I flew to Tasmania from Sydney and from Tasmania straight back to Sydney to pick up where I left off. I immediately rented another car and drove north to my next planned stop, Port Macquarie. As I was leaving Sydney it started raining, then it started raining harder, and harder, the whole four hour drive. The weather in Port Macquarie was like a typhoon, crazy high winds and pouring rain and it wasn’t predicted to stop for about another week. I had some decisions to make.

I had two big waterfall hikes planned, but they involved a lot of dirt roads that were now muddy and flooded, so those were off the agenda now. I had planned to visit Port Macquarie’s Koala Hospital and rescue, but they closed a couple of weeks ago for renovations until next year, so I can scratch that one off the list. And I’m not going to visit the nearby prison ruins and play with the local kangaroos in this weather either, so… I rearranged my plans and skipped three stops ahead and now I’m in Byron Bay. The four hour drive north from Port Macquarie was rough, but eventually when those gray clouds turned into white clouds and the blue sky started poking through, I was pretty relieved. Everything from Sydney stretching 500-600 miles north was engulfed, flooding everywhere, what a mess!

Anyway, Byron Bay is quite pleasant. Haha! I arrived in the mid afternoon, checked into the hostel and spent the remaining couple of hours doing the Cape Byron walk out to their lighthouse. At the beginning of the walk I spotted a koala way up high in one of the trees, seen above. I haven’t seen any of them for a minute. And I didn’t know this when planning this stop, but Cape Byron is also the most eastern point of Australia. After two lost days of nothing but driving and being couped up in the Port Macquarie hostel, I feel like I’m back on track.

At the top of the hill is the Cape Byron Lighthouse with a million dollar view out to sea and back towards Byron Bay. Sunsets don’t usually do it for me, but by chance I happened to be up there right on time for it. Time to walk back down and grab some dinner.

On the way down the other side of the hill I got amazing views of Tallow Beach. Those clouds look beautiful and pink in the sunset, but those are the same clouds causing all the damage all the way south to Sydney and in Port Macquarie. I’m glad to be out of that mess!

The next morning I had big plans for my day. This region is known as the Hinterland, by the way. I drove inland to Nightcap National Park to get some hiking done. First up was Minyon Falls. I started with the viewpoint at the very top of the falls then headed over to the lookout at the trailhead. The lookout had a pretty great view, but I need to see that waterfall up close.

I was expecting a very steep, very slippery hike down, but the descent was pretty gradual and nice. It was only at the very end where the slippery rock scramble was and even that wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting. And this incredible seven gusher turned out to be worth it anyway.

Almost on the other side of the national park and up a long lonely dirt road was the next waterfall I wanted to see, Protesters Falls. This one is actually kind of strange, though, because the trail was definitely closed and blocked by a metal barricade. Somehow these pictures ended up on my camera anyway. I was the only person there so there was no one around to help me figure it out though. It’s just one of life’s silly little mysteries, I guess. Some things we’re just not meant to understand.

If only I had been able to do the hike I would’ve seen all the amazing little cascades along the way. I can only assume that I would have also noticed the washed out bridge and the little track through the mud to navigate around it, but I guess we’ll never know for sure.

I’m only guessing here, but I probably would’ve given this waterfall an eight on the gusher scale. I’m pretty sure I would’ve also enjoyed having that amazing place all to myself for quite a while before hiking back. If only.

After Protesters Falls I drove further northwest to Border Ranges National Park only to discover that the whole road through the park was closed. It would’ve been nice to know that ahead of time. GRRRR! There must be some heavy damage up there for them to block the whole road through the park. At least the drive was pretty.

Driving the Hinterland

So with the couple of hikes I had planned here inaccessible and not enough time to drive anywhere else before dark, I headed back to Byron Bay and it looks like that’s it for this stop. I guess I’m only half back on track. Now I’m gonna back track to the stops I skipped over and hope the rain has subsided. Fingers crossed…