16th, 17th, 18th Belligen

On our way again in the search for some sunshine, we went down past Coffs Harbour to Belligen and set up at the Belligen show grounds.
After looking around we found Belligen to be a yuppie alternative lifestyle  expensive town, reminded me of Margaret River without the wineries.
The weather wasn't too bad but in the afternoon along came another storm.

The next day we decide to head to Dorrigo to the national park, the road up the Dorrigo mountain was a bit of an experience very narrow and windy most of it 50kms there are 3 sections that are so narrow they have been turned into 1 lane, vehicles coming up give way to vehicles coming down. There are a lot of trucks using it mainly big tippers with a doggie trailer button there log trucks, semis and milk tankers.
By the time we got to the top I wasn't feeling so good we stopped off at the lookout for a breather, the lookout is away from the main road through the pasture land there wasn't another sole about the scenery was amazing but the it was so serene with the quite and all the greenery.
We went to the national park, they only charge by donation $2 per adult $1per child and for that they have a great skywalk and a trail that has been sealed to give access to most people and so you can walk, look around without stumbling.  The trail is 6km long and winds down through a valley with waterfalls with picnic areas and more boardwalks, one of the areas if you are lucky you may see a lyre bird, I didn't but there was an awful lot of other birds, 2 beautiful king parrots was one of my highlights.
The walk was wonderful thick sub tropical rainforest, the best walk trail we have been on anywhere in Australia.
After a picnic lunch we left there and went down to Dangaran Falls that was basically in the town centre and used as a local swimming pool, the water didn't look very clean so we never went in.
We started back down the mountain after having a bit of a look around the little town, the trip down didn't seem as bad as the trip up there was a bit more shoulder to the road to allow trucks to pullover and let vehicles past.
When we got to the bottom we went out to never never creek in the promised land and had a swim in beautiful cool clear water.
Afternoon came and so did another storm, not very big today.

We have been up the hills so today we are going visiting some of the town,beach areas south of Coffs Harbour.
Our first stop is Urunga another nice little town sitting right on a river, the river is split into 2 and there isn't any vehicle access to the beach or sandbar so the locals started building a boardwalk in the early 1900 and over time is has been extended and upgraded to over 1km of boardwalk to the beach, once again another beautiful clean surf beach, it was avery good walk which allowed us to look at the bar, Merv said he wouldn't go out of it even on a good day.
Up the road further to Mylstom, Raleigh and Repton, these were just small towns on the river, Mylstom is on the opposite side of the river to Urunga.
Next stop Sawtell this was much bigger and on a inlet and beautiful surf beaches, there is a park and picnic area where we had lunch this overlooks the beach and a swimming pool that is made into the rocks so that the water is changed with the tides. We stopped and had an icecream on the way back to camp,  when we got back the worst storm we have had for quite a while came through.