Corindi Beach to Newcastle #1

Corindi Beach Caravan Park where I am staying is on a headland with a great view down the coast.

Corindi Beach

I visited Woolgoolga about 20 Km south to see the water tower there, sadly it was an old artwork, faded, with damage and not very good anyway.  It was of a seascape with whales cavorting, but disappointing.

Woolgoolga Water Tower

The Woolgoolga RSL had excellent artwork on the side of their building facing the road showing soldiers in combat, very well done.

Woolgoolga RSL

On Friday I received a call from Pete and Barb, long time great friends, who were camping at Wooli about 25 Km north of my camp, but a 60 Km drive.  So we met up at Wooli and spent a few hours together including a bistro lunch.  It was great to catch up and have a good chat, catching up on family happenings and other stuff.  I returned via a 4WD track which was shorter in distance but took longer, but I enjoyed it better than the highway drive.

Next day, Sunday, (I have to keep saying the days so I can keep track) I moved to Wauchope because I could!  There is a pioneer timber town here but I’m not big on touristy things and when the reviews said the entry price was steep, that made the decision.  I’m staying at the showgrounds for $20 a night.

On Monday I went to see a massive Red Bloodwood, called “Old Bottlebutt”, in the forest nearby, 16 metres around the base, 4.7 metres around where the trunk starts, 53.8 metres high, and the crown is 15.5 metres diameter.  Very hard to photograph with the sun casting shadows but it is a magnificent tree.

Red Bloodwood – Old Bottlebutt Base

The tree looks very healthy as you can see in the photo of the canopy.

Old Bottlebutt Canopy

On the way to the tree there was a valley dotted with palms with the sun highlighting their leaves, it was so pretty, not sure if the photo captures that though.

Palms on the Walk to Old Bottlebutt

On the way back I took a shortcut and ended up facing the embankment of the road I was heading for, about 4 metres high, just as well I had low range 4WD and the slope was rocky and dry, a bit exciting.

After that I headed for Ellenborough Falls which are the second highest single drop waterfalls in the Southern hemisphere.  The road to the falls was extremely windy and narrow but fortunately not much traffic. You view the falls from a platform suspended off the side of the gorge.  Not much water flowing as it has been so dry.  Wallaman Falls west of Ingham in Queensland are the highest single drop waterfall at 268 metres.

Ellenborough Falls

Ellenborough Falls Panorama

In 1981 Marg, Cam, Deen and I visited Wallaman Falls and this is a photo I took at the time on a Minolta reflex film camera, you view the falls across a wide valley, but they still look magnificent.

Wallaman Falls Queensland

Tomorrow I move on the Maitland for a couple of days to see some street art and a water tower.  There are lots of bushfires in NSW at the moment and controlling them is proving a real challenge because everything is so dry and water is scarce.  Very strong and cold winds are making the task more difficult, and also not very pleasant for campers.