riverECHO

1,240 kilometers around Australia

Our weekend began with Bellingen’s huge community market complete with carriage rides, live music, great food, massages by the river, lots of crafts and a number of, what looked to be, excuses to clean out the garage. We circled the market twice until deciding to cruise up the hill another 20 kilometers to a place called Dorrigo National Park. The road was steep and windy but towards the top the mountain range that we thought we were climbing turned into beautiful rolling fields and farm land. Dorrigo National Park sits along this steep border and we started our tour with a stroll on a skywalk which led to an amazing view over the rainforest below.

We asked one of the rangers about mountain biking and she pointed us in the direction of a park trail that doesn’t get a ton of use. So we drove in that direction and found a perfectly flat piece of ground at the trailhead where we decided to camp for the evening. It was our first night of free camping in the country and, as we were prepared to get a tap on our window telling us we had to leave, we were excited about our find. Whether no one saw us or no one cared, we never got a tap on the window. Prior to our bike ride we spent the morning trying really hard to do nothing but read, drink coffee and gaze out over the neighboring farms. But in my relaxed state I did manage to give myself quite a scare.

Having a post coffee urge, I strolled away from camp into the forest to find a nice grassy perch. Just as I was about to . . . you know . . . I spotted a scaly, multi-colored and much too large for my liking snake just bathing in the sun. I actually can’t even be sure it was alive since I didn’t exactly wait around to inspect it. Before I knew it, I was leaping back over to the van to share my news with BJ . . . and to catch my breath. The bike ride was a great diversion and led down an old dirt road to a lookout that claims to be the point of conception for most of the local population. But I can’t pretend I wasn’t thinking about the snakes that were going to jump out of the grass and bite my leg the entire time. BJ finally reassured me, telling me to think of snakes like we think of bears and moose back home. They will typically only attack if threatened. The biggest difference when it comes to bike riding down here is that your line of focus becomes the many sticks (that I swore were snakes) lying in the middle of the trail. I can’t wait until we get up to crocodile country. I’m not sure I’ll be going on any bike rides up there.

We returned back to Bellingen for another night and then made our way into Coffs Harbor the following morning for another van appointment. We found a mom and pop shop that would be able to quickly fit a new alternator for Slim. As Jeff worked away on our new alternator (and battery) we were welcomed into his house by his wife for tea. We sat on their porch for what seemed like hours enjoying the neighborhood birds, a couple short rain showers and a view overlooking town. His wife brought us tea, chicken wings, crackers with butter and cheese, fruit, more fruit, and even offered up their spare bedroom to us if we didn’t feel like pushing further up the coast. We had never before experienced such hospitality from a mechanic.

On our way out of town, we made a mandatory stop at Coffs Harbor’s Big Banana, the area’s most popular attraction. It was about as exciting as a big fake banana can be and might shed a little light on the type of excitement you might find in the rest of Coffs Harbor. We didn’t stick around to find out, but instead continued north to a tiny little town called Red Rock, originally an Aboriginal community that is surrounded by national park land and ocean. The post shop, town store, laundry, take-away stand, and campground office are all-in-one but the camp is close to perfection. Just over a small dune from the beach, we set up camp for a couple nights on a nice grassy patch. We are surrounded by noisy birds and crashing waves and truly starting to feel settled in our temporary life on the road.