Brisbane to Port MacQuarie & Back Again – part 2
After leaving Port Mac we drove through to Coffs Harbor. Here we had some fun exploring the area on our e-scooters, before continuing on to Macksville.
Macksville is a lovely little town on the banks of the Nambucca River. The Pacific highway used to take you through Macksville, but like so many other small towns, it has been bypassed. But, if you have the time or the inclination, it is a great little spot for a rest or an overnight stay, which is what we did. We spent a comfortable night in a small free camp area on the banks of the River. And guess what, we had blue sky and sun, for a while anyway. ?
The next day we headed north-west, then cut further inland from Grafton. We planned to stay at the Floyd Bush Campground, Coombadjha, on the Mann River, it looked like a great spot and had a lot of good reviews. But long story short, we never made it there. Both access roads to the campsite were closed due to flooding. Who would have thought it?
Now planning is not our strong suit, so we did what we normally do. We pointed the car in the general direction we wanted to go…and drove. Our general direction took us over the Gibraltar Range, a very pretty drive, even in the pouring rain. After a while we saw a sign for Washpool National Park. (Insert link to review) It was getting late in the day, so we decided to give it a try. We didn’t realise how high we had driven until we started to go down.
It was still raining, it was a steep narrow, gravel road and I have to say, it was a little bit scary. By the time got back on to level ground, the smell of burning rubber told us just how hard the brakes had worked. We did very little that evening. Basically, got the camp in order, went inside, dried off, had a couple of stiff drinks, and pretty much went to bed.
The next morning, we woke up to a fresh, beautiful, rainy day. The funny thing about all this rain is that when we were packing, I took all the winter and wet weather clothes out Chunky Bum. Peter asked why and I said derisively, “We won’t need it. It’s almost mid-summer.” Who has egg on her face now then?
It was here that we got to try our Ozpig for the very first time and I have to say, I was impressed. For those of you who don’t know, the Ozpig is a self-contained fire/cooking unit. It takes very little timber to get a good fire going, it is safe to use in, just about everywhere I think, because it is off the ground and well contained. And it is a great little stove to cook on. By the time we left Washpool NP the Pig was my new best friend.
Even though the weather was terrible, we just had to do a bush walk. We put on some wet dirty clothes; we were running out of dry ones. What the rain had missed, the dampness had gotten into, and hit the road. It was not a long walk about 5 kilometers return, but it was lovely. I have to say I’ve never bush walked with an umbrella before. I also have to say it was an utter waste of space.
The walk followed the stream, and because of all the rain, it was flowing deep and freely. The track was becoming slippery and we decided to turn around as soon as we’d found a place deep enough for a quick dip. Yep, you heard right, we wanted to have a dip. Well, we were already wet, and we thought that it would be refreshing. Hmmm, refreshing…if I said my heart skipped a few beats when I jumped in, I would not be lying. It was f-f-f-freezing.
Now we had stripped down to our undies for this little dip, we figured, who else would be stupid enough to go out walking in this? As it turns out, we were not the only idiots out that day. We needn’t have worried though because as it turned out the other idiots were stark naked. Yep, you heard me, not a stitch to be seen, not even the mandatory thongs!
They were of course, Europeans. What else needs to be said. Still, we had a good long chat with them, and they seemed to be a lovely family. At least they didn’t have to worry about drying their clothes when they got back to their camp, on the other side of the river.
I also had my first sighting of a Satin Bowerbird and…wait for it, a Lyrebird, very exciting. After some considerable stalking skills in the rain, I managed to get some good shots. I feel I should mention at this point that I was running out of dry clothes. Maybe we should move to the camp a cross the river?
After the excitement of the day, we dried out some wood, dried out some clothes, poured a couple of scotch’s and enjoyed a late-night viewing of Guardians of the Galaxy by the light of the shimmering pig.
I thoroughly enjoyed our three nights there and was a little sad to leave. Because of all the rain, we did a quick reckie run to check out the road before we left, and it was ok. Big Ears pulled Chunky Bum up the steep incline without a hitch, and we were back on the black once more.
We realised now that we had surpassed Soggy and very, very and we were now officially saturated. Good job we were heading home.
