The Gondwana Rainforest

First morning while based at Thora we moseyed on up to Coffs Harbour. First stop was the Big Banana, however for nothing more than a photo stop. We have decided that it is important to at least let the kids see as many ‘big’ things as we can on the trip.

We then headed down to the marina area. After wandering around the fishing boats and then inspecting the array of product on display in the Fisherman’s Co-Op outlet I found a homemade ice cream store and dragged the kids over for a look as they had already decided they wanted to purchase an ice cream each (thanks Grandpa – he provided them with an ice cream allowance before we set off). No matter how good the ice creams looked however the kids still had their hearts set on packaged stuff they had already discovered elsewhere and given it was relatively freezing outside meaning neither Liz or i had any interest in ice cream that day, we managed to walk out of the store without spending a cent.

We then strolled along the breakwater up towards Mutton Bird Island while the kids polished off the ice creams, however didn’t make it the whole way as Max suddenly decided he needed to head back to the toilet and Liz was also becoming concerned that we would have to carry her back as her limbs would cease to function in the cold winds.

Following a drive around town we stopped to pick up some stuff for lunch (and a new chair for Harry after his original one became part of a campfire in the Watagan) and set out to find a playground to let the kids run off some steam. This became unbelievably difficult, even after Liz got some directions off local Parks and Gardens workers, however just as we were going to give up we spied one at a distance. By the time we were finished there we decided it was time to head home as it had been a late lunch anyway.

On the way home we stopped at a shop just outside Bellingen to see if bananas had come down to a reasonable price. While the price was significantly reduced we didn’t find any we were happy buying, but we decided it had been worth the stop just to browse around the shop. not only did it carry a huge range of local fruit and veg, but it also had a range of other gourmet products. I think they effectively carried enough of a range to negate the need to visit any other store for food supplies if desired.

Next day we spend in Belligen, starting at the The Old Butter Factory. This was both a fantastic complex of buildings and a great craft establishment, with several businesses all co-located within the complex, with some of them including artist studios and workshops adjoining the retail outlets. In many ways it reminded me of the Balingup Cheese Factory in the days when artisans were located there, only much better. This was partly because the buildings themselves were much more impressive and  partly due to the range of businesses represented.

We followed this with a visit to The Yellow Shed, which had an eclectic mix of books and gift items, with a nursery out the back. Once we had finished there we again set off on the great playground hunt, this time with even less success than the day before. In the end we dropped by the Visitor Centre and got directions (once there we realised why we had been unsuccessful as it was anything but easy to find).

We finished the day with a wander along them main street of Bellingen, including visiting a sweet shop ‘Sweet Bellingen’, that turned out to have only opened the week before. Most of the walk consisted of admiring the buildings rather than the shops themselves, with several impressive and well preserved historic buildings.

Just as we were about to leave Liz sent me to have a look at a small establishment called ‘Vintage Espresso’. This was a mixed coffee shop and second hand store, with much of the furniture on sale also being used by the coffee shop patrons which was along the lines of business ideas I had canvassed with Liz over the years.

That called to an end our visit to this area and next morning we set off for the Tamworth area. One major benefit of these few days was also a full water supply. We had struggled to find good drinking water at previous campsites and were almost at the point of buying water however the wet weather we had experienced provided an opportunity to catch enough water off the annexe to completely restore our supplies.

The trip to Tamworth started with a drive through the Gondwana Rain Forest. First stop was a lookout a few k’s off the road (Waterfall Way). The lookout itself was a bit disappointing as we could see very little due to the fog and low-lying cloud, but the drive in and out were beautiful, especially the cattle appearing out of the fog.

We then stopped at the Dorrigo Discovery Centre before we made it into Dorrigo itself. This discovery centre included an art gallery area with some beautiful paintings of local wildlife.
We started by walking out on the Skywalk which was built across a valley so that within about 50 metres it went from being at ground level to being 40 metres above ground. The view across both the close forest and the larger valley area were amazing, with a mix of fog and cloud also hanging around.

On the way out of the centre we made a decision to buy a print of one of the paintings which had particularly appealed to me, meaning that we will always have a memento of one of our favourite stops on the journey so far.

Next stop was the other side of Dorrigo, at the Dangar Falls. These provided a lovely finale to the area, with a progression of flatter farm land making up the rest of the trip.

One thing we realised after this section of the trip was how our perceptions are changing. In many ways we are becoming harder to as we travel further. I think this is largely due to the fact that as time goes on we have experienced more meaning that each place we visit is being compared to an ever increasing number off experiences. Coffs Harbour encountered this, with it becoming just another mid sized city to us, while Bellingen, Dorrigo and the road in-between managed to pull themselves above the myriad of other places we had been. In fact that area is on of the few that Liz and I have come across that we both thought we could easily live in.
Bellingen itself (at a commercial level)gave the impression of being a mixture of Margaret River, Bridgetown and Balingup without the bad bits.