Week 1 19 - 25 Feb

Week 1          Sun 19 Feb – Sat 25 Feb

Yamba -  19 & 20 Feb

Started off late, wanted to get away around 10.30 am but as usual we managed to leave at midday.  First stop – Yamba, one of my favourite spots.  It is such a lovely place to unwind.  We have always stopped at the Top Tourist Park – which is now a privately owned park, so this time we stopped right in town at the Calypso Caravan Park.  Beautiful sunshine and damn hot and very sticky – and you guessed it the second night what a hum dinger of a storm – not much wind, thank god, but rain and vicious lightning and thunder.  The whole van shook every time the thunder cracked and as it went right over the top of us – I thought for sure that the lightning would strike a tree and fall on us.  It only lasted about 1/2 hour with persistent rain all night.  The next morning we listened to the radio and found out that Iluka (across the bay) got 100 mm of rain.   After a slightly wet pack up – but fining up nicely we headed off to Nambucca.  As usual we stopped at the Service Station at Half Way Creek – such an odd set up as it doesn’t feel like a roadhouse but provides a nice café and a good coffee.

Nambucca - 21 & 22 Feb

Nambucca hasn’t changed.  We stayed at the White Albatross Holiday Park, on the lake – such a nice spot.  This park is always immaculately manicured – grass cut, sites raked of rubbish.  We walked into town through the rainforest walk and did the obligatory shopping at Woolworths, and topped up with petrol before heading off to our next place.

Crowdy Bay National Park (Diamond Head section) – 23 – 25 Feb

Left Nambucca at 10 am and headed for Crowdy Bay National Park, via a place called Laurieton a small town on the coast – but big enough for a Coles.

Lunch time came and as we were not quite at our destination, wanted the quick fix – so as we drove through a town called Frederickton and stopped at a place called Freddo’s Famous Pie shop.  What a variety – so many choices that we both had trouble deciding which pie to eat.  Tony decided on the traditional Steak & Bacon and I had a yummy Savoury mince and vegetable – spicy and absolutely delicious.  Well worth the stop.

The road from Laurieton to the Park was 7kms of dirt road and was just one pothole after pothole.  The van and car got a good workout and shake up – with nothing falling out or breaking by the end of 7kms. We bought our required National Parks Annual Pass for NSW Parks and bought in for 3 nights and got our firewood for our nightly fire.  Surprisingly for a Thursday the park was already 1/3 full. This park was right on the beach and what a beach it was.  When you first walked down the path to the beach you didn’t know what to expect – but the sight was spectacular.  Beautiful white sand, crystal clear water, and rocks that you could walk over on the Point. Words are hard to describe the beauty of the place. 
We had originally only planned to stay 2 nights, but decided after the first day to stay a further night – plus we weren’t sure that we would get a spot at the next place being a Saturday night.  By Friday, the park was absolutely packed and they just kept rolling in squeezing into any available space to set up camp.  You couldn’t get another trailer or tent in – it was solid – with people, kids, tents, campers and caravans everywhere.

Our first morning, started with the Mermaid Lookout walk a 2km return which gives good views of Dunbogan Beach and North Brother Mountain.  Back for breakfast and then off to Indian Head camping ground, 2kms further on from Diamond Head Park to do the Diamond Head Loop Walk (4.8kms) and a moderate grade walk.  What a walk – it was hot and a little tough at times as the climbing up a gradual hill gets to you after a while, but completely worth it.  The walk offers everything from rainforest, heaths and cliff arches plus a natural arch along to a perpendicular point with very dramatic cliffs and rocks and great photo opportunities.  After the walk we decide to drive further south along the dirt potholed road to Crowdy Head Lighthouse, a quaint little town with no shops but a surf life saving club that had a café to buy an ice cream.

We joked this morning that when we returned some idiot would have parked us in.  Well you guessed it, a tent was planted all but 4 foot from the a-frame.  We were parked in – unbelievable – idiot!!  Tony had words and they were damn lucky that we decided to stay another day – otherwise the tent was coming down.

Day 7 was Tony’s birthday.  As usual, I forgot to get him a card for his birthday – so he had to settle for a Tweet instead.  Today we had decided to go back to Laureiton to go to the Kattang Nature Reserve to do a couple of the walks. We started out with the Flower Bird circuit, walking to Logan’s lookout and out to the Perpendicular Point Lookout – pretty amazing and very dramatic cliff faces, then back around to Fishermans Bluff lookout, Pebbly Beach lookout (which was very wet) and further on to Charles Hamey lookout and back to the carpark overlooking Dunbogan lookout.  Again about a 6km walk and it was lovely and hot and steamy – so we were both a bit hot and sticky by the time we finished the walk.  For lunch we drove up to Middle Brother Mountain, which overlooks the whole area – and what a view.  You get uninterrupted views, as far as the eye can see, of the lakes and districts of the area.