Harrington to Ballina

February 19 to February 26

Crowdy Head

Sunday was a relaxing beach day at Crowdy Head. We have been asked many times if we have found a better place to live than the Sunshine Coast on our travels. We have certainly found some fantastic places at just the right time of the year, but none that would match South East Queensland year round. However the Mid North Coast of NSW would be a close second, and Crowdy Head leads the pack.

Around 3pm the storms rolled in again, so we packed up and drove 25km to Coopernook Hotel, where you can stay overnight in their grassed car park. We treated ourselves to a pizza from the pub for dinner, after the storms cleared.

Monday we drove a short distance up the highway to Laurieton, at the southern end of the coastal townships that link to Port Macquarie. The shire here have a very flexible attitude to overnight stopping for self-contained vehicles, and fortunately this hasn’t changed. After some shopping we drove around the river to Dunbogan and Pilot Beach, at the mouth of the Camden Haven River. We did some beach walking and I had a fish off the rocks, with no success. We stayed here overnight.

Pilot Beach

Tuesday we did more walking along the river and beach and exploring around Laurieton. In the afternoon we drove north to Frederickton, near Kempsey. The golf club encourages RV’s to stay overnight in their car park. It is a quiet, picturesque place and handy to the highway.

Wednesday we spent the day at Crescent Head, east of Kempsey. A well-known surf break (dead flat on this visit) and another favourite NSW spot of ours. Wednesday night we were back at the Frederickton Golf Club.

Thursday we continued our northward travels, heading into Urunga for the day. A slightly busier beach town with a very long river boardwalk to the ocean outlet (see photo).

Frederickton Golf Club Overnight Stop

In the afternoon we continued north to get around Coffs Harbour. For some reason the highway upgrades haven’t bypassed Coffs, and the painful drive through all the traffic lights continues. We stopped just north of Coffs at Sandy Beach, another “secret spot” one of the residents recommended many years ago. We are normally on our own, but two other motorhomes were already there when we arrived. A terrific spot right at the beach, the sound of surf to send you to sleep.

Friday we enjoyed a morning beach walk before continuing north. There is a lot of roadworks and delays as they replace pretty much all the Pacific Highway north of Port Macquarie. Thankfully we were in no rush and only travelling a hundred odd kilometres each step, but it does double your travel time.

Urunga Broadwalk

We had lunch at Harwood, a pretty river town west of Yamba, before visiting New Italy. We have driven past New Italy heaps of times without stopping, so this time we did. New Italy was settled in the late 1800’s after Australia’s first refugees arrived from Italy. After a lengthy “assimilation” program, they chose to settle in this region, and a museum and garden area has been established to celebrate the history of the area and its pioneers. It was surprisingly interesting and very well researched. 

Broadwater Rest Stop by the Richmond River

We drove a short distance north to Broadwater, where a rare, off the highway, quiet overnight rest area exists on the road to Coraki, in Northern NSW. Due to the crazy number of “Hippy Van” backpackers in this region, most of the local councils have restricted the options for free overnight parking.

Saturday we arrived in Ballina and checked in to the Shaws Bay Caravan Park. We have holidayed at Ballina dozens of times over the past 30 years.

We will be home on the Sunshine Coast in a week, in the mean time we will enjoy catching up with some friends and family between here and home.

Moruya to Harrington

February 12 to February 19

  

After checking out from the Moruya Caravan Park, we drove just 12km along the Moruya River and Bengello Beach to Broulee. We have visited this area a number of times, with the 3km coastline around Broulee and Mossy Point one of our favourites. We stopped at the headland lookout at Mossy Point for lunch, while the weather deteriorated into rain and storms. Late in the afternoon we went to the Mossy Point boat ramp, which thankfully is still a free camping area. We had a fantastic sunset as the storms cleared.

Monday we walked Broulee Beach before I had a fish off the jetty at Mossy Point. I was hoping to get the kayak out but the offshore conditions were a bit rough. In the afternoon we drove to the Broulee Surf Club for a walk along Bengello Beach. We stopped for another night at Mossy Point.

Mossy Point Boat Ramp Overnight Spot

Tuesday we drove north through Batemans Bay and on to Ulladulla. After some shopping and exploring of Ulladulla (it seemed a lot busier than the last time we were here), we headed a little further north to another memorable spot, Bendalong. Although there’s not much there except an expensive caravan park, it has a nicely protected bay where I fished a couple of years ago. We arrived late afternoon to find recently erected “no overnight parking” signs in the couple of secluded spots where we have stayed before.

Most towns which encourage low cost camping use it as a lure for the local businesses (shops, pubs, fuel stations). In very small towns without these facilities, I can understand how the locals (and occasional caravan park owners) have probably felt “abused” by less respectful travellers. Being quite late in the afternoon, we drove to a rest stop for the night, disappointed.

Mossy Point Sunset after the storm

We had always planned to “leapfrog” Wollongong, Sydney and Newcastle on this trip, we had avoided the big city traffic since leaving Perth, and didn’t want to face it just yet. So Wednesday we drove the 450km of freeways (except for Pennant Hills Road, delightful!) and arrived in Bulahdelah mid-afternoon. This town has been a success story for low cost camping, starting with a rest stop on the river. They now offer (self-contained) overnight parking at the golf club (where we stayed) and bowls club as well. The town has thrived and grown since they commenced this initiative after the highway bypassed the town.

Thursday I resisted the urge for a game of golf and we drove The Lakes Way, the tourist drive through the Great Lakes Region just south of Forster. We stopped at Santa Barbara for long surf beach walk, before visiting Wallis Lake for as coffee. This was a really quiet, pretty hideaway along the shallow lake. It is obviously a very healthy waterway, as the large octopus happily swam up to the banks to meet us. The temperature had reached 32⁰C so it was nice to stay by the water.

We also visited Green Point on the way to Forster/Tuncurry. After fuelling up we drove past Taree and on to Coopernook, a forest camp spot we have visited many times. It continues to be a favourite of ours, only about 7km from the highway, but deep in a state forest.

Wallis Lake Coffee Stop

Friday we headed east through Harrington to Crowdy Head. Another of our favourite spots, a very small quiet settlement with an exceptional beach. It can have great surfing and fishing, but today the northeaster was blowing 30+km/h. As the temperature reached 34⁰C it was THE place to be, it only felt like about 25⁰C.

This is another small community where we have previously stayed overnight, and again the “no camping” signs have appeared. A few self-contained motorhomes and caravans were still staying there, believing the signs are only to deter tents and backpackers.

Wallis Lake Octopus, very surprising!

We enjoyed a lazy day beach walking and keeping cool as storms built up and passed through in the afternoon. Thankfully not as severe as the ones that hit Sydney. After the storms we decided to return to Coopernook forest for the night.

Saturday was due to hit 35⁰C by 11am, so we decided to make it a washing and chores day and checked in to the Colonial Holiday Park in Harrington after an early walk along the Manning River. We only chose it because the CMCA have a partnership with it, and it would have to be one of the best parks we have stayed at, and one of the cheapest. Once again the storms built up in the afternoon, and thankfully once again they weren’t too severe for us.

Sunday we cruised out to Crowdy Bay for another beach walk, with the wind and temperature nicely dialled down.

Pambula to Moruya

February 5 to February 12

Sunday saw us enter New South Wales, we’re on the home stretch before returning to the Sunshine Coast. We drove into Eden then on to Pambula. It was surprisingly busy, so we bought some fresh local oysters (this stretch of coastline is another renowned oyster farming area) and went 5km to Top Lake near Merimbula for lunch. This is a large shallow inlet with many oyster leases, and plenty of walking tracks for after lunch.

Sunday night we stayed at another CMCA Member Stop Over property near Pambula. This region have been experiencing a prolonged drought and their property was desperately dry, so dry they had lost many, well established trees. About 1am on Monday a storm came through and dropped about 15mm of rain. The region was about to get a reprieve from the drought.

Monday we went back into Merimbula and checked in to the Merimbula Beach Caravan Park. The weather had turned rainy and windy, we had some washing to do, and the Superbowl gridiron game was on TV. The right combination to hibernate out of the weather.

Tuesday the weather got even worse, we did some grocery shopping then drove north stopping in at Tathra and Bermagui. We reached Narooma with still no relief from the rain. Thankfully Narooma are still tolerant of overnight parking at their boat ramp so we stayed the night there.

Secret Bush Camp, near Potato Point

Wednesday the rain reduced to showers, we had a walk on the Mill Bay boardwalk in the morning, then moved to the other side of Narooma overlooking Wagonga Inlet. This is also a large, very shallow inlet where oysters are farmed. We got the chance to have another walk in the afternoon as the showers became less frequent, but the wind was still constant. I was thinking of doing another offshore fishing charter to Montague Island while in Narooma, I did this 2 years ago and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately the wind forecast was bad for the next few days, so we drove a short distance north to Potato Point.

We stayed here two years ago, a very small headland community (no shops or pubs) where you could stay overnight in the park adjacent the creek and the beach. In the time since we were last here, they have erected “No Camping” signs at the park, probably due to the huge increase in travellers opting to free camp and not always respecting the host towns.

Potato Point borders the Bodalla State Forest, and a chat with a local offered a couple of options to camp in the bush, which thankfully the rabid travelling hoard haven’t found out about yet. Less than a kilometre off the Potato Point Road (sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy on the actual location) we had a secluded forest hideaway (see photo).

Emu on the beach, Potato Point

Thursday the weather finally cleared, so we parked back at Potato Point, and did some walks along the beach and through the fringe of the Eurobodalla National Park. The beach walk was a surprise when we came upon an emu couple and their two chicks. While the chicks and one parent stayed in the dunes, one parent happily strolled the beach for an hour or so. We also saw them later at the park in Potato Point. The weather report was looking more promising, so I checked with Narooma Fishing Charters and they were going out Friday, the first time in almost a week. We returned to Narooma to park at the boat ramp so I could meet up with the charter at 5:45am.

Mixed bag of reef fish from Montague Island

The wind had dropped on Friday, but the swell was still 2 metres, so pretty bumpy. We had a good day out although not too successful (see photo). I caught a mix of snapper and silver trevally to take home, but missed a very big Kingfish which, after about 10 minutes of fighting, broke the line before we got him to the boat. Only one legal kingfish was landed on the day. Leah enjoyed a walk into town and around the shops.

Friday night we returned to our Potato Point bush camp.

On Saturday we spent the morning at Potato Point then drove to Moruya, about 24km north. Sydney and the mid NSW were in the grip of a 40+⁰C heatwave (as was QLD and parts of VIC). Fortunately we were just south of the affected area, we only reached around 30⁰C. We booked in to the caravan park for our weekly chores. Storms brewed up in the late afternoon and continued on and off that night.

Sunday we had a leisurely morning walking along the Moruya River and around town, as the checkout from the caravan park was a generous 11am. 

Blairgowrie to Pambula

January 29 to February 5

  

We spent Saturday through to Tuesday in Blairgowrie at Margaret’s, to catch up on mail and other necessary chores. It was the last weekend of school holidays in Victoria, and the Peninsula was crazy busy, it’s no wonder the locals hibernate during these times. Many thanks to Margaret for her hospitality and washing machine.

Tidal River, Wilsons Promontory

It was great to catch up with Ron Corcoran on Monday when he kindly dropped in to see us. Sorry to miss Pam on this visit, she had a more “pressing” appointment, I trust it is all going well.

Tuesday night we stopped at Bass Valley Campground, about 80km before Wilsons Promontory. After living in Melbourne for two years, and numerous visits and motorhome trips over the years, we still hadn’t been to “The Prom”. Wednesday, after an overnight earth tremor centred in Foster about 30km from The Prom, we bravely headed to the National Park. It is well known for the bushwalking and beaches, so popular they have to hold a ballot to decide who has camping access over the summer holidays.

View of Tidal River from walk trail

Although a very cool day (11⁰C overnight and only 19⁰C as a maximum) it was ideal for bushwalking and we walked Tidal River and Squeaky Beach trails before lunch, and the Wildlife Walk in the afternoon. Although the only wildlife we saw was a small deer who nearly became a hood ornament on the motorhome.

The sign says it all

We drove to the Franklin River Rest Area for the night before continuing east.

Thursday we continued east to Sale, then on to Marlay Point, a spot about 15km from Sale, on Lake Wellington. We have stayed here before on our way back from Tassie, a beautiful, peaceful locality which really only has a sailing club. You can stay overnight on the lake foreshore opposite the sailing club. There were a few more campers than the last time we were here, in 2014. It was about the same time of year when we were last through this coastline, and it is noticeable how many more caravans and motorhomes (and backpackers in cars and vans) there are in all the camp areas three years later.

Foggy dawn, Snowy River near Orbost

Friday we drove to Bairnsdale via the country roads, a pretty drive through grain and sheep farms. A quick shopping stop then on to Lakes Entrance. We have visited here a number of times, so we passed through and drove to Lake Tyers. There is a small community (and a pub) set on the lake at the ocean entrance. We had lunch there and a walk on the beach, then continued on towards Orbost. We stopped at a rest stop on the Snowy River, about 6km out of Orbost. We have also stayed here in the past. We had looked at a couple of other places, but they no longer allowed overnight camping. The Saturday morning photo shows why this spot was a good fall back option.

Coastline looking north towards Mallacoota

Saturday we headed to Mallacoota, a town we hadn’t visited since we lived in Melbourne and holidayed there in 1998. The town hasn’t changed too much, but they have put in extensive walking trails to highlight the spectacular coastline and coastal mountains. We checked out the local markets before lunch, and after lunch we tackled the Mallacoota Coastal Trail, following the cliffs to the south.

We drove back out to the highway and into Genoa, and to the overnight rest stop on the river. We hadn’t stayed here before but had seen it. Did I mention how many travellers there are on the road? We found a spot amongst 60 or more of our closest travellers, the photo was only a section of the area.

Genoa River Rest Area, getting away from it all!

Sunday we continued north and into New South Wales, stopping in Eden for coffee and a walk along the beach boardwalk and lake area. We plan to spend the next few days around Pambula and Merimbula.