Friday the 20th of December was my last day at work in 2019.
At the end of the day I was feeling extremely exhausted with a yearly share of fatigues.
Especially with this constant heat and firey hazy air torturing us more than a month
nation wide.
I couldn't make myself feel excited about this trip as always.
I felt like staying at home and doing nothing.
Eddie wanted to leave home at 6am which seemed impossible first but somehow I managed it at 6:30 am
on Sunday the 22nd of December for a 8-day-retreat.
We planned this trip for 3 of us initially but Suze made a different plan at last minute.
Well...it was disappointing first but things happened all the time.
Traffic was smooth.
I started feeling relaxed as time passed.
By midday we were already at Coffs Harbour where we had a fairly yummy
lunch at a Thai.
11 hours' driving( to be exact sitting in the car for 11 hours) didn't give us too
much hassels amazingly.
We arrived at our destination around 5:30pm with the summer sun still bright.
Our accomodation was nestled in a small quiet area called Dum Dum near Uki.
Mt Warning was at a stone’s throw.
We visited this area in 2016 and we loved it and thought to come back if possible with Suze.
It was an excellent choice at hindsight whatever reason or motivation was there initially.
First of all this area was not affected by bush fires
and we had a decent rainfall a few days while we were staying.
When the weather was not good we visited Rainbow Bay and
Sufers' Paradise where we strolled along the beach.
Previously we covered lots of hiking tracks along the
Gondwana rainforests such as Mt Warning, Springbrook National Park
,Lamington Np, Iluka nature Reserve,New England Np,Dorrigo Np
,Barringtion Tops Np, Mt Barney Np and Main Range Np etc in 2016.
It was early September back then and this time I appreciated its real value
when we desperately hungered for rain and shades.
We climbed Mt Warning twice( in spite of Suze's strong opposition) and
a couple of times in Spring Brook National Park.
We couldn't make it to Lamington National Park as Binna Burra tracks were closed.
As usual our accomodation was a good shelter where we rested and fed ourselves.
Most of time I cooked and enjoyed simple and healthy meals just like we did at home.
Compared to the extreme hot and dry holiday of last Christmas
it was really refreshing with rain and cool rainforest hikes.