Corindi Beach - Mid North Coast NSW

May 2021

Corindi Beach is just north of Woopi (what locals call Woolgoolga) north of Coffs Harbour in NSW. Back in early March they had a one in 500 year rain event. Local farmers describe a wall of water larger and faster than has ever been seen before flooding houses upto a meter deep. Tractors, water tanks, fences and pretty much anything in its path was washed away.

BlazeAid set up a camp in the local caravan park and the volunteers responded from the towns around as well as some grey nomads. Having time to spare I took a drive down from Maroochydore to do a couple of weeks work.

A small team effectively cleared or rebuilt on average about 500m per day. Just about every farm had wet paddocks and the work at times was tough. One of the berry farms on Sherwood Creek Rd lost millions of dollars of produce already prepared for market the next day. The flood waters rose during the night peaking at about 3am and then reseeding very quickly.

Berry farm devastation.

Very handy thing to have on a ute.

Adelong BA and chooks

March 12th

Catching up with family in Adelong, slashing grass, painting, building a chook pen and levelling a site for two 20 foot containers. The containers might at some point be home to the MH. A couple of trusses between the two, a roof, and you have an all-weather shelter complete with rooms for a workshop and storage.

Also managed to fit in a couple of days at the BlazeAid camp in Adelong. Just a small group of us driving to Batlow each day to rebuild fences on somewhat challenging terrain.

Then it's heading north for Easter. 

The first time around was with a wheeled Bobcat
 but this little digger sorted it.

A tilt-tray truck delivered the containers.

Should have included this in the earlier post. Copied from the Internet.
McKillops bridge.

Ten Years On.

This blog started out as private back in April 2011. A private diary of travel. As I say to anyone that will listen: an argument stopper for when I'm in the retirement home and reminiscing about where I've been. I started it at a time of radical change in my life. After 40 years of marriage, I was now on my own, retired and touring about without a specific destination.

Three years on and a casual campfire conversation with other travellers convinced me to make it public. And from there the page view counter started registering visitors.

In September 2017 google reported 13,000 views. Now in 2021, it's ticking over 30,500 views, go figure, I never would have. Maybe when I set it up I should have ticked the box to monetise and permit advertising, nuh just kidding.

Wulgulmerang and McKillops Bridge

So the first trip in The Bug is down to Victoria and a BlazeAid camp at Wulgulmerang, population 11.

In actual fact, I was killing time having a few days free before meeting family in Adelong NSW.

The quickest or should I say the shortest way there is via Cooma, Jindabyne and cross the border at Suggen Buggen. Signs at Jindabyne suggested border passes were required to enter Victoria but I saw nobody. In actual fact only saw a couple of vehicles on the 100km trip. That was good because most of the road is gravel and just a single lane in some places and best travelled at about 40km/h. The Bug went well on the gravel.

Stay a few days and did some hilly fences with a mostly overseas backpacker group of volunteers.

Heading back to NSW decided to see McKillops bridge, a magnificent structure in some wild hilly country that was built across the Snowy River. Main Road C611, is listed as one of the most dangerous roads in the country according to www.dangerousroads.org If I had read that about the road beforehand I would not have gone that way! But I'm glad to have seen it. Fortunately, after a significant amount of rain overnight, I didn't see another vehicle as the gravel road was wet and very slippery on the shady side of the mountains. A fallen tree across the road did not deter either.

The bridge has a very interesting history.

Check out this video on Youtube that ends with the bridge crossing.

McKillops Bridge

Tree down and no chainsaw, but I managed.

The Bug

Over seven months in one place, staying in bricks and mortar, well that's not been achieved since hitting the road full time, leaving Narrandera back in March 2010. Usually, a long stay for me would be coming back to Cotton Tree for the annual Certificate of Inspection required for heavy vehicles like my motorhome, pay bills, catch up on the snail-mail, check the unit, splash in the warm waters of Maroochydore, then off again.

Surprisingly good real estate prices and quick sales appear to be a product of the pandemic here in south-east Qld. Two units in my block of ten changed hands after each having just one day of open-house inspections and they got very generous prices. A friend up in the hinterland, not all that far away, sold her house to an interstate couple with just photos on the Internet, go figure. It's all go here.

The new plan sees me trade the Suzuki for a VW Multivan. The Bug as I call it gives me the cruise control I want and the space I need to carry stuff and sleep in the vehicle. It's white and nondescript unlike an 8t motorhome. A few additions make it a comfortable option for those overnight trips. If a motorhome is a home on wheels The Bug is a weekender.

The bed storage and generous sleeping space when extended.