Monday, June 14, 2010

Grafton and Surrounds

A bit of a change of style this week...

We had arrived at Moree and had a good soak and a sleep in a proper bed after more than a few nights in the tent.  With the gear clean we were about to go down toward the coast at Grafton and spend some time with family.  We didn't really have much of a plan other than doing some roof rack repairs.

On the way down we did find a campground called Cranky Rock that we called into for a look.  Located between Warialda and Inverell, legend has it that a cranky Chinese man, having murdered a woman in Warialda was being chased by police and jumped from the rock.  Later the area was to become a picnic spot popular with the Warialda locals, and then a campground.

 Cranky Rock

Further down the road we passed through Inverell and we arrived late in the day to stay with family.

I won't be boring with the details, but we pulled the roof basket and the racks off the Discovery and replaced them all.  As I re-installed the racks I used a thread locking glue so the nuts wouldn't come loose.   I didn't on the basket as it makes an awful hum when empty...  We also took the opportunity to catch up on email and make a few phone calls.

Then we decided - time to take the 4WD back off road.  We had heard that it is possible to drive from Wooli to Brooms Head, through National Park and State Forest - so we were off.

We found a beach!

And had some fun in the sand...
After dropping the air pressure
What we actually did was drive along the beach from Minnie Water to Sandon Village.  For the campers there is low cost camping virtually on the beach at Minnie Water.  It's National Park so it's their rules...  There was no real reason for us to go to the Village other than to have a quick (10km or so) drive on the beach.  It is a pretty little village with no public facilities nor a shop.  Interestingly we were quite close to Brooms Head, but there is no way for the vehicle to get across the river so we turned back for Minnie Water.

We aired the tyres up a bit and headed into the coastal forests for the drive across to Booms Head for some lunch and a swim...  It's an amazing drive and we didn't take enough photos.  There are a few water crossings that were all shallow.

Water crossing between Minnie Water and Brooms Head

So after some fairly easy 4WD-ing we arrived back on to a good dirt road, which joined up with the main road into Brooms Head.

Dirt road to the Pacific Ocean

After lunch, and a swim we drove into Maclean and bought some prawns for dinner.  We then returned to home base and planned the next outing.
A family trip up into the mountains was our next mission.  We visited Dorrigo and the famous Dangar Falls.  Why famous?  Mainly because they are often confused with the other Dangar Falls near Armidale...

Dangar Falls, Dorrigo NSW

After settling back into a normal bed for the last night we were ready to head back out onto the road.  The roof rack gear was set up properly, the car had been checked for water and oil, and we had contacted the folks we were to camp with and arranged to meet the at Tia Falls in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.

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