The Balik Kampung Trip: Roadtripping Part 1

Day 4: Since it had been a long day yesterday, we decided to take our time today. We woke up at 8am and prepared food for our lunch. We boiled eggs and made egg sandwich with the items that we bought at Indooroopilly the other day. By the time we were all set and ready to go, it was already 10am. We head south towards Beaudessert and head towards Summerland Way.  We stopped for a short while at Beaudessert’s information centre to grab some maps that will help us during our trip. 

Our first stop

The scenery along the Summerland Way

We then head to Lion’s Road Scenic Drive, a road that was built and funded by Kyogle’s branch of the Lions Club. Later on, we stopped for a while at Border’s Lookout. At Border Ranges National Park, we can see the historic spiral loop that was the first railway line that connects two states in Australia. The construction of this railway track dated back to the end of World War I. 

Lions Road. And cause we owned the road

The donation box at the border gates

Border Ranges National Park where we can see the Spiral Loop from the lookout area

After that, we head to Kyogle and stop for lunch before heading down to Grafton, our last destination for the day. After checking in at our accommodation in Grafton, we head out and drove around Grafton. During our drive, we saw many wild kangaroo on the road and were even told off the ‘F’ word by a local who wasn’t happy that we parked on the roadside to take photos of the Roo. Next, we went to Clarence River hoping to catch the sunset but we arrived a bit too late and the sun was already set. We then head back to our accommodation had dinner and went to bed.

Lunch at Kyogle

Word of wisdom at Kyogle Information Center

The scenery on the way to Grafton

Say hello to Mr Roo

The sun has already set =(

Day 5: We made an early start today at 8.30am and mind you it was early as due to daylight saving it was 3 hours earlier than Malaysian time. Our first stop for the day was Coffs Harbour’s Big Banana which is one of the many big Australian icons. Others include Big Pineapple in Sunshine Coast and the Big Cheese in New South Wales. After taking a few photos and watching the making of hard rock candies, we head to the jetty area. This is my second time here; the last time I was here was during Easter break during my final year of uni back in 2010.  

The Big Banana

Watching how a candy is made. Bottom left: the candy dough, right: the final candy product

Hi Coffs Harbour Jetty, we meet again

After a short walk around the jetty, we climbed up the steep walkway of Muttonbird Island and head to the other side of the island facing the South China Sea. The small island was very close to the jetty. After spending some time on the island, we came down, had lunch and proceed to South West Rock.

Heading towards Muttonbird Island

Clockwise from top left: At the bottom of the island, the view from the top of the island, walking down to the other side of the island, the viewing platform at the other side of the island

Fish and chips for lunch

Word of wisdom for the day

The journey from Coffs Harbour to South West Rock took about 1.5 hours. Our first stop at South West Rock was Trial Bay Gaol. Trial Bay Gaol used to house convicts in the late 1800 to build breakwater to protect boats. However, the project failed and the place was later on briefly used as a prison during World War II. Currently, the place had been converted to a museum telling stories of its history.  We didn’t go inside the museum as none of us want to pay AUD7.50 for the entrance fee as we thought it was a bit too much for our budget.

Trial Bay Gaol. Clockwise from top left: the outer wall and entrance of the gaol, a plate on the history of the gaol, inside the gaol from the entrance, us with the gaol board with its history

A man that we disturbed at the rocky parts facing the Tasman Sea near the gaol

Our next stop was Smokey Cape Lighthouse which was about 4km away from Trial Bay Gaol. The lighthouse is still active and its light is the hishest in New South Wales. After that, we drove south all the way to Port Macquarie. There was nothing much here; we just took a short walk on part of the Coastal Walk. Since it was already near 6pm, we decided to continue our journey to Forster where we’ll be spending the night.

Hat head National Park: bottom left: Captain Cook Lookout, right: Smoky Cape Lighthouse

Coastal walk at Port Macquarie and the view along the walk

We didn’t book any accommodation in Forster and we wanted to walk in any available motel or hotel that we found there. Our first stop was Forster Motor Inn but when we reached there about 8.45pm, it was already close. Luckily, there was another motel across the Inn called Jasmine Lodge Motel. Luck was on our side as we owner was about to close the place and thank God they had vacancy for a room of 4. The lady who entertained us was very nice and the room was very comfortable complete with kitchen and all. We had dinner and went to bed straight away. We need to recharge to continue our journey tomorrow.