along the road and placed along the bank of the creek on the house side to slow any erosion.  Garry had to build a couple of small rock dams to divert the creek away from the house.  They also increased the size of the ponds close to the house.  I am not sure if they were necessary but were fun building them in the water after it turned so hot.

The markets at Chillingham attracted us on Sunday morning and provided us with good local fruit and vegetables.  They also allowed Barry to shop for presents for his daughters in law.  Barry took the goods home and we continued on through Chillingham to Natural Bridge Nat Park.  This feature is over the top of ranges and just into Queensland.  The mountains are formed from a volcano that is now Mt Warning.  Layers of basalt were laid down and eroded over time.  The Natural Bridge is formed where a creek running over the basalt has broken through the harder top layers of basalt and now has worn away the lower softer layers of rock.  It is a very pretty waterfall and the cave beneath is large and has glow worms which are visible at night.  The rainforest surround the creek was impressive as usual. 

 The exit of the stream under Natural Bridge

 The cave goes back 15m to the left

 Under the bridge

 The lookout - bridge in background

Back into NSW and on to the very quaint little town of Tyalgum.  This little town has beautiful shops including Art Gallery, Coffee Shop, Doll Shop, old Pub with a swimming pool and the “Tiny Shop of Beautiful Things”.  These shops all sit opposite a beautiful green sports oval ringed by huge shade trees.  Next stop was another town called Uki.  It is located on a river in the rainforest and has a great old pub with very good large cheap meals for lunch.  It was very popular with most of the diners choosing to sit outside on the big timber benches under shade trees.  The ‘hippy’ type that turned up for lunch with a large rabbit in a shoulder bag added to the character of the place but was a bit off putting when it sat on the table while he ate lunch.  Mount Warning Nat Park is only a few km’s from Uki and very popular on the weekend by the 100 or so cars that filled the car park and edges of the road.  Being hot and with a big lunch on board we declined the 9km walk to the summit (5 to 6 hours) and settled for neat walk through the rainforest and creek at the base.  We must come back for it someday.  The trees are full of staghorns, crow’s nests and other ferns with tree ferns and palms through the creek.  Another outing was a quick drive over the Tomewin Mountain road to Currumbin.  This drive provides spectacular views of the mountains, coast, and Murwillumbah and valleys on the return.  One regret was not making the time to contact Cousin Beryl and Les for a catch up.  We will do that on our next trip through this area when we don’t have a project and appointments to keep.

 A large strangler fig at the base of Mt Warning

 Trees are full of stags & ferns

 Banana plantations in the valley from Tomewin Mountain, Mt Warning in the background, Crystal Ck over the hill to the right

Carol was due back in Ballina to receive some beauty treatment – a Christmas gift from Brendan and Michelle.  This turned out to be a very nice treatment for her.  The end of this week then sees us further south in the seaside town of Yamba.  Yamba is on the coast on the south side of the mouth of the Clarence River and is a very pretty seaside town with good swimming, ocean and river fishing, and great views from the hill (where the Pacific Hotel happens to be) behind the main beach.  

 View from the dining room at the Pacific Hotel overlooking Yamba Surf Club

 Surf Club from Lighthouse Point

 main beach

 Sea water pool behind our heads at Yamba main beach

 Lighthouse established in 1866

There is a good 18 hole golf course and a huge Bowls Club in the middle of town.  Good seafood can be bought from the water at the marina and from several fish and chip shops in town.  We are staying at the Yamba Waters Van Park which is a couple of minutes from the centre of town but very quiet and on a salt water inlet.  The sites are the biggest we have encountered and the facilities are good.  There is a van park in the middle of town on the river (Calypso Van Park) but we are glad we are not in there as it is still packed with holiday makers and would be noisy at the end of the main street.  We are very impressed with Yamba but my study of the real estate puts it at the high end of prices we have encountered elsewhere.  There are some expensive homes around here – houses for $2M units for $1M.  Compared to around Murwillumbah where you can get 20+acres with rainforest, a creek and a house for less than $500K, it doesn’t look like they have heard about the recession down here yet.  We are looking forward to a night out on Saturday night and a bit more of a look around as the weather is perfect summer beach weather – warm with a cool breeze all day and night and a shower last night to wash the Crystal Creek dust off the van and the car – life is good!!