Beautiful Bellingen

Trevor and I found a town that we both love – Bellingen. This is an unusual happening for us, as we look for different things in towns. Bellingen seems to meet a lot of our mutual desires.


On my part, it is small with a population of around 3000 residents, but still close to the bustling Coffs Harbour for when certain shopping and specialists are needed. It is also not totally sports centred as I have found many small communities, such as where we lived in Kulin in 1999 and 2000, to be. Bellingen has a definite Arts and Music scene, and has many gorgeous old shops built in the late 19th – early 20th century still in good condition. Trevor has observed that many places that have developed quickly have demolished a lot of their older buildings before it was realised how valuable they were. Bunbury is an example of a place that has done this. Bellingen has shops operating in many old buildings and they make for such a rich, juicy feel.


We kept taking photographs of places we saw, particularly in the ‘Old Butter Factory’ which now houses a vibrant community arts centre.

This was full of lovely shops; retailing and in some cases producing, wood, leather, jewellery, visual art and sculpture products. There was also a cafe, a discreet beauty parlour and an amazing new furniture and homewares store that sources gorgeous products from all over the world. We spent ages wandering them through them all.


The main street has lots of tempting retail stores, like a Steiner Crafts store where I bought lots of bright wool to knit myself a ‘Bellingen Blanket; a newly opened old fashioned ‘Lolly Shop’ where the lady patiently helped Harry choose his 30c worth of lollies. A store named ‘Vintage Expresso’ tickled us, as down one side was a second hand store with specially selected vintage clothes, and then on the other side was a funky coffee shop furnished with wine barrels, wooden game boards and with smooth jazz music playing.


Bellingen was a delight to visit!

Coffs Harbour

We found a lovely free camp called ‘Roses Park’ in Thora on the banks of the Bellingen River. It has lots of room, a flushing toilet and a General Store in walking distance. Thora seems to be made up of beef farms and orchards, so the landscape feels very familiar. We have travelled the road between Bellingen and Thora several times now and it is a very pretty drive.


We took the Pacific Hwy to Coffs Harbour this morning and started, naturally, at ‘The Big Banana’…



We drove down to the marina where we saw lots of commercial fishing boats. There was also a ‘Fisherman’s Co-op’ that sold many yummy looking goodies. I took a photo of the tuna especially for my friends Lisa and Mark, who used to buy tuna steaks regularly in England – as soon as I saw these I thought of them! Coffs Harbour reminded me a bit of Fremantle, but with Fremantle hosting the 1987 America’s Cup there was a lot of tourist-friendly infrastructure put in place. I didn’t find it so easy to navigate around the spread out town of Coffs Harbour with no real town centre that I could find. It was great to visit though!




As you can see, the weather was a bit overcast, but was still warm and only rained when we were in the car (how lucky was that?!).




Beside the marina was a delicious looking homemade icecream shop. The cones were waffle cones dipped in chocolate and then in 100s and 1000s or nuts. You could then have your icecream dipped in sherbert, nuts or chocolate, and then if you still need more you can add on a Mint Slice or Tim Tam biscuit.


The icecream was very pricey so we didn’t indulge, but it sure looked delicious!
We walked around the marina and saw lots of boats.

We searched for a good spot to eat our lunch at and were rewarded by finding this awesome playground. It had a few things we hadn’t seen before as well as some great swings like the ones we found at ‘Kids Town’ near Shepparton.

Urunga

I had read about ‘The Honey Place’ in a tourist magazine and was keen to have a look. All of a sudden we found it aside the Pacific Hwy and what a great find it was!

Port Macquarie

This morning we drove around 55km to get to Port Macquarie. When first settled it was a convict settlement where the ‘serious’ convicts were sent. We found it to be a bit like Mandurah and Bunbury combined, and probably add a dash of Busselton in too. 


We first went to ‘The Glasshouse’ which is a combined entertainment centre, art gallery and visitors centre. It was a stunning building, and we liked being able to enjoy all three of the centres in one.


In the basement an archaeological dig was displayed, where when work on the building was underway, the footings of two past building were found. Firstly an old Town Hall, and further down a former convict overseer’s house. They had artefacts that were found on display, and Max was particularly fascinated by what they found – including an old toothbrush, some toys and kitchenware.


One of the Art Gallery’s exhibitions was a collection of work from indigenous artists. Incredible stuff! A volunteer came to talk to me and later Trevor. Michael has retired to Port Macquarie from Canberra around 10 years ago. I told him how much I liked the building. He then told us about the controversy the building has caused for the town. There was a protest meeting with over one thousand people attending and the council was sacked – part of the Minister’s decision to do this was the mismanagement of the building process. Wow!


Harry really liked the lift, which had four levels. The walls and ceiling were all mirrored so, as Harry put it, “I can see a million of me!”. I hope they haven’t put video surveillance in their lift as Max, Harry and I had lots of fun crazy dancing our way up to the top floor.


We splashed out and had fish and chips for lunch on the ‘Town Green’ and watched the many people go by. We ate lunch at about 2pm, and were order number 198 for the day. Given this was only one of many cafe and other food outlets there, this gives you some idea of how vibrant the foreshore was!

This one's for my friend Renai who is a policewoman in Bunbury. How good is this station located??

I've never seen a seaplane this close before!

 This dizzy-whizzy went on for ages!

For someone with a slight build, Trevor just amazes me at how strong he is!

Coopernook Park Day 2

This morning we woke up to see how beautiful this campsite is. Take a look!

This is our 'rig' - the annexe walls aren't up but everything else is.

Max and Harry are loving the places to explore. Harry got sucked by a leech today!

Exploring regional NSW

Does this title make you want to read this post? Probably not as like me you were anticipating a dull few days travelling – especially after us spending time in Sydney. But it has been interesting, and we’ve got to see some neat things. My camera has been having a rest so there are no photos unfortunately. I’ll get back into shooting mode soon!


STOP ONE: 3 nights at ‘The Pines’ Camping ground, Watagan State Forest


This was a strange feeling place to me – I just never felt really comfortable there. We were out of Telstra service a lot of the time and a long way from anywhere and I felt a bit vulnerable I guess. Trevor and the boys loved it though.


We met a really interesting man there with his beautiful dog. Trevor and I had good chats with him and he gave us some good suggestions for equipment to make our trip easier. This was great as he seemed to have the same approach to Trevor where things need to work, be useful and be a good price. This sounds obvious but we have encountered some travellers who have spent a lot of money on things that either don’t work, cost the earth, are not really needed (in our opinion anyway!!) and/or could be done a far cheaper way.


Harry made friends with an interesting couple and I felt like I was always needing to be more alert than usual as he wanted to chat to them next to their campfire more than do anything else. There was also a group of young guys on our first night there who were loud. I know, I know, I sound like a fun-sheriff but I was glad to go.


Before we left the boys showed me through a walk trail they’d found and it was just beautiful! Little waterfalls, wooden bridges, lots of green and birdsong. I wish I had taken my camera as I would have loved to have taken photos of Max and Harry carefully negotiating their way across a running creek, bridged by a single tree. Australia is a simply stunning place!


We took some great roads on our way back to the highway. Trevor got to practise his 4WDing skills! We saw some of the impact flooding has had where roots of many old trees have been exposed because of erosion caused by water. Lots of trees are water logged as the water has nowhere to go.


STOP TWO: 2 nights at Dungog Showgrounds


The free camps in Dungog had been flooded out by last week’s rainy weather and weren’t going to be open again until Spring. The Visitor Centre suggested we use the Showgrounds, and once again, showgrounds proved to be a great place to stay.


Max and Harry loved riding their bikes around and Trevor and I loved the position high on the hill overlooking the very pretty town. Harry and I went to the Visitor’s Centre today and overheard two ladies talking about how there are a large number of people at the town’s caravan park but the toilets were locked and it was a bit chaotic. We were very glad we ended up at the Showgrounds with its hot showers and peaceful setting.


Dungog is a gorgeous looking and feeling town. I felt it was like a large Wagin whereas Trevor felt it was more like Bridgetown. Either way, it had a brilliant supermarket, a delicious, interesting, well priced bakery, several lovely places to have a cup of coffee or something to eat and some interesting specialty shops. Everyone was very friendly, and there seemed to be lots of people stopping for a chat with each other. It felt so lovely!


STOP THREE: 1 night at Coopernook Park Camp ground


An edited video of us getting to this campsite could have been a winner on an episode of “Funniest Home Videos”. The Camps Guide we have is from 2007 and our GPS map is a couple of years old too. We didn’t realise until after a few backwards and forwards trips along the highway following their directions, that some roads had been realigned in the last year or so. 
The road we were looking for now ran above us as a bridge and the GPS showed us driving though a paddock.


Another problem we had, and this was not to do with out of date maps, was finding the right highway exit. There was a humungous sign up saying “For Forest Road, take next exit”. We tried two subsequent exits before finding the right one. Multiple U-Turns with a caravan on?? Luckily Trevor was driving as I would have been swearing my head off! It wasn’t THAT bad really – it was probably only an extra 30 or 40 minutes, but it stretched me a bit!


We finally found the camp we wanted at around 4.30pm and it was worth the trouble getting here. It is in the middle of state forest and is a fairly flat large grassed area with many deciduous trees that are still holding some of their Autumn leaves. Stunning! There are several other people staying here and we are close enough but not on top of each other. We’ll get the football out for a kick around tomorrow!


There is a lady living nearby who cares for injured wildlife, so the boys and I thought we might pay her a visit tomorrow to find out more.

The Australian Reptile Park

On our way north today we encountered a sign that pointed to ‘The Australian Reptile Park’. We only intended to drive 100 ks or so today and it was early in the afternoon so we thought that we’d have an explore. We’re really glad we did! The Park was set up in the 1960s and has had an up and down history,  but since the Sydney Olympics in 2000 has grown from strength to strength.

We saw all sorts of animals, and as Max said, ‘they’ve got heaps more than just reptiles”. It was quite different from Gorge Wildlife Park in South Australia (see previous post) which was great as we could have a totally different experience. 


The photos tell most of the story I think so here they are….

a tepu from Mexico

This adult turtle ‘Libby’ was found at the centre’s front door in 2009 in a cardboard box with a ‘Please Look After Me’ note inside. It is believed that someone had handraised Libby from a hatchling as she is very comfortable with people, and they had just found it too hard to look after her in the long run.

At the end of the ‘Reptile Show’ I volunteered to be the volunteer but once up there started to get a little nervous as to what I was volunteering for. This was not helped by the crowd “Look how big it is!!”  “Look at the teeth on that!” as well as Harry’s apprehensive stare (before the creature came out of the bag by the way. What a stirrer he is …). Well it was big! So heavy and muscly, smooth and yet rough at the same time. Looking at these photos makes me squirm!

getting a little nervous here...