On The Road pt. III

    

     Heading west from Coff’s Harbor you start to drive up into the rain forest. The road was absolutely beautiful and a bit scary. As usual for this trip it was a rainy and foggy day and the mountain road was windy. Trees were tight together and the road so windy that on some of the switch backs the road was too narrow for two lanes and they just stop the dividing lane and its up to you to make the corner. 

     

     Then as you continue on further it just becomes one lane again while construction crews are clearing away what appears to be a landslide that had been covering up the whole road. But the scenery is absolutely worth it and your ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ is Dorrigo National Park. I fell in love with this little place and wish I had spent more time there. They have a bridge to nowhere so visitors can look over the tops of the rain forest trees then one can go below for a sort or long walk among the lower part of the rainforest and experience it at a different view. Unfortunately as usual with this trip it started to rain so I cut my stay short and continued on. 

     At Ebon I stopped at a cute little café and had lunch and decided to re-evaluate my course (the burger I had there was amazing after all of the processed food I had been eating).  I had been driving more than planned and stopping less thus I was making better time than planned and had only a couple hour drive left and still had a few days till I needed to be in Sydney. Looking at my Maps book I decided to check out the Grey Gum café and maybe spend the weekend there after a night in another national park near by. This one had a beautiful hike where you could see the way the mountains had formed with some spectacular waterfalls.

 

    Next day was onto grey gum café on putty road. On the map it looked like I would be driving on mountain roads again and as I kept going it just looked like plains. Then I came upon a memorial for truck drivers and as I was thinking about how strange that was I turned a corner and immediately found out why there was a memorial for truck drivers. The road became extremely curvy and there were lots of signs about land slides. The drive was beautiful and I took a short break at an old abandoned truck stop. 

      

     The Grey Gum Café was delicious and I got to talk to the owner as I ate and he made sure that I was comfortable and had everything I needed. He also encouraged me to stay for the music festival that weekend. I was going to but in the morning as I went outside there were so many flies I couldn’t breath and I didn’t want to live in my car for any longer while waiting so back to the maps I went. With a couple of days left on my trip I figured why not do a trip into the Blue Mountains? And off again I went.

 

"A good traveler had no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -Lao Tzu 

I had no fixed plans on this trip and my only intent was on arriving in Sydney, I think I did ok though as there really was no rush.

On the road!

Today I took off for Sydney!

The plan was to leave this morning and get to byron bay and stay the night at a place just below there. Instead I went to Geoff's place to collect some things I had left and ended up staying longer than planned.  Luckily while talking to Geoff I had decided to not drive as far today and stop just south of the Gold Coast.

     The drive along the Pacific Coast highway was absolutely beautiful but since I had left a little later than planned I got stuck in traffic and didn't get to camp till after dark.  I went driving through back roads (because I get lost everywhere I go) and took some of the most beautiful roads I have ever been on through poring rain.

     Getting to the site looked like an easy place to park at first till I realized most of the places to park had been taken that were accessible due to the place being extremely muddy.   Luckily I found a spot and after using the restroom the German couple next to me were very nice and moved their van so I could get a better spot instead of being half in the mud.

     One of the reasons I had a late start was because I took a while in the grocery store buying food that travels well and is easy to cook. Thank goodness I did. Because once I got near my site I just wanted to be done driving.    The picture is of my lovely dinner.  It was as delicious as most camp meals are. Now to bed. Perhaps in the am I will take a picture of my campsite. From what I could see of my headlights I'm betting it is either amazing or a swampy mess.