There were lots of places to turn off the main road and play 'tourist' today. Gorges and Falls and small towns.
Our first detour was to find Gertz Gorge. Along the corrugated dirt track, there were lots of little bunny rabbits hopping about and on the side of the road, we could see the holes that led to their warrens.
We tried to get a photo of the bunnies, but they were too quick. I got a couple of shots in, but they are not clear ... you can tell it's a photo of a rabbit, but that's about it.
At the last grid and gateway to the gorge, there were two alpacas grazing nearby!
We made it to the gorge, but the viewing area was quite overgrown. The good part, was that nobody else was there, so we got to stroll around on our own and enjoy the scenery and there were lots of little birds fluttering around the place.
The birds were very small, stayed close to the ground and flitted in behind the tall grasses - so none of my photos turned out very clear of them either!
When I think about it .. I had some great opportunities today, but luck wasn't always on my side and most of my photos were disappointing.
The next stop was at some 'falls', but we can't remember the name of them - we stopped where we thought the falls would have been, had there been water (the rivers and streams are very dry in these parts and only one of the falls has water at the moment), and took some photos.
What we thought were fish creating swirls in the stream, with hindsight, we think they may have been platypus, because the signs for accommodation had a platypus as a logo. *forehead slap* If we had been on the ball, there may have been a marvellous opportunity there with the camera!
Wollomombi Gorge was our next turnoff and this is where we discovered the Wedge Tailed Eagles! They were soaring and playing on the thermals in the gorge, and looming from below us on the viewing platform.
We got lots of photos, but the air was very hazy and when they were above me, the light was too bright. When they were below me, and when the light was perfect, I panicked and missed the perfect shots! UGH!
The Wedge Tailed Eagle is the shot that I most want now, on my bucket list. I know there will be another opportunity in my future .. hopefully it will be on this trip!
Next, we tried Point Lookout, but we could see as we got closer, that the weather was closing in. The higher we drove, the lower the cloud dropped and by the time we reached the lookout, we could barely see in front of us, let alone the view from the lookout. What a fizzer.
On the way back to the main road, we stopped near a stream to take a shot, and disturbed a man camped in a tent. He appeared to have a marijuana plant growing in a pot by his tent .. can't say for sure, because we didn't get that close, but he seemed very edgy when we pulled up!
We found Ebor Falls next. We had visited the same falls about 18 years earlier when Vegan Chickie was a teenager, so it triggered some nice memories for us.
By now, we were starving. We hadn't eaten any breakfast and it was now after lunch, so we desperately wanted some food.
We stopped at Ebor, but just before we walked into the cafe (the only one in town), a large group of about 10 people walked in ahead of us. We decided to push on to Dorrigo, which was about 55kms further up the road.
Well, wasn't that an adventure in itself!
The temperature dropped from about 26C to 14C and the fog was so thick that we could barely see the road!
We slowed right down to 40kmh in some parts of the drive and we had two trucks on our tail. The road was very twisty and windy as we travelled over the mountains to our destination and it took much longer than we anticipated!
Thank goodness, we found a cafe and produce store, that had organic and gluten free goods for sale, as well as delicious, healthy food.
We had a Moroccan Chicken dish with three different salads and two much-needed coffees. It was delicious and the price was right.
We left the cafe and strolled through the store of a second hand/antiques dealer. The store was as big as a warehouse and it was like a trip down memory lane for BGWLBH and I.
We pointed out all the items that we grew up with, as kids. Crockery and biscuit tins and vases and milk bottles in their little carry cage, money boxes, wall decorations, kitchen utensils and cooking gear. It was very enjoyable.
We found the Art gallery and viewed some beautiful art and jewellery and timber-wares.
After we left there, we had to endure some more foggy twisty roads, to find the little town of Bellingen and the butter factory.
Great little shops that we could have spent a fortune in, if we had a fortune available to spend! Instead we 'spent a penny' and used the bathroom facilities, then bought refreshments before taking off on the next leg of our journey.
We wanted to head north to Coffs Harbour, but somehow found ourselves heading south to Kempsey! By the time we figured it out and found a way to turn around on the highway, we had lost about 30 minutes of travel time ... just another little adventure along the way!
We are not very keen on freeway or highway travel, so after we got to Coffs Harbour, we found a turnoff that took us through Nana Glen, and onto the back roads towards Grafton. We'd hoped to find a motel in Nana Glen for the night, but it's a much smaller town than we realised, and even though we didn't drive right into town, there didn't appear to be much in the way of accommodation there.
We pushed on for another 50km through beautiful rolling green pastures and rainforest areas to finally reach Grafton.
South Grafton was our point of entry and it looked very dodgy, with broken down old houses - it appeared to be a very old part of town and not very well maintained or cared for.
A drive over the bridge to the other part of town and it's a completely different story.
We found a little motel called 'The Abbey' and took the last room available, which has two single beds in it.
So, it's been an eventful day, but Mickey didn't want to get involved at all with the day's activities because it was so cold and wet. No Mickey photos today.
Let's see if I can get some decent sleep tonight. I've slept poorly since I've been on holidays and am beginning to feel a bit worn out. Luckily we've been eating well, although missing breakfast today was a big mistake I think.
Tomorrow should be another eventful day and I'm excited to see what it holds for us!
Nite all.
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