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Report 23:
Australia2
We picked up our rental car Monday morning, June
9, to begin a weeklong trip northward to Brisbane.
Plan was to dawdle up the coast with possibly an inland loop and
that’s how it worked out.
 First
night was spent at Shoal Bay, a quiet resort town only a couple of hours
from Sydney,
if you go directly there, which we didn’t.
Our main goal was to find a place where you could see and hear the
ocean and after some wandering and searching, we found one. Shoal
Bay’s peninsular location and the
northerly position of the sun at this time of year meant that this was one
place and time on the east coast of Australia that you could watch a
sunset over the water. [Incidentally,
Monday was the day Australia
celebrates the Queen’s birthday; it had been celebrated in NZ the previous
Monday and I just read that England
celebrated it this past weekend. Her
birthday is in April, so go figure.]
Next day we drove inland, up the Hunter River
valley, first past vineyards, then horse farms, then topping out on a plateau
at about 4000’ elevation in sheep and cattle station country. Spent the night at Tamworth,
known for being the site of a big country music festival in the summer. Unfortunately, we got there after the Australian Country Music
Museum had closed (2pm) and couldn’t find any live
music that night, but we still enjoyed the town and countryside. I get the occasional bluegrass fix over
internet radio, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the real thing.
Next day it was continue the loop back to the
coast. We missed the first turn-off,
in heavy fog we think, but that meant we discovered Armidale. This is Australia’s
highest city and the guidebooks describe it as Australia’s university town, the
major university there being The University of New England. (This region is known as New England, but,
never having seen Olde England,
we thought it looked more Midwestern.)
We spent much of the morning there, brunching, checking e-mail,
visiting an old church, and strolling.
Told Susie that maybe we should add this to the list of A-towns with
universities for our future visitingprofessorships: Albuquerque,
Ann Arbor, Auckland, …, Armidale, … . (Just kidding.)
  The
trip down to the coast, dubbed Waterfall
Way, took us on a winding, narrow, descending
road through rain forest and past waterfalls, reaching the coast near
Nambucca Heads, which we had targeted based on seeing an appealing
description in a magazine -- a relatively undiscovered coastal town. Found another place within sight and sound
of the ocean, this time a cabin in a holiday park. Spent two nights and a restful day there,
mostly just beach-strolling and -gazing.
Water and air were warm enough that I did some body surfing so I can
finally claim that I have been in the Pacific (which I hadn’t done in
NZ). Look closely at this surf picture
to see if you see me. (Still kidding.)
Main curiosity in Nambucca Heads is the
decorated rocks along the long levee in front of our holiday park. For many years visitors have decorated
these rocks to commemorate their visits.
Some are the Harry loves Sally sort of scrawl, but many are near works
of art and fun to read and admire. No,
we didn’t buy paint and memorialize our visit. This electronic memorial will have to
suffice.
Next report: Australia tour concludes.
Cheers.
Rob and Susie
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