Yuragir National Park (near Yamba)

We decided to spend two nights at Yuragir National Park near Yamba on the way to the Gold Coast.  Mainly as it was about half way and we also love the John Williamson song about the road to Yamba, and Mark and the kids insisted!  It ended up being a great idea.  It was this really lovely camp spot right on this awesome beach.  Only one other couple there, so really quiet.  It had rained a lot and was pretty boggey underfoot and a lot of people had left.  But it was okay for us in the van.  It's not so cheap to stay in the National Park though, they charged us $30 a night, with no power or water, but a picturesque spot, so didn't complain for too long.  We had a couple of camp fires, with the usual treat of marshmellow, but also to the kids delight I also did bananas filled with chocolate wrapped in foil and cooked in the hot coals.  Something I remember my parents doing for us years ago.  We sat by the camp fire looking at the stars and listening to some great music, you can imagine, we were loving it.  Such an amazing way to be spending our life at the moment, we're so lucky.  No regrets so far.

We went into Yamba the next day and spent the day exploring the area.  They have some beautiful coast line.  We found this really pretty lighthouse and a walk that led us down to the cliffs and a view of the ocean and surf beaches below.  Much to my horror Mark took Jake right to the edge, and as everyone knows Jake is a walking accident, but luckily it was all okay.  Yamba is actually a lot bigger than I expected, nice place.  We ended up doing our school online session with the teacher in Yamba as we had no reception at the national park.  We had lunch at this nice tavern on the water with a great play ground for the kids.  It was quiet there so we figured we could just stay there and do school.  Only problem was that when Jakes teacher asked him him where he was he answered "at the pub".  So then I had to explain to his teacher why we were doing school at the pub, oops.  But Mark did enjoy his beer!  He got chatting (surprise surprise) to one of the locals at the pub who let him in on a few local areas to check out.   And also gave us a few hints on where to go on the way north, pretty handy the people you meet on the way.

Mark and the kids feeding the fish at the pub.  Mark tried to catch one with his hands but no luck.

 The local man suggested we check out these blue/black pools at Angourie not far from yamba. Turned out to be a good suggestion, a really gorgeous piece of the coast. It used to be an old quarry that they used to get all the rock for the breakwater, now they are full of water and the people jump off the high walls. Reminded us of Melrose Quarry back in Tassie.

We went past all these paddocks of cows and then suddenly there was this paddock full of kangaroos, so so many, it was pretty humorous to us, looked like the farmer was farming them, probably not so humorous to the farmer, as they were eating his paddock.  Probably can't see them in this pic though, sorry.

A few local emus having a snack.

We had a great time at the national park.  Had a couple of really enjoyable walks in the sunshine.  Off to Gold Coast now, kids are very excited.