After a heap of pikers it ended up just being me heading down. I ended up leaving early saturday morning and didn't get any traffic at all. Arrived at Ben's place at lunch time for a delicious lunch of fresh snapper. Hung out at his place for a while with Michelle and baby Lachie and eventually made my way down to Sawtell to set up camp. Just as we pulled into the van park it started to rain lightly... perfect timing for setting up the tent!
While I was setting up my mate from Wollongong arrived in his red lifted Gen2. Ben turned up in his H6 Outback with kayak on the roof and we made our way down to one of the local creeks for a fish. I got to see the infamous spot where he got the outback stuck and had to be towed out by his wife in a magna LOL. Right on queue just as we were about to unload the yaks, it absolutely poured. gave up on that idea and hung out in Sawtell for the night.
Woke up sunday morning to absolutely beautiful weather. I felt sorry for the smaller tents around us who were completely soaked form the night before. We made our way round to Ben's place and then headed off to do some trails around coffs. The tracks were pretty challenging in places, especially for the unlifted outback! We made our way to the top of Rover trail and the view was amazing looking north up the coast. Continued on along Rover Trail until we got to a steep muddy downhill which we decided against and turned off onto another track. We made our way through some beautiful rainforest for a while and eventually started descending along a very narrow, rutted trail. about 800m down Ben decided we should head back up - in reverse!! reversing up 800m of rough terrain is not something i want to do again any time soon! This is where I ended up falling into a deep rut and took a heap of bark off my rear bumper. Ben also ripped the LHS of his fornt bumper off going backwards up this hill! Nothing some race tape couldnt fix though.
We eventually made our way out to another trail and after some mud and a beautiful creek crossing we were back on the black stuff and made our way to a south facing lookout for lunch. Another awesome view this time looking south along the coast.
Sunday afternoon we did a beach run at Sawtell and swam until sunset. the water was warm and the waves were excellent - paradise.
Monday was Kim's birthday and we took Ben's boat out fishing on the Bellingen River near Urunga. Caught a heap of undersize fish. Nothing to rave about, but it was an excellent day out. We packed up camp that afternoon and made it back to Brisbane by 7.30pm. Another an excellent run with no traffic at all.
It turned out to be a very expensive weekend for me. Cracked windscreen on the way down, ripped my UHF antenna off twice in the bush, stuffed power steering rack (which conveniantly sprayed fluid all over my LHS wheel and brakes!), big scratch on my rear bumper and a speeding fine on monday to top it off! My poor old springs have all but collapsed also but thats been a problem for a while.
We stayed at Sawtell Beach Caravan Park and I would highly recommend it. Its one of the best van parks I have ever stayed at and the location is awesome.
Ben probably has more pics than me but heres the few that I took.
The view looking north from the top of Rover Trail:
Rainforest:
STEEP:
More rainforest
Reversing uphill is not easy - I am actually stuck trying to go backwards here. Some road building was requred to get me moving forwards (downhill) again:
The rain made for some very slippery descents:
Beautiful creek crossing:
Sawtell Beach:
