DAY 1 of second part of the trip (but DAY 121 overall so we’ll go with that)
18th June 2021
We were back with a new gearbox and associated bits! Josh had done an absolutely tremendous job to get us back on the road in 2 months. We were ready to tackle the last bit of our Big Lap – Queensland, and other bits we'd missed.
We left his place at midday, and went to the local Chinese takeaway to get some lunch. We went to have a look at the flood devastation from the river nearby. While we'd been away, the East coast of NSW had copped a lot of rain and there had been a lot of flooding. We only saw what it did to the river reserve there – what a mess – but other people had had their houses flooded.
Went to Rock’s Crossing for the night.
DAY 122
19th June 2021
Josh’s friend Mick came to meet us in the morning when we left Rock’s Crossing. We drove through Tapin Tops National Park to Dingo Tops. Very nice place but cold! Drove through several other national parks. Visited Poteroo Falls then drove to the Cells.
It started raining (of course) and looked pretty set in. We left the Cells, as it was really muddy and slippery in the rain, and supposed to be a dry weather track only (to be fair, it was dry when we went in, and started raining while we were there)!
We managed to get out ok then drove to Ellenborough Falls.
We decided against camping the night – so sick of the rain – so we went into Taree and had dinner with Mick and his wife Tash. Then went back to Josh’s place for the night, and it rained ALL night. It's so miserable camping and packing away in rain like that so I'm glad we bailed.
DAY 123
20th June, 2021
Try again!
We left Josh’s about lunchtime and drove to Gloucester to pick up supplies and then along the Thunderbolts Way to a campsite on the way to Walcha. It was called Bretti Reserve and it was very nice and peaceful! This was during covid time - at the time of posting (2024), this campsite is always very busy.
