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Anyhow, we finally got it down to essentials, stashed the rest
at Nana's and started trekking down the hill, then by bus, then
by train, then more hiking to get to the rental car place. We'd
been putting off getting a rental car because Sydney traffic
is fairly scary and they do not believe in straight roads, street
signs, or even making roads wide enough for most cars around
here. Unfortunately, all trains North were booked so we had
to risk it. Actually, Sarah
risked it, I just sat in the left hand passenger seat and read
maps and shouted directions and tried to figure which of the
8 exits off the roundabout was the one we wanted. We did get
to drive over the harbor bridge, which was pretty cool, but
after that we had a good hour of mid city traffic before we
finally broke out of the Sydney suburbs and things started to
look more like the Australia you see in travel guides.
We swung off the road onto beaches and explored small towns
here and there, but finally spent our first night on the road
in the little mountain town of Wingham. Cool little place but
we still haven't learned that Australia closes EARLY and the
first two pubs we tried were just closing. I started to panic
but fortunately the next one was open and seemed to be populated
strictly with locals. No ashtrays, but there was a big trough
under the foot trail at the bar that you could flick your butts
into, and lots of beer on tap. We started talking to this local
guy with a white beard and a very red face who had been a wine
distributor until he retired. Amazingly, it seemed he could
recall individually every drink of wine or beer he'd ever had
and he regaled us with tales of this "bloody brilliant" 87 and
this "utter bollocks" 91 and other wines he had sampled over
the years. Very entertaining.
Next morning we loaded up and headed to the Wingham Brush,
a small slice of the bush just a ways out of town. We were expecting
a minor forest walk but as soon as we get in we spot these huge
lizards and bush turkeys and then Sarah sees the bats. Sarah
loves bats. We ended up wandering around for 3 hours just taking
pictures and movies. The lizards were about a foot long and
seemed to be all over the place, and the Bush Turkeys were these
big red headed things that build these giant piles of sticks
and leaves to incubate their eggs. The best were the bats who
made an incredible range of screams and were slowly flying all
over the place with this big whoosh whoosh flapping sound.
Ellenborough Falls |
Next stop was Ellenborough falls, the second big waterfall
we've seen over here. They're all over the place in the
mountains, but some seem to be kinda small after the drought
weather they've been having. The road from here was a
rough dirt track, but fortunately rental cars can handle
any sort of terrain at all and we made good time. Our
usual plan for this trip is just to drive until maybe
5pm and then start looking around for a hostel or motel
or something and this night we ended up in the "Bush and
Beach Lodge" in Crescent Head where we spent a few hours
in the pub in town, and the rest of the time playing frisbee
with the lodge dog named Wheaten, who would tackle the
frisbee with a major explosion of leaves and sand and
dirt every time he caught it. The beach was just down
the road and Sarah and I spent most of the next morning
wandering around the sand.
After lounging on the beach for a while we headed
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farther up the coast, stopping first at the Smoky Cape lighthouse.
Very cool views with steep drops to golden sand beaches on both
sides of the cape, but very very windy up at the lighthouse.
Lighthouse Specs
Then we hit the Trail Bay Gaol, which is an old 1880's public
works prison and WWI German prisoner of war camp. They were
trying to build a breakwater harbor with prison labor since
there's no good place to shelter between Sydney and Brisbane
but the Pacific defeated them. Most years they ended up losing
ground since the winter waves were so rough they just wiped
out all the work they did during the summer. Spooky old place
with big walls and rusting iron bars and tiny little cells.
Prison Bars
I noticed in the museum that almost all the prisoners were
there for "refusing to pay for his drinks" (3 months) or "Horse
Theft" (2 years). It also seemed like everyone who escaped was
recaptured except for one guy with 5 listed aliases who was
listed as "Not Re-Taken". One guy named Bungle Gully Bob was
in jail for "Innapropriate use of a horse" whatever that means
but was on a 6 month sentence and was recaptured less than two
hours after he escaped.
Geringgong Coast
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