Nambucca Heads (23-27 March 2013)

After Blackrock we thought that we needed some civilisation to wash clothes and have a shower, and we were already starting to form firm ideas about what we want from a campsite. Or rather what we don't want. In many of the coastal towns there are one or more campsites right on the main beach or estuary. These will have all the amenities, but the sites are usually powered (which we would have to pay for despite having our own power), small, packed in, and occupied by large road only vans (caravans). With very few exceptions these sites hold no appeal for us. After being directed to 2 of these sites by the very kind ladies at the Namucca Heads tourist information centre, we almost paid $40/night to stay in the campsite equivalent of a sardine tin full of twin axle Jayco's. With daylight running out we decided to take a chance on the last site in town which the tourist info had advised against. As we drove up toward the North Coast Holiday Park up on the cliff, we sighed with relief. Although we thought this was by far the most suitable of the 3, there was almost nobody there (only 2 other sites occupied) and the receptionist was very friendly - she gave us the gate code to drive in and take a look around, then if we decided to stay we could sort things out in the morning as she was going to the beach for a swim :)

The beach below was a 10 minute walk down a reasonably steep path, and we had it more or less to ourselves - there were some street workers for a short while, until one of them forgot to put on his handbrake and his ute rolled back into a parked car. They must have finished the job at the same time because only the one guy was left there to find the owner of the parked car. Fortunately the parked car had a bullbar and didn't take much damage.

Some of the sunrises from the cliff were well worth getting up for.

We also found Beilby's Beach (Ness' maiden name) just around the corner.

There is only so much doing nothing that a family can (not) do, so we set off to do a bit of exploring. On our way to Yarriabini National Park we stopped to take a pic...

At Yarriabini NP we did our first bit of proper offroading, so I got out my new Gopro and made a vid. What they don't tell you on the box is that you don't just copy your clips onto Youtube when you shot the vid at 4K... My laptop (which is a decent spec) struggles to even play it back, and the file size is WAAYYYY too big. So I'm still learning how to convert and edit the vids. Just so that I don't keep you completely hanging, here is a short (converted, but unedited) clip of this national park.

Future videos will be much better quality. I promise.

A shot of our trusty steed at the lookout near the top of the mountain.

And the view from the lookout point.

We carried on to the top and I was a  little disappointed to see this at first, but when we went closer they are sort of cool in a sci-fi kind of way.

Ness had read about a picnic spot not too far away, so we carried on and in the middle of the forest came across this place.

A beautiful picnic spot with some magnificent trees that are so tall they make you a bit dizzy when you look up at them.

There is also a modern aboriginal sculpture, full of culturally significant symbols and pictures, in the garden.

If you put your hand in the hand print, it is supposed to connect you with some ancestors or spirits. I didn't hear any (new) voices, so maybe someone forgot to pay the leccy...

The spot is quite magical though, and if we ever pass that way again we will definitely like to drop in again. While we were there we took advantage of the free gas plates (that seem to crop up all over Australia) and made some pancakes with cream and syrup. YUMMM!!!!