Our trip to Armidale

After leaving Byron Bay it was time for us to start heading south, this meant things were about to get a lot colder. For two English people the cold is not normally an issue but for two English backpackers who had spent 6 months in the tropics of Queensland Australia, 3 months enjoying the heat of south east Asia and a British summer before leaving, it’s fair to say we were going to feel the chill. We had over 16 months of enjoying temperatures which rarely dropped below 20 degrees; our blood had thinned a lot.

We had planned our route through New South Wales with the help of Graham while we were staying with them in Queensland. He recommended we take the Waterfall highway and Putty Road to get to Canberra and to avoid Sydney. We were so pleased we took his advice as the drive was just stunning. We stopped for lunch in the picture-perfect Bellingen by a creek we were able to sit and enjoy a bit of sunshine. We then continued the drive to Dorrigo where we stopped and took some photos of Dangar falls.

The drive after Dorrigo was sensational, we drove through mountain roads which twisted and turned. Then out of nowhere down the side of a cliff would be a beautiful waterfall rushing under the road. We had waterfalls to look at on one side and on the other side were views over the magnificent country side, it was very special.

Our next stop was to see Ebor falls which was another beautiful waterfall, there was a walking track to the bottom of this waterfall but unfortunately we had begun to feel the cold and opted to just view it from the lookout at the top.

The final waterfall which we wanted to see was to be the most spectacular however it took a bit of finding. It was a waterfall which our lonely planet guide recommended so we did not want to miss it. We took a few wrong turns and were thinking of giving up when we kept driving and eventually saw a signpost for it. It was the most amazing waterfall I had ever seen, despite the fact we were seeing it at a time when the rivers were low due to little rainfall; it was still incredible. This was a waterfall which wasn’t very kind to Jonny’s vertigo as it fell into a 260m drop. It felt like something had put a huge hole in the earth and from a crack in the side came the waterfall. The photos do not do this one justice. 

Our stop for the night was in a town called Armidale. We were expecting a small village as we were a long way from anything and had driven almost 3 hours without seeing another real town. We were shocked when we could see the lights in the distance as we came over a hill; this big town had come from nowhere. We imagine it is similar but on a smaller scale to going through the desert in America and then seeing the lights off Las Vegas appearing.

When we arrived at the campsite we were told that the temperature was due to hit a chilly minus 6 during the night. It was a rather rude wake up call for us. I wore 2 pairs of socks and pyjamas while Jonny decided to “be a man” and wear just shorts. The next morning he was still “being British” and insisted on wearing his shorts with no top and flip-flops on the frosty grass, anyone who saw him felt cold for looking. We tried to wash up our breakfast things in the campsites outside kitchen but the water that had been left in the kettle had turned to ice inside. We tried to fill it up with water from the outside tap but this to have frozen up so no water was available. My fingers and toes had literally turned to ice by the time we packed up the campavan. Jonny had finally given in and decided a coffee was in order.