Nimbin to Queensland

So we continued up the coast on our way 'almost around aus.' Our next stop was just up the road to Nambucca Heads, Coffs Harbour. We had the van booked in for a service at 2.00pm so checked into the 'Harbour City' caravan park (getting our CMCA discount), had lunch and then drove out to 'South Coffs Autos' and sat for a couple of hours while the work was done. They are an authorised Fiat service agent so did a full computer check and found that we had a factory recall outstanding - the replacement of the spare wheel holder, so this was done as well as a complete service. They were truly excellent, and we would recommend them to anyone.
Feeling particularly lazy we took advantage of the special $7.00 meal offers at the Plantation Hotel - a short walk from the caravan park. They were really really nice meals.
The next day was an exercise day after all that sitting around yesterday.
So we walked through the town down to the Jetty.

It was a really hot sticky day - we both hate humidity!  We were both dripping as we sought a coffee shop - we spoiled ourselves with a coffee and a cookie. Then we walked back to the van along other streets, completing a circular route. After a late lunch we just sat in some shade and read until the clouds got a little darker and around 5.00pm it started to rain. It was still raining later so we didn't venture out for a walk to the pub again.
The next day we continued north but edged away from the coast, taking the road to Grafton then onto Casino and Lismore before turning for Nimbin.
Nimbin is famous throughout Australia - it was THE hippy town in the 1970s. Hippies flocked to the town and bought up in the town, 'smoking' was a way of life there.

                                   The full sign above this shop is www.BRINGABONG.

That lifestyle has continued through to today - but where have all the beautiful people gone? They're not in Nimbin, the hippies in Nimbin today are badly worn oldies - (they look in their 60s but are probably in their 40s). You know the figure, nearly every town has one - long hair, long beard, old shabby clothes, a few teeth and red bloodshot eyes. Now imagine a town full of them and you have Nimbin!!
The advertised price at the caravan park was obviously another relic from the 70s - it wasn't $19 it was $32. We stayed just the one night just so that we can tick that box.... been there, done that.

The next morning, after a restless night (Nimbin's relaxed attitude extends to everything, and there weren't any signs about quiet time after 10 or 11 pm), we were up remarkably early, 7.45am.
The humidity and cool night air had produced a lovely morning mist.

This quickly disappeared and the roads were nice and clear when we left town at 9.15am.

We took another wonderful NSW country road - potholes, bumps and dips, winding and twisting across to Kyogle. From there we were intending to take an interesting road, "The Lions Road".
 ("A shorter scenic link between Beaudesert Queensland and Grafton NSW, passing through the exquisite Border Ranges National Park, and overlooking the unique Spiral Loop railway line")
The Lions Road was commenced in 1969 and when the government walked away from its commitment in 1969 the Kyogle Lions Club undertook the building the road as a community project. This massive undertaking was completed in 1971, now it's estimated that over 100,000 vehicles use the road every year. It seemed like a great piece of engineering and human endeavour and an interesting drive through mountains and rainforest. We stopped at the information centre to check the current condition of the road, and if it was suitable for our vehicle. "The road is bitumen all the way, has lots of twists and narrow bridges", none of which would be a problem for us but no one was sure of the height restrictions - "It's either 3.3m or 3.5m"   - "I'm sure you'll be okay"??
We decided not to chance it and take that road after all and so pressed on, on the main road through into Queensland and to Beaudesert. This turned out to be a lovely road, beautiful scenery and was it just our imagination - the Queensland roads are better?

So we got to Beaudesert - a lovely name don't you think? but the town itself didn't 'do' anything for us so (having gained an hour due to non daylight saving) we drove on to Boonah and settled in at the Showgrounds there ($20 with power).

 Since arriving in Boonah we've discovered that the town, and indeed the showgrounds is to be home to the next CMCA National Rally, in October this year.

The next morning everything was nice and quiet, so we were thinking that we'd spend a second night camped in Boonah. Then we noticed that there was a lot of activity across the other side of the showground oval - cars and trailers were arriving, and in the trailers were little racing cars! Then a water tanker started to drive around the track, wetting it down - hmmm looks like they intend to race. Yep, they'll be racing from 10.15. Now don't you think someone should/could have mentioned that when we booked in  (not just from the noise aspect but the gravel and dust that was going to be thrown around) - we were only there one night but one of our 2 neighbours was booked in for 10 days!
 They moved to another spot and we moved on. A nice little town nonetheless.
We drove just up the road to Ipswich - established as a convict out-station in 1827, aspired to become capital of Queensland in 1850s and now a large town right on the edge of the suburbs of Brisbane.
We were making our way to the Showgrounds to stay for a couple of days and then look up and catch up with an old friend that Wendy worked with. Robyn and her husband Alan now run a motel in Ipswich - and once settled in we were going to phone them and organise a time to meet up. Well it turned out that the showgrounds were almost next door to their motel - you can see one from the other, so we decided to save the cost of a phone call and rolled up in reception. A great surprise!!
We ended up not going to the showgrounds, we camped in their second driveway and had a great afternoon, evening and night chatting and catching up.

          This is Wendy with Robyn and Alan - proudly showing that they have NO vacancies.

The next morning we let them return to normality and get back to business, and we drove the short distance to Esk. Any Kransky sisters fans out there will know Esk, so far we haven't found any Morris Minors. But we have found the caravan park is quiet, clean and only $25 so we checked in for 2 nights before heading a little further north to our next reunion.