1. The way to over the clouds
'New England National Park' is nestled in a deep mountain top area far away from everything.
It took 9 hours from home including two stops.
We wanted to come back here for the absolute getaway.
We needed to take a lot of stuff to sustain 5 days such as all sorts of food items, blankets, pillows etc....
as this accomodation National Park operates didn’t have any crispy clean beddings ,towels or linens.
There was terrible phone reception ,if any,unfortunately for Suze.
She from time to time drove out to find a good spot during our stay.
It didn't affect me and Eddie obviously needless to say.
2. Lake Liddle
On the way we stopped twice; one for lunch and the other for visiting a place called Gostwyck Chapel in Uralla.
These days it’s kind of important but hard to find out a secluded spot for lunch during our car trip and luckily we were able to find this unkempt run-down looking place next to a huge lake by chance.
We ate our picnic with coffee from thermos happily sitting on the bench looking towards Lake Liddle.
It was lazily warm and sunny with a little hot breeze and there were sporadically cars and campervans enjoying their holidays there.
We tried to pay 5 dollars to enter the place after reading a sign and this old man grudgingly came out to get the payment from us.
He must have been happier with his nap or whatever he was up to inside his office.
Millions of ducks were floating on the lake water far away from our sight.
It was beautiful in a quaint way.
3. Gostwyck Chapel
For some reason Eddie wanted to see this place again.
I was assualted by a couple of very aggressive magpies while Eddie was taking photos back in 2016.
Luckily no magpies were seen this time of the year.
It was serene.
4. Gondwana Rainforests
I learned the word ‘Gondwana’ by reading a leaflet about World Heritage rainforest sites back in 2016.
So 180 million years ago Australia, South America, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula was one supercontinent called ‘Gondwana’ before all these broke up just like now.
And this New England National Park and Dorrigo National Park we walked this time belong to the Gondwana Rainforests.
During our stay it rained non stop except first night and the following morning.
I heard rain drop on the roof every night in my sleep like lullabys.
One thing I was looking forward to from here was a glorious sun rise especially on the New Year Day.
The lookout for the best ever sun rises was only one minute from our accomodation and if it’s fine the view would be majestic due to the perfect height and location.
However we could’nt have everything .
Photos of sunrises were taken on the first morning only.
We did three wonderful hikes mostly in the rain in New England National Park and one in Dorrigo National Park.
We encountered heaps of leeches and it was hard to take them off from our shoes and clothes afterwards.
Suze was screaming and jumping around initially with a shock and then disgust.
5. Winter like December
First I was astonished with the sudden dramatic temperature drop there and even
these winter blankets felt not thick enough.
It was as if we moved from summer to winter which was very unexpected.
We snuggled in front of fire place at night.
Forgetting about everything.
Due to wet weather firewood was totally wet and it was close to impossible to make fire
according to Eddie but he somehow managed it just like a magic.
He was incredibly patient and spent a long time keeping the fire go.
It was cozy and warm just like a dream holiday.