A night out.

In Inverell there is a natural amphitheatre by the river, terraced with seating, and in the evening there was a charity concert with several local bands there. Raising money for breast cancer, a couple of local girls had organised it, and it was extremely well supported, even though we had been told it was not well advertised. With the backdrop of a weeping willow and a fountain in the middle of the river, the evening was a very relaxing end to our visit to the town.

Up early on the Sunday morning, we made our way down again towards the coast, some 250k away. Passing through no less than three national parks, we took the occasional short detour to see the sights. This waterfall is about 100 ft high, and falls into a pool just right for swimming. A lot of this area is virgin rain forest, with massive eucalypts and tree ferns lining the road. The weather today is not as good as we have had, the occasional short shower washes over us as we travel, and the clouds are quite low over the hills. But we can't complain, we have had great weather in the main, and now it is getting a lot warmer as we approach sea level.

Some of the roads in this area are very steep. up to one in three, sometimes as long as three kilometres. With the weight we are carrying we have to be very carefull not to overheat the brakes as we descend, often changing down into second gear to save them. Although we are descending generally, as we go uphill we have to be careful that Betty doesn't overheat the engine. We have a long way to go yet, so we treat her like a very good friend. 

One of the many things we love about Australia is that wherever we go we can find somewhere nice to stop to have lunch. Often by rivers or great viewpoints, these lay-bys always have seating of some kind, toilets, and sometimes BBQs, and there are so many of them that we very often have them to ourselves. Get the kettle out, make lunch and relax for a few minutes, the surroundings are superb!

We are now at the coast, a place called Yamba halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, a lovely resort area, great for boating and fishing, and of course the great Aussie backpackers. We are starting to come across 'Wicked' campers again, this one demonstrates the Aussie sense of humour, which sometimes can be a little crude......