Who wants to predict the weather these days?  Drought when there should be rain, rain when it should be dry, even snow – yes, snow – when you least expect it.  Julie and I left Sydney knowing the forecast was going to include some rain but we didn’t expect rain every day, nary a blue spot in the clouds, rain on and off, rain hard and light, rain day and night.  Luckily we have Wanda which hugs the slippery tracks during the day and gives us a comfy dry home at night. 

We woke up on the first day of summer at Platypus Flat deep in the magical rainforest of Nymboi Binderay National Park after a night of rain, what else, and did two lovely walks through groves of giant red cedars – a majestic but rare tree in Australia due to heavy logging a hundred years ago – huge tallowwood, coachwood, blue gums, brush box, hoop pine and countless others.  We tried to learn, remember and recognise each tree but there were so many kinds, some we’d never heard of, others we couldn’t recall five minutes later, the whole thing was great fun and a little comical too.

But the stars of the show were the tallowwood, massive trees with more than an eight metre girth, 55 metres high and each tree carrying enough wood to build four average homes.  Some of these giants were over 800 years old and it was a privilege to stand at their base and give them a pat.  Well done guys, you’re amazing.

Of course these rainforest walks were done in the rain which added to the ambiance of the moment if it also added to our pile of wet clothes.  Whatever, we kept on truckin’, bursting out of one national park and into another, this time the huge Guy Fawkes River National Park which has the catchy tag line of ‘Welcome to the edge of wilderness’. 

And wilderness it was.  This vast catchment area of the winding Guy Fawkes River, covered in wide range of trees and creatures, a living example of why national parks are so valuable and important to us.  We followed the mountain trails up and over the hills, stopping at vista points, usually completely overcome with mist and fog, crossing flooded creeks, carefully negotiating some steep slippery sections. 

We ended up at the remote Chaelundi Falls campground where we donned our wet weather gear and did the seven kilometre return walk out to Lucifer’s Thumb, a viewpoint overlooking the Guy Fawkes River far below.  The clouds cleared long enough for us to take in this immense space laid out below us, the river winding its way through its own valley.  It was a grand moment to pause and admire this amazing wilderness as far as the eye could see. As we sat there we could see the rain starting again over there…and it’s getting closer…and then right about here.  A fine walk home in the rain.

The next morning we woke to a rare sight – blue skies!  And didn’t the whole place look great, sunshine sparkling off the wet grass and trees, absolutely fab.  We quickly hung out all our wet clothes and enjoyed breakfast in the sun in the middle of a seriously beautiful place.

Just north-east of Guy Fawkes River National Park is Chaelundi National Park, a park straddling the flooded Chandler river and protecting more native bushland.  We drove as far in as we could before a locked gate on the uncrossable river turned us around and retraced our steps along the shaded ridgeline trails back to paved road and civilisation. 

But with blue skies and the promise of more we changed our plans again and headed straight to the coast, settling for Woody Head campground in Bundjalung National Park near the sleepy little town of Iluka, just north of where the huge Clarence River spills its muddy brown water into the blue Pacific.

The sunshine and the camp near the beach was the perfect tonic for us as we gave Wanda a day off and spent a couple of nights chilling out with nothing to do but lay on the beach, explore the local area, chat to some of our fellow campers and sit around our fire.  Perfect stuff.

We then moved slightly south to the holiday town of Yamba which is on the south site of where the Clarence River flows into the ocean.  Yamba is much more developed than little Iluka and sports a great little holiday vibe as well as featuring outstanding beaches and the surf which are a major drawcard to surfers from around Australia. 

We checked out the large fresh water swim holes near Angourie and had a swim in one of the area’s kilometres-long beaches before setting up in a camp near the centre of Yamba.  That night after a thunderous storm we walked to the landmark Pacific Hotel, perched high on the hill overlooking the beaches, and enjoyed a lively Saturday night with the locals, a couple of schoonies and a pub dinner.

Our days on this trip were numbered as we needed to be back in Sydney for some pre-Christmas family events.  But not so fast, we wanted to explore a few new areas on the way home so headed for the Gwyder Highway which connects Grafton to the small regional town of Glen Innes via a beautiful winding drive over the Gibraltar Ranges and through two amazing national parks.

Washpool National Park and Gibraltar Ranges National Park collectively protect a vast wilderness area that is almost completely inaccessible.  The Gwyder Highway provides a couple of entry points into this rainforest wonderland so we hit them all, doing a few short walks around the campgrounds in Washpool NP and then driving further into Gibraltar Ranges where we camped for the night at a place called Mulligan’s Hut.  Surrounded by thick green wet rainforest, reminded regularly by the occasional rainy session, loving the sound of birds and frogs, we savoured yet another beautiful private evening around the fire.

With a mission to head south we stopped in Glen Innes to check out the Standing Stones site which commemorates the area’s strong Celtic heritage before steering Wanda across multiple country roads, up and over beautiful green pastures, through paddocks and around farm houses as these tertiary roads often take you.  We followed these dirt tracks, sometimes waiting for cows to step off the road, wading shallow streams that had been a raging torrent only a week before, crossing through small country towns such as Bundarra and Barraba before settling for the night on the slopes of Split Rock Dam, the rain pelting down, everything a bit soggy.  No matter where we go it seems the rain keeps following us. 

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Except…the next day we woke to sunshine, glorious sunshine sparkling off the large dam that played out below us and the camper dried out over coffee and breakfast as we plotted our course for our final day on the road.  As always, we were aiming for obscure roads that gave us a closer view of the rural countryside, small communities and beautiful open land. 

And that’s how we ended up passing through the small town of Merriwa just north of the Goulburn River National Park when the hard monsoonal rain turned to hail and we scurried to find a tree to park under so as not to damage Wanda.  Wanda survived intact but the rest of the drive home was through intermittent rain, sometimes seeing the next rain storm approach as we pass over a ridge. 

This three week trip had been one full of discovery – for national parks packed with stunning waterfalls and deep gorgeous gorges, for dripping rainforests protecting the most natural and original of Australia’s bush, for rivers that provide so much to the land and communities they pass through and the beaches that provide such a haven for all who visit them.  We didn’t get the high dosages of sunshine we had hoped for but instead we got much more – and loved every bit of it.

And of course a few more shots of the wonderful mailboxes you see in rural settings.