Our next stop was to be Bundjalung National Park located 50km south of Ballina on the northern New South Wales coastline. We decided to make a quick stop on our travels to Nimbin, the capital of hemp and pot.
I had already seen Nimbin some 15 years earlier however it was an experience for Don to visit this strange little drug town. While spending some 3 hours in town looking around at the shops, Don
was offered drugs approximately 6 times and gladly refused each time. Only a couple days before our arrival in Nimbin, 50 police had raided the town for a drug bust. This didn't seem to perturb the locals that much as they were still quite active on the main street. A bit different from 15 years earlier, Nimbin is now full of drug addicts and zombies roaming the streets. In Don's words "This is the most f**ked up town that I have ever seen".
As we continued on our journey to Bundjalung National Park we stopped into Lismore for supplies and fuel. Rather than travelling down the main Pacific Highway we decided to take the scenic route from Lismore to Iluka through a small country towns such as Woodburn and Coraki. Eventually we ended up on the Pacific Highway to stop at a local tourist attraction named New Italy.
New Italy is located 12km south of Woodburn and promotes the
heritage of the Italians who migrate
d to Australia and settled in this area. I even found my own ancestory, the Sicilians, which I obviously resemble via the nose!
We arrived at Bundjalung National Park early afternoon to check in and set up camp. As we are not travelling with ferals (others called them "children") we were unaware that Queensland school holidays were commencing for 1 week with New South Wales the following week (must keep these dates in mind in future). Therefore the park was full to the brim however, Jon, the site ranger managed to give us a beautiful site which was high on the
ground between a couple of permanent vans. Our view was of the Woody Head bay with the waves crashing over the
rocks .
Bundjalung National Park is a tranquil coastal hideaway full of wildflowers, pristine waterways and wide sandy beaches. The locals inform us that the best fishing is available here just got to be careful of the wave pounding onto the rocks. That night we experienced one of the beautiful sunsets over the water.
Sunday was spent with maintenance on the Patrol, going to the Iluka markets, walking on the beach and generally lazing around. Quite a severe storm hit us on Sunday night however the camper fought back and remain high and dry.
As Monday was still raining and I still hadn't managed to put the Patrol into 4WD low, we decided to head down to Yamba to try and see a mechanic. Brett from the One Stop recommended Craig from Morans in Maclean, so off we went, day the road from Yamba, to Maclean. Found Craig, told him the problem and booked the Patrol in for Tuesday morning.
Oh yeh, last night in the shower, I managed to lose one of my balls off my nipple piercing so while in Maclean we decided to see if we could find a piercing shop. Found one and lady was extremely helpful and we bought a spare just in case it ever happens again. After walking through Maclean town (not very long) we decided to head on home. Maclean is located on a salt water lake feed by the ocean.
Opposite the lake is a fishing co-op where we bought some oysters and prawns for lunch. While sitting on the levy eating our seafood, one of the prawn trawlers were coming in. The sign said "Fresh
Prawns" so I enquire as to how much. After just paying $24/kilo at the fishing co-op, these prawns were $5/kilo however smaller. I ended up buying 2 kilos just because they were so cheap. I regretted this later after sitting down for 1 hours to peal the bastards and ending up with sore shoulders. However, they were fresh, juicy and sweet and we feasted ourselves on the prawns that night with Don cooking up some with garlic and butter.
The rain was still pelting down that night but it didn't deter Don from finally having his first fire at this campground. Picture this, there is Don in the pouring rain tryingto keep the fire going for just himself as noone else wanted to stand out in the rain.
As the car was booked in first thing Tuesday morning at Maclean, I decided to take advantage of this and do some laundry while I waited as well as giving me a chance to update this website. In the end the problem was a plate that had moved because of the accident preventing the gear stick from engaging. This ended up costing $100 so thanks to Craig at Morans Maclean for such a quick and inexpensive fix.
As if I didn't have enough of peeling the last 2 kilos of prawns, they were so nice that I decided to buy another kilo just because. It was still rainin Tuesday afternoon, so the time was spent peeling the prawns and watching DVD movies.
Both Tuesday night and Wednesday was still the torrential rain that we had been experiencing since Sunday. We were very lucky as that high ground campsite we were put on prevented us from getting flooded out. No so for a lot of other campers who were ankle deep in water and mud. Quite a few couldn't handle the situation so they packed up and headed off home early.
Thursday was our first day of sunshine in 4 days. What a relief as we were getting low on battery power because of no charge through the solar panel for 4 days. While I was enjoying the these rays of sunshine by reading in the sun, a black Prado which was very familiar turned up. Out popped Tracey Allen from my work picking up her daughter, Peg. Apparantly Peg had been camped just opposite us for the last 4 days with another family. It may be true that we are only ever 6 degrees away from anyone - isn't it a small world?
That evening we meet up with our lovely neighbours, Sam, Julie and their 2 girls, Ash and Peta at the first place. It was an enjoyable evening and perhaps the start of a long friendship.
Friday morning, Don and I decided to do some fishing off the rocks so I fixed up my rod and Don fixed up his hand line. Lots of nibbles for me however Don finally managed to catch a bream which I enjoyed that evening after being cooked on the open fire.
From now on we spent each evening with our new neighbours around the open fire admiring Don's pyromaniac skills, enjoying the sunsets and each other's company.
Saturday saw the start of the New South Wales school holidays so
even though the Queenslanders had left the NSW people were arrivng in droves so we decided to head to Shark Bay beach with our new neighbours to try out the skip on the back of the Patrol. Fun was had by all except Don who stacked it off the board quite heavily. grazed his arm, hurt his chest, bumped his head and bruised his ankle. For the next few days he was hurting and feeling quite sad and sorry for himself. After skipping behind the car and lunch on the beach, a team effort was had by all making a supurb sand castle, even with a moat and a tunnel running all the way through.
Sunday saw Don resting up from his fall so I decided to head into Iluka for supplies and fuel. Since this campground is run on town water I was able to wash the Patrol at the boat ramp to get all the salt water and sand off from yesterday's beach trip.
Monday came, which meant our newly acquainted neighbours were ready to pack up and leave. After we said our fairwells and promised to keep in touch, I went into Iluka to try and fix a mounting problem with the air filter on the Patrol. One of the mounting brackets had broken once before and I thought we had fixed it but unfortunately that fix broke as well so I think some major welding was due. The mechanic at Caltex Iluke managed to weld up the bracket and even painted it for $40. Since Don was still sore in the afternoon he played on the laptop while I went for a walk along the beach and around the rocks.
The next day, Tuesday, was to pick up my mail from Maclean post office as well as do some much needed laundry. In the afternoon, Don and I drove back to Iluka to try and find some tracks leading into the national park, however none were found. We are leaving Bundjalung National Park on Thursday and have decided to head inland again. This time Gibraltar National Park.
Don't forget to check out "MORE PHOTOS".
On Sunday 20 April 2008 we moved from Gibraltar National Park to Copeton Dam just 14km from Inverell. Great site with hot showers and power for only $10 per night and a beautiful dam view to boot. 
Even though we only paid for 2 nights to start with the next day we decided to stay nearer to a couple of weeks because of the price and the dam. Nat and Mick contacted us and said that if Mick is not working the Anzac Day long weekend, they would come down for a visit. So on Monday we drove into Inverell to pick up some supplies and once again visit the dreaded laundromat necessity. 
After visiting the Information centre and picking up a map of Inverell, off to the laundromat we went.
After walking through the two main streets of Inverell and spending our dollars at Coles we headed back to camp to scavenge for more firewood around the dam. What a busy day so the evening was spent relaxing around the fire.
Our afternoon was spent down at the dam’s edge fishing with live worms. Now, Don, my black savage, won’t even touch the worms let alone look at them being baited onto the hook through their eye so I had to bait his hook as well as mine. 
In the end, we caught 10 redfin which according to the freshwater fishing guide are a pest in NSW and should not be returned to the water so we left them on the bank of the dam to die. 
The next day we found out that you can eat them if you wish. Thanks for that mate! While fishing we saw the most spectacular storm clouds to both our right and left while we sat enjoying the afternoon sun.
That night I showed Don how to cook a pork roast in the camp oven and even get crackle. The dinner turned out terrific even though it took a lot longer than I estimated. 
They spoke very good English so we invited them over to share our fire as well as some cake that I had previously cooked in the camp oven over the fire. Go Ikea!
