Road Trip!

Throw three med students on break, some camping gear, a car, and a week of free time into a blender, push swirl, and what do you get? That's right - road trip! Notice anything conspicuously absent in the above mix? Like, a plan? That's because we don't have one.

This is the highly-anticipated first one-week break of the year. On Monday, Richard, Pam, both Year 3 med students, and I decide to go on a road trip. So we throw some clothes and camping gear in the back of Pam's car and start driving south. The initial plan: Sydney, 1000 kilometers to the south in New South Wales.

On the way, we start reading the Lonely Planet Australia guidebook and discover that a whole world of possibilities exist between Brisbane and Sydney: Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, national parks. There's plenty to do without having to waste two days driving to and back from Sydney. So we revise our plan to: Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie, and maybe something else in between.

View of Coffs Harbour from Muttonbird Island

First stop: Coffs Harbour, four hours south of Brisbane. It's a laid-back small town by the ocean. Green, with a nice sandy beach, calm waters, and the tacky Big Banana tourist trap, what more could a group of road-trippers ask for? We visit the Big Banana, camp at a caravan park by the beach, and have the freshest seafood for lunch, but only after Pam goes nuts and jumps out of a plane (I would do it too if I could afford it). We look at our options again: go south to Port Macquarie or inland to the national parks. Going farther south means more pleasant towns and camping at caravan parks. Going inland to visit national parks means seeing some of Australia's pristine forests along the Great Dividing Range and doing some real camping. Without much deliberation, we revise our plan again: after Coffs Harbour, inland to the national parks.

Dangar Falls near Dorrigo

The area inland from Coffs Harbour is home to a dozen or so national parks and forests, some of which are World Heritage-listed. After climbing over the escarpment to an elevation of about 1200 meters above sea level, the road levels out and winds around the gentle hills of the New England Tableland. The green rolling hills stretch to the distance and are often dotted with houses and grazing cows. The lush green is quite a contrast from the parched brown I saw in Outback Queensland a few weeks ago. The main road that connects the few hamlets is called The Waterfall Way because it passes by a number of quite nice gorges and waterfalls, something not normally associated with this part of Australia. We stop by a couple of them and end up at Cathedral Rock National Park for camp.

View from top of Cathedral Rock

Cathedral Rock National Park is one of the smaller national parks in this area. Its name comes from the giant boulders haphazardly piled at the top of a hill. After pitching our tents at the empty camp site, we walk the three kilometers along the trail and scramble to the top of the rocks. What a view: 360 degrees of panoramic view of the surrounding forests and mountains. We enjoy the scenery as the sun slides closer and closer to the horizon. We wisely make our way back just as the last ray of dusk disappears and the whole camp site plunges into darkness. Then something amazing happens: the sky lights up, not by the moon, but by a billion stars. The Milky Way is drawn across the sky like a swath of silk, even the faintest stars between the bright ones are visible. The last time I saw a night sky like this was in the Kimberley in Western Australia and in Tibet.

Light streaming into the woods at the camp site

The next morning, we wake up to a group of kangaroos and wallabies having breakfast near our tents. I engage the kangaroos in a bit of a staring contest with my camera before their curiosity wears off and hop away. After breakfast, it's time to drive back to Brisbane. The vacation has been short - only four days - and without any prior planning, but it has been great. I found a part of Australia I didn't know existed. It's definitely a place I will come back to in the future.

Cows have the right of way on country roads