North-east NSW

From the Blue Mountains we headed north to check out prehistoric “Lost City” in the Gardens of Stone Conservation Area and see more glow worms in a 387 m long tunnel in the Wollemi National Park. The tunnel was so long and slightly curved so it was pitch black inside. Inside was thousands of glow worms, it was a pretty spectacular sight to see!

We had to track back out of Wollemi National Park and back around to get further north into the park. As we past through farmland we headed into an isolated town called Glen Davis. Once a thriving oil shale town, now it feels like a ghost town with only ruins of the old mine and a handful of residents remaining. Of all places though, we picked up some delicious sourdough cookies and tomato relish from a roadside fridge.

Our campsite in the national park was fabulous, in the bottom of a valley with towering cliffs all around. We went on a hike near the camp and down the river, managing to spot two endangered Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby’s which was awesome.

We spent one more night in the hinterland at Goulburn River National Park before heading back to the coast to Newcastle.

We took the ferry from our caravan park across to the city and spent the day exploring. It was a pretty spot with plenty going on and also had a pretty vibrant grunge culture.

We decided that we were getting a little over NSW and it was time to blast up the coast. We stopped for two nights at Port Macquarie then made our way to South West Rocks. We had a good animal day that day, seeing a whale, turtle, shark and even a pod of surfing dolphins! The weather had started to turn and we had gotten rain go our whole time in Port Macquarie and South West Rocks, little did we know, that was just the beginning.

We pulled in at Scott’s Head next which had a really friendly point break. We spent a few hours here surfing which was very fun and we were delighted to see surfing dolphins again.

We made sure to stay at Coffs Harbour to get a snap with the big banana and so I could have my favourite dessert, fried banana!! Coffs felt very different from the rest of NSWs, it was starting to get tropical now.

Our last stop in NSW was of course the famous Byron Bay. It was really nice, it looked like we were in Bali. But with a nice famous spot comes crowds, and it definitely felt too busy for us.

Our plan next is to head up to Queensland, and with that, another state is done.