800 year old Tarrowood trees
Friday 27th May 2022. Nauti Time 082
We were planning on just heading back through Bellingen for lunch when I spotted a “tourist drive” on the map and suggested to Rick we might do that first. It looked roughly 50km on the map so we thought we’d give it a go.
Well the first signs should have been warning enough when we turned onto this dirt road. Remember the landslides and pot holes! They ended up tame in comparison to how this road ended up. But let’s begin at the beginning. About 10 km in along the muddy slippery rough ‘moonpar forest’ track with trees down partially barring progress and swollen rivers raging under a low concrete causeway and a stream actually flowing over the road there was a turn off to Norman Jolly picnic area that we decide to take and wow what a surprise was waiting for us. 5kms in there is a small glade with picnic tables and toilet facilities that were very welcome after the jostling ride in. Much more interesting though was this beautiful moss covered walk way which lead us to The most magnificent forest of giants. Huge gum trees and massive tarrowood trees some more than 800 years old with a trunk diameter of more than 2.5 meters. It was magical and of course I just had to give the biggest giant a huge hug.
Big hugs
After reluctantly dragging ourselves away from these trees we decided to see what other treasures were along these roads less travelled. Unfortunately all we found was the reason they were less travelled! Another rough, slippery, potholed 10 km in we came to a steep decline with huge muddy puddles before what looked like a partly buried tree across the road that looked more like a water jump in an equestrian event than a road. We had gone past another turn off that we thought May have been a better option although neither was signposted so had no idea where they went but we thought we’d give the other a try before risking this one. Alas about 2 Kms in there was a tree right across the road that couldn’t be passed so back we went to try our luck over the jump! Rick did a great job keeping a steady pace through the mud and slush and over the tree trunk then along another few kms of steep slippery rocky slushy road to the bottom. I was hoping we could make it around the loop from there as there was no way we could get back up that slope. We came to the ragging flood waters of the Nymboida river which had fortunately subsided enough to cross the bridge which we did after getting out to take some pics.
Nymboida river
Fortunately the drive from platypus flat on the other side of the river was a much kinder incline although still requiring Rick’s amazing rally car skills around huge potholes and fallen tree trunks. So this 50km detour had already been about 45km when our first signpost indicated we still had 23 kms to go. By this time I was a bit of a nervous wreck and the thought of another 23 ks like the previous 45 was a bit shattering. Needless to say it was a huge relief when the roads started to flatten out ,widen and look like they had been topped recently. Signs warning of logging trucks soon explained the improved conditions and I was extremely grateful for them.
Finally back on solid roads we headed back toward Coffs stopping in Bellingen for a lovely middle eastern lunch. We had to return the hire car, now a lovely shade of clay, back to the airport and had a lovely 5km walk back to the boat. Our legs are certainly getting a good work out now days.
