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| Erin overlooking Wollomombi Falls, which appears somewhat faint in the sheen of oncoming rain! |
| Erin's Journal for 2/3 to 2/4//03 New South Wales Today was our departure from Sydney. We packed the car (more than full, onc again, especially with my wedding gown stretched across the back seat!), and said our farewells to Graham and Pauline. They were such wonderful hosts! We hope they'll come see us in the states sometime so we can return the favor! We'd decided upon the inland route, as most of our trek northward would be coastal. So most of the day we were driving through rolling countryside, lots of eucalypt forests, and a few small towns. One of these was Tamworth, Australia's country music capital. A small town, it nonetheless would have been a fun place to stop for a night and do a little line dancing if we'd had the time. Oh well. Glenn slept through it. Onward we went to Armidale, where we took the Waterfall Way, a scenic route back out toward the coast that boasts several waterfalls and national parks along the way. As luck would have it, we started driving into grey, cooler weather as soon as we headed toward the coast. Sure enough, by the time we stopped at the first waterfall, Wollomombi Falls, the rain was clearly visible across the gorge where we were viewing the waterfall. It's one of Australia's highest at over 200 meters, and would probably be more impressive in sunlight and without the fading effect of rain speeding its way toward us... Anyway, this pre-empted our plans to stop off at a few short hiking points for further waterfalls, and we took a shortcut road up to our planned stopping point of Grafton. The shortcut road was actually quite scenic as well, and would have been even faster due to no traffic - except that we kept having to slow and/or stop for all the cows in the road!!! We still don't understand why it's ok for farmers here to graze their cattle along the road - it seems so dangerous!!! Anyway, we reached Grafton near dark, and priced a few hotels before hitting upon the holiday park in town. It was slightly pricier than we were used to with holiday parks, but was truly an outstanding cabin for the price. It had ensuite shower/toilet, kitchen, tv, and would have slept 5 had we been with friends! We got directions to a pub for dinner, and had a reasonably tasty (but somewhat pricier than we preferred) dinner. They were closing the place up by around 8:30pm though, so we headed back to the cabin and watched Broken Arrow on tv before bed. 2/4/03 Today we continued on our drive northward. From Grafton, we got a late start due to some very comfortable sleeping in! But we hit the road at 10am and got up to Byron Bay by around noon. This is a gorgeous little beach town, and we took a couple of the scenic drives out to the lighthouse for some truly amazing views of Seven Mile Beach, a snug little group of homes right at the tip of the peninsula, and an astounding number of happy surfers. The rain and windy weather wasn't deterring them at all, and was in fact aiding them by providing better surf than normal. We ate lunch in one of the scenic outlook lots before moving on up the coast. Our next detour was Surfer's Paradise, one of the main towns along the strip of beaches called the Gold Coast. This area has become so heavily touristed that the sleepy beach-town aura is long-gone and the towering surfside hotels dominate the whole strip. But the beaches were still pristine and wonderful, and especially bare today with the wind driving stinging sand against bare legs and the rain intermittently dropping buckets. We didn't stop here, just grabbed a couple of photos of the famed archway to the beach on our way out. Then we headed up toward Brisbane and started following the directions to our friends' house. Jo and Shane are a wonderful pair of long-term friends of the Roberts family. These two traveled extensively in the States about 10 years ago, and have since settled into a quiet community a little ways north of Brisbane. We arrived at their house shortly before Shane and their 2 girls got home, when we got to meet them and catch up on a little of the past 10 years. Jo got home shortly thereafter, and we chatted while she cooked a great lasagna dinner. After dinner when the girls went to bed, we four sat down to watch a movie together, as Jo is as big a movie hound as I am! Before bed, Shane and Jo let us know that there might be a few spiders around the house, but not to worry. These include the rather robust Wolf Spider, the small but poisonous Redback (like our Black Widows), and the huge 5-inch Huntsman Spider. Only the Redback need cause alarm, however, as the other two would rather run than bite. Oh, boy. Spiders are my worst nemesis...so sure enough, I spied a wolf spider hiding in the corner of our room as soon as we went in to bed. Glenn chased it out into the hall, so at least I could sleep that night. |
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| We will miss our Whale Beach view! |