31st Dec 2017


Well what a year was 2017, with Bell returning to study, the usual surf club, jujitsu, guitar, soccer for the boys and of course Chris finishing the conversion on the coupe to get it back on the road, and let’s not forget 6 weeks on the road so far there hasn’t been much time for relaxing and doing nothing!

With the weather looking more and more overcast with rain threatening we decided to head to Dorrigo and visit the Rainforest Centre along with Dangar Falls. The drive was beautiful and we stopped into a little Gallery on the way to pick up a beautiful little engagement gift for Deb and Brendan at Bellinger. At the Rainforest Centre the fog was so heavy it left us little to no view from the skywalk of the Rainforest Centre, it was very eerie to say the least! After a short walk through the forest, It was so dense and limited light and you could see the plants all struggling for their spot in the sun and with the boys playing “shaking branch and make it rain” and running off we headed for the falls. Humid and damp we continued on a short drive to Dangar Falls where the fog had cleared and the sun was shining. The boys took a swim out to and under the waterfall, we even managed to see a pair of fairy wrens!
A stop in Coffs Harbour on the way home for our token photo with the Big Banana ... tick :)

After we returned to the campsite we had 4 hours to kill before the bonfire on the beach, we decided to head into Coffs Harbour for the 9.30pm fireworks and get some dinner. Unfortunately the fireworks were nothing to write home about and as for food ...well there was nothing except coffee and a deep fried sausage on a stick! So we toughed it out (first time ever the boys went without dinner) wandered around at the carnival (lots of rides and side show alley) took in the crazy atmosphere. Along the boardwalk where the fireworks were scheduled there were thousands of people soaking up the atmosphere, we had a great parking spot so we were able to escape quick back to camp after the fireworks finished and hit the beach for a bonfire with neighbours. It was fun and it did rain a little just before midnight, although the fire did dry us out after. Both Woopi (the affectionate name for Woolgoolga) and Red Rock had mini fireworks which we could see from the beach, we were right in the middle! The group near us on the beach had around $500 worth of fireworks which were pretty good fun. The boys had a blast with glow sticks and sparklers, we got back to camp at 1am and straight to bed, after showers, snacks, teeth, and a nightcap!










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