DAY 125
22nd June, 2021
We drove along the Waterfall Way to Bellingen, stopping in at a few waterfalls but it was rainy and a little miserable.
Bellingen, though, what a lovely old place! Very chilled vibe… it’s an old hippy town but becoming very expensive because of all the people moving there.
We stopped in next at Coffs Harbour and went to the shops there before driving up to the lookout over Coffs. Such a great view. The banana plantations were cool. The Big Banana less so.
We stopped at a campsite at Glenreagh. $10 a night with showers and some good, clean facilities. It was a horsey place so the next morning there were people dressed up in cowboy gear riding their horses which was amusing.
DAY 126
23rd June, 2021
We drove on a really awesome road today called the Old Glen Innes / Grafton Road which followed a river and went through the bush. It was so cool, all dirt road with an old stone archway over the road that had been cut out by hand. The track was originally built by timber cutters seeking red cedar in the 1840s, and became Grafton Road in 1867. Cobb & Co stage coaches ran a weekly mail service along the road which was the main route between Grafton and Glen Innes, until the Gwydir Highway was opened in the 1960s.
We stopped for the night at the National Park campsite on the road called the Mann River Camping area. There was free firewood but the area had really been affected by fires in 2019. A nice campsite though.
DAY 127
24th June, 2021
We left our camp and went to Glen Innes, which is a lovely little country town with some nice old buildings. Then went north to Tenterfield, also very nice but the place where Barnaby Joyce keeps getting elected!
We grabbed a pie for lunch then crossed the border with no issues (covid times still) into Qld. We went via a really nice road, the Mount Lindsay Hwy. Then drove to Josh's friend Julian’s place in Redbank Plains, as we were staying with him for a few nights.