Coffs Harbour
Hitting Rock Bottom
For a variety of reasons, I didn't have the best Sunday yesterday. Maybe it was because it was 9/11, though I didn't realize that till halfway through the day. However, by the day's end, we'd managed to drive Vacilando into the deepest ditch imaginable. Not so much a ditch in fact, more like the Dell from Hell. Let me back up.
Since last I logged on, we turned inland towards New England NP. This is an area of NSW that had at least 14 national parks. We first drove through farmlands and passed a hell raiser on a Vespa. He warned us of the big hill up ahead and sure enough, there was a hill and it was big. The last few k were interesting as we were starting to worry about our fuel supply and so the hammer was dropped and I coaxed all the speed out of Vacilando that I could safely manage. Safe for us, but unfortunately not for the 2m Black Snake that was draped across the road. Yep, hit him good, but there was no way to avoid it. We then decided to find a off road to head down and camp for the night and took Vacilando into the most serious bush I've ever driven through. None of the trails proved managable with lakes of mud and trees getting in the way. As darkness fell, we drove up to Lookout Point in the New England National Park and made our camp for the night.
The next day we headed 25k down the road to Dorrigo and camped in the Never Never campsite in the National Park there. And then we drove to Bellingen.
I'd heard of Bellingen from Simon whom I met in Coogee down in Sydney. He said it was a nice place and that it was worth passing through. So we lumbered into town, showered and then pulled up Vacilando by the river. Yes, I was living in a van... down by the river. It was Saturday night and we all cut loose on the down, and ended up with four very different nights.
Sunday was less fun. We had a quiet day and then set off for the Promised Land after a longer than expected wait for our pizzas that were to become dinner. As darkness fell, we tried taking Forest Bridge rd. a dirt track as we were unsure where we were and the Promised Land was proving difficult to find. Turning here was not the best idea. We finally came to the Forest Bridge which was down the steepest road that I've ever driven (I think I may have ridden in a car that once went down something steeper, but that was a 4x4 in the Arizona desert, less muddy). The hill was much too difficult to get back up, and rather than try for the hill up on the other side of the path, we decided to bed down for the night and wait for daytime to have a clearer view of our mess. I had a sneaking suspicion that we'd never get out because we were camped next what I believe to be the last car to drive down this road and it now has a tree growing on it, as well as grass.
However, things looked better this morning and after much debating and talking we managed to Vacilando around again (see Austin Powers 1 for what this looked like). Jannie gunned it, put the pedal down and drove Vacilando like a demon, screaming their way up the hill as the rest of us watched. This was followed by the woods echoing with Danish war cries of triumph, the one's Viking's make before the raping, looting and pillaging begins. However, it was a ballsy ass moment as we really thought that we were going to need a tow.
And so, after a foray into the forest and into the green hills around Bellingen, we're once more on the coast, and again heading North. We're 12 days out of Sydney and about 400k from Brisbane. It's been an amazing time, and we really are starting to become something of a family. After nearly a year of travelling solo it's an amazing thing to have travel companions, a family On the Road.
Finally, Springtime has arrived for me. Belligen and the mountains around it were in full bloom and the sweet smell of blossoms fills the streets even as I type. While I don't really think that I experience winter (not a real one anyway, these Ozzies are pansies when it comes to cold), it's nice to finally have it get hot again.
For a variety of reasons, I didn't have the best Sunday yesterday. Maybe it was because it was 9/11, though I didn't realize that till halfway through the day. However, by the day's end, we'd managed to drive Vacilando into the deepest ditch imaginable. Not so much a ditch in fact, more like the Dell from Hell. Let me back up.
Since last I logged on, we turned inland towards New England NP. This is an area of NSW that had at least 14 national parks. We first drove through farmlands and passed a hell raiser on a Vespa. He warned us of the big hill up ahead and sure enough, there was a hill and it was big. The last few k were interesting as we were starting to worry about our fuel supply and so the hammer was dropped and I coaxed all the speed out of Vacilando that I could safely manage. Safe for us, but unfortunately not for the 2m Black Snake that was draped across the road. Yep, hit him good, but there was no way to avoid it. We then decided to find a off road to head down and camp for the night and took Vacilando into the most serious bush I've ever driven through. None of the trails proved managable with lakes of mud and trees getting in the way. As darkness fell, we drove up to Lookout Point in the New England National Park and made our camp for the night.
The next day we headed 25k down the road to Dorrigo and camped in the Never Never campsite in the National Park there. And then we drove to Bellingen.
I'd heard of Bellingen from Simon whom I met in Coogee down in Sydney. He said it was a nice place and that it was worth passing through. So we lumbered into town, showered and then pulled up Vacilando by the river. Yes, I was living in a van... down by the river. It was Saturday night and we all cut loose on the down, and ended up with four very different nights.
Sunday was less fun. We had a quiet day and then set off for the Promised Land after a longer than expected wait for our pizzas that were to become dinner. As darkness fell, we tried taking Forest Bridge rd. a dirt track as we were unsure where we were and the Promised Land was proving difficult to find. Turning here was not the best idea. We finally came to the Forest Bridge which was down the steepest road that I've ever driven (I think I may have ridden in a car that once went down something steeper, but that was a 4x4 in the Arizona desert, less muddy). The hill was much too difficult to get back up, and rather than try for the hill up on the other side of the path, we decided to bed down for the night and wait for daytime to have a clearer view of our mess. I had a sneaking suspicion that we'd never get out because we were camped next what I believe to be the last car to drive down this road and it now has a tree growing on it, as well as grass.
However, things looked better this morning and after much debating and talking we managed to Vacilando around again (see Austin Powers 1 for what this looked like). Jannie gunned it, put the pedal down and drove Vacilando like a demon, screaming their way up the hill as the rest of us watched. This was followed by the woods echoing with Danish war cries of triumph, the one's Viking's make before the raping, looting and pillaging begins. However, it was a ballsy ass moment as we really thought that we were going to need a tow.
And so, after a foray into the forest and into the green hills around Bellingen, we're once more on the coast, and again heading North. We're 12 days out of Sydney and about 400k from Brisbane. It's been an amazing time, and we really are starting to become something of a family. After nearly a year of travelling solo it's an amazing thing to have travel companions, a family On the Road.
Finally, Springtime has arrived for me. Belligen and the mountains around it were in full bloom and the sweet smell of blossoms fills the streets even as I type. While I don't really think that I experience winter (not a real one anyway, these Ozzies are pansies when it comes to cold), it's nice to finally have it get hot again.
posted by Bob Stein at 9:23 PM
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