Trip 25 - Part 1 - Woolgoolga

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

Even though our time spent at Pebbly Beach was relaxing, quiet and very picturisque, crossing the salt water creek almost every second day for 4 weeks was the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to corrosion and damage to the Patrol. It started on New Year's Eve when the first thing that failed was the alternator. Luckily we had met Wayne and Chrystie from Woolgoolga who own a mechanical workshop. They generously offered for us to camp in the backyard of their 3 acre property, while Wayne sourced an alternator. So after leaving Pebbly Beach on New Year's Day, we set up camp in their backyard with a lush green bush view. Wayne also has a mechanically equipped workshed at home so we parked the Patrol in Wayne's shed for some routine maintenance. Don removed the old alternator and once sourced, fitted the new one. Don is becoming a great bush mechanic learning about the different components of the truck. The only problem is the size of his coconut hands trying to squeeze into the smallest of working spaces under the bonnet!

Woolgoolga or 'Woopi' as it is known to locals, is a town with a population of 3,793 on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, 25km north of Coffs Harbour in the City of Coffs Harbour. It is on the Pacific Highway and has a beach on the Pacific Ocean. Woolgoolga has long been a centre of banana growing in New South Wales, but this industry has declined in the face of competition from Queensland and overseas. Woolgoolga has a stunning headland where dolphins and whales can be seen with the naked eye easily swimming about just near the coast line. It is surrounded by Sherwood Nature Reserve which is located west of Woolgoolga and incorporates the former Woolgoolga Creek Flora Reserve as well as open forests, heaths and sandstone escarpments.

While the Patrol was parked in the shed, we took advantage of the situation and performed some other much needed maintenance on the truck such as oil change, tyre rotation, fuel filter change, hub and CV clean up and a general clean up of salt water and sand. Wayne also looked over the truck and decided a few things were in desperate need of repair. The truck is 10 years old and has almost reach 370,000 kms on the clock, so after all the extreme 4wdriving over the past 4 years, driving the dirt, corrugated roads of the outback and normal wear and tear we replaced the paper air filter with a K&N filter for better air flow and better fuel economy, did a radiator and coolant flush, clutch fluid and brack fluid flush.

After first inspection, Wayne also found that the brake rotors were rusted and falling apart, the brake pads brittle, the swivel hubs were leaking, the brake lines were too short and it needed a wheel alignment and balance of the tyres.

After Wayne fixed what he could on the truck, other things that needed fixing were the pyrometer which measures the exhaust temperature (Bob's 4WD Centre Coffs Harbour), the sub-tank warning light (Nissan Coffs Harbour), airconditioning evaporator (Natrad Coffs Harbour) and the spotlights (Banana Coast Electrical Coffs Harbour).

A big thank you goes to all that helped with the truck but most of all Wayne and Chrystie from Autofix Woolgoolga. So if you are ever in the north coast area and need some mechanical repairs, call into Autofix and tell Wayne I sent you.

There are a few other things on the truck that need repair but are not urgent so we shall do these at a later date as we had already spent too much money. These are the Return to Centre dampener, the Draglink which was bent on the 4WD trek on that log in the mud and the rear Limited Slip Diff.

However, our time in Woolgoolga was not all getting the truck up to stratch. We also had some fun times on the property and doing some things with our new found friends.

Don learnt to drive the tractor, the quad and even did some bush bashing in an old commodore. We mowed the lawns both with the ride on and push mower and whipper snipped the edges.

Apart from a dog (Nancy) and 2 cats (Oscar and Lucky), Wayne and Chrystie also own a minature horse named Tina so we even helped move the electric frence from one paddock to another, so that Tina had more grass feed. Don and Wayne removed the star pickets with the tractor and chain while Chrystie and I fixed the electric wire into place.

On another weekend Wayne decided to gather some of his 4WD mates for a trek through the Woolgoolga State Forest. With 3 Toyotos and 3 Nissans, the day was set to be an interesting one. Our leader, Josh, managed to find some great tracks with rock step ups, winding tracks and hill climbs and finally some rotten stinking dirty mud. The first 2 Toyotos made it through but with 4 more cars to go the mud was getting chewed up quickly. The next Toyoto and the 2 Nissans before me had to be snatched out of the sinking mud. So I was prepared with low second gear and front locker locked but as I was the last car, the mud was chewed up that bad that I even found a huge log under the mud which ended up taking the valve off the back driver's wheel while being snatched out by the maroon Patrol. So with all the mud, we managed to change the tyre without too much hassle including able to wash our hands from our spare jerry can holder. Knew it would come in handy one of these days.

After the others left us at 5pm, Wayne decided for us 2 remaining cars to head home via a short cut. However, the short cut ended up being 3 1/2 hours with more mud and winching activities to get Wayne over some very hairy obstacles and step ups. The scenery was absolutely magnificant and tracks just as great. It felt good to be out 4wdriving again rather than just the dirt and corrogated roads of the outback.

With Don and I behind Wayne, and Wayne's almost standard Landcruiser, the ARB winch did what it was meant to do including using the snatch block at some very weird angles to get Wayne over some high rock step ups.

One day while Don and I had nothing to do and the truck was all fixed Don and I went to explore the areas around Woolgoolga. After leaving Woolgoolga we headed north towards Corindi Beach to turn off the Pacific Highway towards Glenreagh.

Corindi Beach is situated roughly 36km north of Coffs Harbour and 40kms south of Grafton along the Pacific Highway it consists of a small village community set in largely untouched bush and coastal lands. The islands, ocean, headlands and estuaries in this area are within the Solitary Islands Marine Park. This is where the warm ocean currents from the north meet with the colder southern currents and there is an amazing diversity of marine life, including soft corals.

Glenreagh is a small town in Clarence Valley Council on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It had a population of 280 in 2001, including indigenous people foreign born people. Don and I had lunch at the Golden Dog pub in town talking to the locals and enjoying the atmosphere of Glenreagh.

After Glenreagh we headed towards Nana Glen. The name Nana Glen is derived from the Two-Tailed Lizard. Nana is an aboriginal name meaning 'Two'. The lizard is rare mysterious reptile once sighted in the region. Hence the name Nana Glen. The well-known film actor Russell Crowe lives at his 320 hectare property in Nana Glen, which as a result has become famous in Australia and abroad. Coramba was our next stop before heading into Coffs Harbour and back home to Woolgoolga. All in all the drive was quite magnificant with bush settings, rivers and streams, winding dirt tracks and quaint little villages.

On Saturday 24 January 2009, Chrysties' mum and dad visited from the central coast so as an activity we all decided to go ice skating at the Big Banana. I haven't been in ice skates until my teens and Don had never tried it at all. It was great to see that the ice skating rink had skating frames that you could use as a beginner. Wayne and Chrysties' dad, Denis, helped Don around the skate rink with the skating frame. It was so much fun and a lot of good teenage memories flooded back as we were going round and round the skate rink.

We also went searching for a number of geocaches within the Woolgoolga area. One took us to the top of the Woolgoolga headland overlooking the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Another in particular took us through more forest tracks until we finally had to walk the last kilometre or so to a dam and waterfall where the geocache was hidden inside a log. This has been our hardest geocache so far but not in finding it just in the terrain as it was very slippery and there were times where we were down on our hands and knees trying to get through the slippery hilly scrub. On the way back to the car I ended up falling into the river where apparantly leaches are prevalent and ended up all over me and my clothes so the last 200 metres back to the car the only thing I was wearing were my shoes. So after Don checked my body for leaches, we continued walking back to the car hanging onto my shorts and shirt at a distance. Yuk! Interesting fact: Why do leaches die after they have suck all your blood and fall off - What is their point?

On Sunday 25 January 2009 the 4 of us went to the Amble Inn Pub in Corindi to watch Austin Tayshus. He is an aussie comedian that some of you may remember back in 1983 doing the Australiana poem. The start of it goes like this:

Sittin' at home last Sunday mornin' me mate Boomer rang. Said he was havin' a few people around for a barbie. Said he might Cook a burra or two.I said, "Sounds great, will Walla be there?"He said "Yeah and Vegie might come too".So I said to the wife "Do you wanna go Anna?". She said "I'll go if Ding goes".So I said to Boomer "What'll we do about Nulla?"He said "Nulla bores me to tears, leave him at home."

For only a $10 entry fee and even after hearing it again after all these years I still ended up in stitches with sore cheek bones from laughing too much. However, Don just sat there not quite sure what all the laughing was all about. Bloody kiwis!

Wayne also owns a V6 limited sprint car. He norally enters it in the Grafton races which are held each month. Wayne's driver, Neil, is a professional sprint car driver and they both maintain the race car up to stratch. On Saturday 31 January 2009 we went to watch the races at Grafton Speedway that included Amcas, limited sedans, stockers, limited sprints, nos sprints, 4 cylinders and juniors.

After Neil won the first 2 heats, the boys decided to up the fuel flow in the sprint car. This caused the car to have too much fuel and stalled on the racetrack during the feature race unfortunately causing them to loose. Oh well, Wayne and Neil, better luck next month.

During one of Wayne's quiet periods at the workshop, him and Don managed to fix Don's new crutches which received a basing during Don's sheeping experience. The crutches are now part Harley with new nuts and bolts so now Don thinks he can go faster. Go figure!

All in all, our time in Woolgoolga has been fantastic. Even though the car required major repairs, we cannot thank Wayne, Chrystie and Sami enough for opening up their backyard and home to us. Considering we were only meant to stay a couple of weeks at the max, it has ended being almost 2 months. Once again thanks from Don and I.