Road trip on the coast of New South Wales

I booked a flight spontaneously to Sydney to join several co-workers of mine on their post-conference road trip in New South Wales. With the car already booked, the week-long trip started in Sydney, following the coast up north towards Brisbane, then turning inland for some mountain hikes. The weather did not really play along, the first days were cloudy with lots of rain. On the first day, we went to the Myall NP, a lush landscape with lakes, rain forest, and sandy bays. We crossed a lake with the ferry and ended up in Seals Rock at the campground.

Sadly, there are no more seals around because the sharks ate them all! On the next day, we went up to the Sugarloaf Lighthouse and with some patience we saw signs of whales several hundred meters away from the coast. Dolphins came a lot closer, jumping out of the water. We went for a quick swim and then headed on to the rain forest track at Sugar Creek. The short hike was great, and with all the rain in the last couple of days it was humid but not too hot. Despite several leeches, somehow I had the great idea to wear sandals, we had a good time.

We then drove to Crescent Head in heavy rain, waited for the rain to stop with some beers and eventually pitched our tents. The next morning it was still raining. We decided to cancel the coastal part of the trip and instead headed inland over the Great Dividing Range on the Waterfall Way, hoping that the weather would be better on the other side.

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