Yamba NSW. July 5th 2026

Yamba NSW. July 3rd-7th 2026

We are back in Yamba again and surprised to find ourselves down the other end of the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park, rather than our 'usual' place right up the other end. It's an ensuite site in their unique style which is s block of six, one each for six adjacent sites rather than one ensuite on each site.  Our van is backed right onto one of the pools, but probably because they don't heat this pool, it's pretty quiet. The kids come and go to have a ride on the water slide but then disappear again back to the other heated pool. Or their scooter, or bikes or wherever. So far so good. 

Went out for a bit of a drive around today, first stop was Angourie to look at the 'world famous' beach. Well it's world famous if you are in the surfing world.

Angourie Beach. Yamba NSW 2026

Around the corner are the "Blue and Green pools". I've been here a few times and they just look like dark forbidding pools of cold inky water. As I've mentioned before, they are the result of the quarrying that took place here from 1890 to 1899 to provide bluestone rock to build the channel training walls in the nearby Clarence River.

Angourie Pools. yamba NSW 2026

Too bad that in 1899, the miners broke through into a spring and the big holes filled up with water. They used to have steam powered cranes to lift the rocks onto a steam train that ran right around the headland and across to a wharf on the Clarence River at Yamba, maybe 5k. You can see a few old relics lying around and if you consider that these rails have been more or less in salt water for 127 years, they look pretty good.

Old railway lines. Angourie Pools, Yamba NSW July 2026

Back around in Yamba itself we took a cook's tour in the car. Overlooking the Main Beach is the lighthouse. Not the original. This one was built in 1956 to replace the original one that became a bit obsolete when they built the Pacific Hotel more or less right in front of it. 

Lighthouse. Yamba July 2026

What to do on a rainy day in Yamba? Grab a coffee and go watch the waves at the beach is one option.

Main Beach. Yamba NSW July 2026

Having expired that avenue of diversion, we took a drive up the highway to New Italy to have a look at the museum. Fascinating story of how these early settlers came to be in Australia.

In a nutshell, the Italians were involved in the The De Rays Expedition (1879–1881) which was a disastrous and fraudulent attempt by French nobleman Marquis de Rays to establish a South Pacific utopian colony called "La Nouvelle France" (New France) on the island of New Ireland in present-day Papua New Guinea.

They escaped to Australia and following a period of 12 months when they each had to go out into the community and work, they reassembled and were granted citizenship and they all went and settled at "New Italy" up on the North Coast of NSW.

Museum complex. New Italy NSW July 2026

While we were up that way we drove out to Evans Heads to have a look around. The town and area has a nice feel about it and we've pencilled it in for a stay next time we come up here.

Breakwater on Evans River. Evans Head NSW July 2026

I got all excited about a sign that said "F111 Museum", which turned out to be an the old WWII airfield, which after a bit of a chequered history was recently bought privately from the Council and operates as a private airfield and a museum. According to the website it has all kinds of interesting aircraft, including the F111. Unfortunately, closed on Monday. Maybe next time....

Had a bit of fun on the way back. Our car's GPS kept telling us to go out to Casino, drive down to Grafton and then back up to Yamba. You can see why, the M1 apparently doesn't exist! Turns out our maps are from the 2021 update, too soon after the M1 was opened to have been included. Like only a few weeks earlier. You'd think the map people might have had a bit of a look around, 'scan the environment', before publishing. 

Oh oh. We are in the middle of the mudflats. better go back and take the long way around!

As we flew along the very much solid, existing M1 and the bridge over the Clarence River, I grabbed a snap of the oldest existing, operational sugar mill in Australia. It's on Harwood Island in the Clarence, at Yamba. It was opened in 1874 and is still crushing 'em. As a side story, the cane used to be brought down the river in barges until someone invented the railways and then the motor lorry. The last of the barges were scuttled along the river in 1975.

Sugar Mill. Harwood Island, Yamba NSW July 2026

Punt or barge used to carry sugar cane down to the mill. This was the last one left and the council crushed it because they deemed it 'unsafe' for the public. Ferry Park, Maclean NSW August 2012

 

Urunga NSW, July 2nd 2026

Urunga NSW, July 2nd 2026

Had a bit of a wander around sort of day, mostly via the old Pacific Highway, now referred to as the A1 or Giinagay Way as parts of it are now known. Just driving on it, as it twists and turns and goes in and out of every coastal town, not to mention radar speed traps everywhere, coppers hiding behind every bush, brings back a lot of memories. It was bypassed by the M1 back in 2016, but still, I can remember driving it many times: that slow crawl as you wend your way toward the day's goal. One truck, one snail, or one of the inevitable and interminable road works and you are reduced to a crawl. It was truly horrible. Not as horrible as the Bruce Highway in Queensland mind you, but up in the top 3.

We detoured off it to start with, turning down Rodeo Drive to Bowraville, and to be frank and with no disrespect to anyone who lives there, we drove through, turned around and drove right back out. The most notable thing is that there isn't one upgraded / refurbished / renovated building facing the main street, which is kind of quaint but kind of sad as well, especially as a lot of what was there was boarded up and closed permanently.

Went to Macksville looking for coffee and or lunch but found a Department Store instead which required investigation, and then on to Scotts Head, the Macksville coffee shop options looking decidedly bleak. We had lunch there, nice hamburger and chips washed down with passable coffee. I took a snap of the mural on the toilet block as the most exciting thing I could find. It wasn't a great beach day but there were nippers out paddling about and learning how to be the next-gen lifesavers. Good on them!

Mural on public toilet block. Scotts Head NSW, 2026

Continued our drive by of Grassy Head and Stuarts Point before deciding that Urunga was worth a visit. Uranga is of course 50km in the other direction, but given the day, we may as well be doing that as anything, and besides they have a lovely old one kilometre long wooden boardwalk from the van park, over the mangrove flats and out to the ocean beach.

Or at least they did have. We had wondered how the old wooden one was holding up and the answer was that 12 months ago they ripped it out and replaced it with a really nice metal and plastic one, two-and-a-half metres wide and even extends down the south arm of the Bellinger River / mud flats to the wetlands sanctuary, a boardwalk that appears to go nowhere and is  still referred to as an "interpretive boardwalk", although what it's interpreting is anyone's guess as there are no signs of any sort. The main boardwalk gets about half the way to the beach at the moment, but they are still working on it and what they have built so far is pretty special. Regardless of what they call it, it's a special part of the coast and well worth a visit.

 Well done them.

Urunga Boardwalk. Urunga NSW, 2026

Urunga Boardwalk. Urunga NSW, 2026

For your edification and just a bit of fun, here is a bad photo of the sign that used to be there, telling us all about the history. I assume they are now rewriting history, as they can and do.

Sign, Urunga boardwalk. Urunga NSW 2016

Just for fun, read the sign and think about the progressive increase in the cost of successive upgrades. I wonder if the new sign, should one eventuate, mention that the new boardwalk's budget is some $6.1 million.

Nambucca Heads NSW, July 1st 2026

Nambucca Heads NSW, July 1st 2026

Ten years have slipped by since we were here last, and the time before that was 16 years ago. 

Nambucca heads is one of 'those' places people seem to rave about, and certainly the river mouth and heads area is very pleasant, but we haven't found anything else yet to rabbit on about. We went looking for the famous beaches and only found one: Shelly Beach (is there one in every coastal town?) which is just over the hill from the van park. There are others but we couldn't get to them mostly because of the terrain which is very steep everywhere and limits access. We found a carpark at what I think was Main Beach due to its having the Nambucca Heads Surf Lifesaving Club at one end, but the actual beach seemed to be around the headland. Odd.

We are staying in the same park as the last couple of times. It was called the White Albatross back then but is now an Ingenia Park. It's quite large and wraps around a lagoon and fronts onto the breakwater / boardwalk. The van park is quite pleasant, neat, tidy and at this time of the year, quiet.

The breakwater has a concrete path and on the seaward side, large boulders and concrete blocks pile up and it forms one arm of the 'V Wall'. These have become a magnet for people to paint the names of family and loved ones on. 

V Wall breakwater. Nambucca Heads 2026

The sun was just struggling up when I got to the end of the breakwater, and I couldn't help but take a snap of it coming up over the headland and Wellington Rocks.

Sunrise. Wellington Rocks. Nambucca Heads 2026

For something a bit quirky, up in town at the bus stop, there is a mural made of shells and tiles and the like. Here's one of its objects, just for fun.

Octopus mural. Nambucca Heads, NSW 2026

One thing about being right on the water though, that onshore breeze that seems to go on forever, buffeting the van and flapping the awning about despite the anti-flap devices and the ropes holding it down, drives you a little bit mental!

Finally, on our last morning here, the wind dropped, the sun came out and I was able to finally get over to Shelly Black for a walk in the sand and sea. It being low tide, you can walk the fill length of Shelly Beach and around the headland and up Main beach, it goes 'forever' it would seem. I stopped at the headland and turned back. I was overtaken by the hero-of-the-morning who had run the full length of both beaches and back and then proceeded to strip off and dive headlong into the freezing ocean waves. But enough of this idle lifestyle, we have to break camp and head out of town for Yamba, a whole 180km north.

Karuah NSW June 29 2026

 Karuah NSW June 29 2026

What a great idea; leaving from Mittagong rather than Canberra. Once-upon-a-time it would have been no problem to do the entire trip in one go, but now it's just a whole lot easier and less stressful to do the two-hop trip.

We did the 300km in 3 hours and 15 minutes, so a pretty good trip really, Who knows how much the M7 , the M2 and the NorthConnex tunnel cost, our tag never uttered a sound! [$27.95c as it turns out]

Karuah is lovely, right on the waters of Port Stephens without the people and 40 kph signs, well, almost without people, there are new housing estates popping up all over the place, as there is everywhere in Australia. The Caravan Park is always pleasant, well maybe with the exception of the year it was a quagmire, and you always must take the obligatory stroll out along the wonkiest jetty is Australia.

We were in earlier than expected so we went for a cruise up the road to the Tea Gardens and Hawkes Nest. Last time we were in Tea Garden was in 1979 with my brother Paul and his family. We were training for the Birdman rally to be held at Cattai in Sydney later that year. Unfortunately, our #1 daughter, who was only a few months old at the time, decided that she did not like camping, and so in the middle if the night we packed up and returned to our home in Sydney. Ah, those were the days.

There's not a lot to say about Karuah, especially since the highway bypassed it in 2004 and it became the proverbial 'sleepy hollow'. There are a few shops in town on what was once the Pacific Highway, nothing much seems to have changed in the years we have been coming here on our annual migrations. 

Anyhow, there was one place that has some printed images out front on its little picket fence, and rather than bore you with my snaps, I took a picture of one of them. I refer to them as 'found' images. It’s a lovely photo of the bridge when the then highway used to run over it, and I know I couldn’t do better so here it is:

 

Old Pacific Highway bridge at Karuah NSW, bypassed 2004

Mittagong NSW June 29 2026

 Mittagong NSW June 29 2026

Our first trip out for two years, we decided to only go as far as Mittagong on the first day, rather than driving all the way to Karuah. 

Cold and raining on and off, we took ourselves out to the "big shops", and found ourselves some lunch in the mall. After we cruised down to Bowral for a bit of a poke around some "antique" shops, shoe shops, second-hand shops... Talking of second-hand shops, the prices in Vinneys are in line with everything else in Bowral - out of this world. 

Found some lookouts that we just had to drive up to, but it's all so overgrown you can't see anything!

Mittagong Caravan Park brings back one very very old memory for me. Back when I was 13 -14, we camped there for a night or two. 'We' was mum, dad and at least my younger sister. Maybe my older sister and brother as well but can't be sure. 'Camping' was a funny little home-built trailer that looked like a small caravan. In the front was storage for the '3 x 3' tent and the stretchers, the back had a lift up section that revealed a kitchen. The tent went up around the 'kitchen' and that was the camp. What makes this memory so special to me is that I had a football with the Reg Gasnier logo on it. Reg Gasnier was a Rugby League player and the closest thing I ever had to having a sporting hero. I fancied myself as a goal kicker and spent a few hours on the football field next to the van pack trying to kick goals... One of my very few and very brief encounters with sport. We are basically incompatible!

Anyhow, took a snap of the goal posts some 64 years on, just for the fun of it.

Football field Mittagong NSW

Karuah NSW September 1st 2024

 Karuah NSW September 1st 2024

Long day on the road gets us into Karuah, the only place we have ever found to stay at night, ready for a run down through Newcastle and Sydney and then - Home.

We got a bit of a surprise though, the service station is closed for renovations. Good job we are in the Beemer and not the Ford, because we had plenty in reserve. We went and found some 10km back ups the road though, just be sure.

The best place in Karuah is the jetty, with its attendant wonky old boardwalk. 

Karuah NSW

Karuah NSW

Karuah NSW

Karuah NSW

Yamba NSW August 27th 2024

Yamba NSW August 27th 2024

Easy run down to Yamba. Found our spot in the park and went up to town for lunch. Had a bit of a wander around to reacquaint ourselves with Yamba and the bits and pieces around the place.

Angourie Back Beach, Angourie NSW

Yamba main beach and pool, Yamba NSW

Fog rising over Yamba Marina, Yamba NSW

Did some stuff: ‘History’ Ferry Cruise - 4 hours of nothing, it would have been boring if you could have heard the commentary. Took 2 hours to cover about 5 nautical miles from the park to the highway bridge. And just a complete rip-off. You can't bring food or drink on board, but they will gladly sell you a sandwich in a plastic box for $10 and a can of drink for five. Parkrun - great little run along the river front, pretty hot and humid though. Angourie Back Beach my favourite - 630 am deserted, heaven on earth, a run in the car out to Lawrence and Bushgrove, touched Grafton and came car through Maclean.

I wanted to go to Bushgrove mostly because it featured in a great pamphlet thing / marine chart we picked up which was about cruising on the Clarence River. It waxed lyrical about the wonder of having lunch on the deck overlooking the broad expanse of the river etc etc. The pub itself, including the covered patch of dirt on the river bank were ok, but far from the rhetoric of the glossy brochure. We did get to cross the river though, twice, on a vehicular ferry, which is a bit quaint these days.

Vehicular Ferry, Lawrence, Clarence River, NSW

Lunchtime viewing area, Bushgrove Hotel, NSW

The view from the said viewing platform 

Actually a highlight was lunch at Maclean where we ‘discovered’ the Botero Coffee Roasters and Cafe. Exellenent lunch, great coffee

Botero Roastery, Maclean NSW

The Caravan park was ‘nice’, until the 10,000 young persons with all their children and all their toys turned up n Friday. You can hear the kiddies starting to mumble and grumble from six am, then at 7 am sharp they throw all the van and cabin doors open and the kiddies erupt out onto their scooters and bikes, yelling and screaming at each other and moaning about this and that... and it doesn’t stop until 7 at night when thankfully they all go to sleep. 

And then there was the pool or pools, only one heated is the swim-up bar, and you can imagine what that was like! But the others, including the water play areas are decidedly cool. The main pool is really nice, just cold. Not frigid, just not a pleasant place to get in and splash around. Good for lap swimming though if you were brave enough to tough it out. One one or two brave souls, including me, used it as our own private pool all week... until Saturday. The temperature soared to 35° by 9 o’clock and a hot sweltering wind picked up. All of a sudden the “freezing” pool was the place to be! And then the power went off. Not just the van park, but all of Yamba. Came back on about three o’clock, so all the air-conditioners could be brought back on-line.

Judy did some fishing from the end of the van park pier and caught all kinds of baby fish, biggest one was a 30cm flathead. All consigned back to their watery habitat for next year.

We will go back, we’ll just make sure it’s not on the weekend, especially a Fathers’ day one or the like.