Heading Inland

FROM LIANA:

Two weeks. That’s how long we lasted in our camper before giving in and booking into an AirBnB. It started as a one night Valentine’s Day “treat” which somehow ended up into a 5 day stay. Truth be told, I just wanted some one on one time with a washing machine, Daniel wanted a proper bed, and the thought of having the kids back in their own bedrooms was too happy a thought to turn away from. You know you’ve been married a while when a romantic gesture is that of “space”.

We knew that we wanted to head inland for the first time, experiencing some different scenery to the coast. I’d found this AirBnB place called Bimbadeen which was about 2 hours inland from our last stop in Ballina – looked gorgeous and ticked all the boxes. In order to manage the check out and check in time between places, we stopped off at Summerland House Farm for some waterpark and mini golf fun for the kids. A great place to stop with an amazing legacy behind it – the founder became a quadriplegic through polio back in the 50’s, and was unable to get a job due to his disability, so Summerland is now one of the largest employers of people with a disability.

We got to Bimbadeen and it epitomised the saying don’t judge a book by the cover. It looked like a normal house from the outside, and the front yard had quite a lot of gardening and construction material lying about but once you got inside it was an absolute dream home. Beautifully designed and decorated, I’d want my house to look just like this. Wild horses, chickens and dogs roamed freely around the property as it was a working farm so this kept the kids amused for hours. Although it had only been a couple of weeks, it’s amazing how much you appreciate having space again.

Our first day was cool and rainy which actually made for a nice comfortable change – typical though, as we could have done with that comfort in the camper! It did impact my to do list which was primarily hike and waterfall focused. Daniel’s Dad had told us about a documentary he’d watched recently about Nimbin – a small random pocket of Australia which is still stuck in the 60’s. It was only about a 40 minute drive from our cabin so for him, we decided to take a trip back in time. I’d heard of Nimbin before but I thought there would be more to it than just one main street full of hippie and new age shops, and perhaps naïvely I didn’t expect it to smell like being back in Amsterdam.

On the way back we got some dinner at Federal Doma Café. The most authentic Japanese food in the most unexpected place – a town of about 3 shops. Given their location I have no doubt the logistics of getting such fresh ingredients is an expensive challenge, but if I had shut my eyes I would have thought I was back in Japan eating their food.

We went to go check out Minyon Falls but the 100 meter waterfall had all dried up. The nearby Rocky Creek Dam was meant to be a fantastic place to spot wild platypus but after a lovely 1.5km hike we came up 0/2. I was determined on my next quest (Georgie Kelly this was for you) to find a koala in the wild at Tucki Tucki Nature Reserve. This is a 4 hectare reserve which is dedicated to koala breeding and preservation in the wild. It sounded like it would be harder to not find one. However after two laps of the reserve we hadn’t found one and I don’t know who was more upset; me or the four year old Kaia. Daniel was about to bust with laughter over yet another failed exploit, when driving past the reserve I spotted one high up in the tree. He didn’t quite share the excitement though – we would see them every second week in Dreamworld – but there’s something about spotting them in the wild.

Ryder has now started to call Kaia “Gaga”, as his way of saying her name. Unknowingly – or perhaps knowingly – to him what an appropriate name that is for her. One of the things I’ve loved the most on this trip so far is watching how close they’ve become and watching Kaia grow into such a good big sister – she’ll sit with him in the morning while we lie in bed a bit longer getting his milk and anything else he wants. They greet each other in the morning as if they haven’t seen each other in years, and they have this secret little language they both seem to understand completely.

After another stop at Whian Whian Falls – a super easy swimming hole to get to – the Bexhill Open Air Cathedral and a burnt schnitty lunch at The Channon Tavern and our time living in luxury was over and it was on to the next stop and back to the camper. From our cabin in Rosebank we continued about 3 hours further inland to Tenterfield. As the GPS was counting down the time to our arrival, it became apparent that we were driving right in to bushfires. Daniel of course immediately went into stress mode as if we’d just been told to evacuate – we’ll make an Aussie of you yet! This precluded the next few days debating about what the true purpose of back-burning is, whether you can still use a stove in a total fire ban and why petrol stations in the area were still selling firewood. Least it gave us some new material to bicker about.

As we’d soon find out, 43,000 hectares in the area were burning. The entire town including our campsite was booked out full of interstate fire fighters who come to the area to assist. Looking at some of the fire trucks they had come as far as Wyong (about 6/7 hours drive away), which gave us some perspective as to the scale of the situation. Hats off to the rural fire brigade, they were out there 18 hours a day saving people’s houses and properties and still had smiles on their faces and gave time for the kids to show them the fire trucks. The Elvis water bomber from the US had been sent to the area and flew over us every minutes and was amazing to see. Ryder enjoyed seeing all the trucks and helicopters – Kaia was just concerned about all the animals houses in the bush.

Surprisingly with the fires raging, Tenterfield was freezing at night. Having lived in the Gold Coast for the last year and a half it had been a very long time since we’d known what it felt like to be cold (sorry those of you reading from Europe). We (it was all me) had made the executive decision when we were packing up that we could leave the doonas (translation: duvet) and fan heater in the storage locker as traveling through summer, they would just be taking up valuable space until much later in the year. That was definitely a wrong call and something we’ll need to remedy before heading further inland.

Now, I’d love to tell you a bit about the place we stayed at but unfortunately it’s now a police matter. Once it’s all sorted we’ll fill you in on the whole story. The town of Tenterfield feels like a snapshot of what Australia was like 100 years ago. If you look past the branded shopfronts you’ll see very much an early settlement town still preserved. Tenterfield is the centerpoint to at least 5 major National Parks – Girraween, Boonoo Boonoo, Sundown, Torrington and Washpool. Due to the bushfires we could only get to Torrington and Sundown National Parks, both about an hour away in opposite directions.

In Torrington National Park we checked out the Mystery Face Track. Torrington is known as a good place for remote bushwalking and you immediately feel how remote it is. It felt like no one had visited there in ages and that no one would ever find you – it gave me the creeps a little bit. The track was great though going over boulders and massive rock formations until you get to the main attraction Mystery Face. There’s still debate about whether the rock formation is natural or man-made but it’s cool to see nonetheless, and at a 2km return it’s an easy one for kids to do as well.

We went out to Sundown National Park next which was meant to be a great area for fishing and swimming holes. The drive into the park was gorgeous, going through a proper Australian station where you could easily fool yourself that you were in the outback.

Our plan was to take the 2km hike to the Permanent Waterhole for a swim but when we got there we found a dead rotting kangaroo, snake number 2 of our journey, and an algae filled cesspool – so we gave swimming a miss. We were then going to throw a line in at the Broadwater area in the park, but it seemed that had dried up too. Although we were only a few hours inland, I was already starting to see for myself just how crazy the drought is in this country.

So long Tenterfield, still much more to see in your parts but I have a feeling we’ll be back at some point soon…

FROM DANIEL:

The cabin was indeed stunning, but what Liana failed to mention was that the driveway was on a particularly steep slope which meant we needed to find an alternative spot to park the camper. This resulted in two hours of faffing about drenched in sweat with everyone screaming and shouting. Happy Valentine’s Day! Local area was great for short hikes – aside from the lack of water in the waterfalls and wildlife in the woods.

Made the trip to hippie-ville (I thought Byron was bad!). It seems that the local inhabitants comprise mostly of people who went to the festival back in 1973 and never left. Makes me wonder what will happen with the town in the next decade as they all seem to be on their last legs. Far too much tie-dye and ponytails for my liking – although Kaia thought she was in rainbow unicorn heaven.

Next stop was via a white knuckle drive through raging bushfires to Tenterfield. A beautiful area which under normal circumstances would have plenty of hikes and natural sights to be found, but due to the bushfires we were limited to what we could explore. The wife decided we’d be heading on a short hike to a natural waterhole for a bit of a dip. Although it was a nice hike, the river had dried up and all that was to be found was a rotting kangaroo which stank out the whole area and a lightning fast small snake which swiftly chased me out of its territory. At this point I can’t say too much about the site due to assault charges currently being pressed against the owner. More detail to follow.

Loving the cold nights – the doona and fan heater I was overruled on bringing would have been ideal about now.

Would have loved to have checked out Thunderbolt’s Hideout and the WW2 Tank Traps, however the Hideout was on fire, and I was told the tank traps couldn’t be accommodated in the itinerary due to the elusive wildlife search.