Nambucca Shire

Today we left our campsite at Thora after the Insiders program on ABC of course - especially important today in light of the election in Victoria yesterday (we did early postal votes).

We didn’t have very far to drive from near the bottom of the Waterfall Way to the coast. We made a last minute decision to stop at the first seaside town of Urunga where we checked out a Wetlands boardwalk. This was created to try to restore the severely damaged land after Broken Hill Antimony Processing Plant operated from 1969 processing 400 tonne of product and 1600 tonne of waste into the surrounding land. In 1974 the plant was abandoned with no plan as to how to clean up. Finally the NSW government took it over and, employing many local workers, finished the wetlands project in 2017.

The wetlands walk was very peaceful and pretty, with a forest walk and a board walk over the wetlands allowing you to view the many water Lillies and surrounding forest.

After our walk we drove to the beach to walk along another board walk that goes from the beach, across the river, through the mangroves and all the way to the ocean. It is a spectacular and magical walk, as you peer into the crystal, clear water below and see fish of all sizes scurrying and weaving their way along. All around you see emerald green water, low tide white sand hills, mangrove gently swaying in their watery bed and, in the distance, the powerful ocean with frothing, white caps. We got quite hot while walking and we forgot our water bottles on this walk, so we got (me especially) pretty tired. Finally made it back to the car, picked up a few groceries and headed to the next town south, Nambucca Heads.

We checked out the Captain Cook Lookout (towing the caravan - total madness!), driving up some very steep, narrow roads to get there. Here we gazed out at the most perfect vista of grey and white moody clouds painted across a vast sky, above a gentle, curving river and clear lagoon directly below us. Around the lagoon we could see caravans laid out like toy trucks. Beyond the lagoon lay a feisty ocean with a big swell and white caps to match.

We drove down to the caravan park to see if they could do a good deal for a few days, as otherwise we planned to continue our way south.

All good. We scored a mid-week special and set up our caravan one row back from the lagoon, but with nobody in front of us it feels like we have a front row view.

We walked along the breakwater to see the famous V-Wall, an outdoor gallery where visitors have painted every rock along the breakwater - each a different, personal, colourful and gorgeous permanent record. We saw a stunning, mellow pink sunset and felt really lucky to be in such a gorgeous place for the next few days.

Finally it got dark and a bit chilly. Time to head indoors, cook something for dinner and settle in for the evening.

Night night from the mid-north coast xxLæs mere