Scratching our itchy feet in northern New South Wales

Being back in Australia was wonderful although of course we missed our daughter and her husband and their darling little girl (who live in the Netherlands) very much. It’s hard having your offspring on opposite sides of the world!

However, it was absolutely brilliant to see our son and his wife and their gorgeous twin daughters again and to celebrate the first anniversary of their premature birth. 

It was also great to catch up with members of our wider family and be able to entertain friends in our lovely little house “among the gumtrees” that we built in a peaceful corner of our son and daughter-in-law’s property. 

However, after a month or so of enjoying all the celebrations and social times, our feet got a bit itchy so we decided to go on a short caravan trip with our old friends Cathy and Peter. 

It was great to be on the move again although a little bit daunting as we’d never towed a caravan before but we soon got used to it. The bonus was – in contrast to travelling on a boat – if there was a storm at night we didn’t have to do an anchor watch or let out more chain when things got rough!

Our first stop was Arrawarra Beach near Coffs Harbour in New South Wales (just over four hours drive from home) where our yachtie friends Sue and John live. 

Their house is situated in Darlington Beach Resort which not only has a residential section but also has cabins for hire and a very pleasant caravan site. 

It was great to see Sue and John again and to meet Sue’s two sisters, one who lives nearby and one who was also visiting. 

We had such a lovely couple of days that Sue and John decided to join us at our next stop – Dangar Falls – for a couple of days. 

Dangar Falls lies along The Waterfall Way, a 185-kilometre (115-mile) scenic drive which starts just south of Coffs Harbour and which ends at Armidale in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. 

Armidale sits at an elevation of about 1,000 metres, making it one of Australia’s highest cities. 

Our fabulous meander up The Waterfall Way took us through five national parks as we wound  through lush rainforest, many waterfalls, open woodlands and farmland. 

The first section to Dangar Falls was quite hair raising – especially while towing a caravan – the road was narrow, steep and very winding with a surprising number of big trucks heading both ways! 

We made it through fine and felt that the narrow winding road was a good experience for novice caravaners.

The small camp/caravan  site at Dangar Falls Lodge was really lovely.

It was very small (only seven powered sites and some unpowered sites), had lovely views.

There was a very well appointed house that the proprietors kindly opened for Sue and John and suggested we should use it to gather in for dinner as it was very cold.

It was not only a really good caravan site, it was also literally minutes walk away from the stunningly beautiful Dangar Falls. 

From Dangar Falls we travelled a short distance to the “blink and you’ll miss it” village of Ebor which sits at the high altitude of 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) (no wonder it was so cold.)

Here we stayed in a paddock behind the pub which was very convenient.

The camping ground was very close to the stunning Ebor Falls, a two-tiered waterfall on the Guy Fawkes River. 

The very well laid out walk in the National Park had several viewing platforms which gave us fantastic views (photos don’t do them justice.)

Later, we drove to another highly recommended spot – Point Lookout (1563 metres elevation) where we had a wonderful walk. Some of the views were absolutely spectacular.

Of course we had dinner in the cosy pub that night and were surprised to see it completely full by early evening (the population of Ebor was 149 at the time of the last census and I’m pretty sure at least 140 of them were at the pub that night)!

We had some really delicious smoked trout for dinner and later learnt that the Tablelands were famous for trout fishing.

We also found out that the L.P Dutton Trout Hatchery, run by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development was very close to our campsite in Ebor. 

After an intensely cold night (it went down to minus three degrees Celsius!) we headed off to the hatchery and for the very reasonable fee of $3 each spent a very interesting couple of hours there. 

The fishery not only supplies local angling clubs with brown and rainbow fry that are then regularly stocked into New England trout waters but also serves as an educational centre. 

We learned a lot!

From Ebor we travelled to Uralla, a sweet small town famous for being the home of the notorious bush ranger Captain Thunderbolt (Fred Ward). 

The town has many heritage buildings including the McCrossins Mill which dates back to the 1830s. 

During the 1980s and 1990s, the community bought and restored the Mill, and the complex now operates as a museum, gallery and function centre – all run by volunteers. 

The museum includes a series of nine interesting paintings by Phillip Pomroy which depict the events that led to Captain Thunderbolt’s death.

Another intriguing feature of Urulla is the bushland park that features ten large and impressive metal sculptures on tall granite monoliths that all represent constellations that are all visible in Urulla’s night sky. 

A curious combination of art, science and astronomy, the sculptures are well worth seeing!