Well rested, we awoke the next morning hoping for blue skies… but yet again we were greeted by a blanket of fog that enabled you to barely see a foot in front of you. We decided to get a head start anyways and headed into the town of Dorrigo to check out the scene. Let’s just say, we might as well have headed into a ghost town. We felt like The Beast had turned into a time machine and took us back to the 1950’s. If that doesn’t give you the picture, go watch the movie The Hills Have Eyes and you’ll know what we’re talking about. Our quick photo op at Dangar Falls only confirmed our suspicions that the town was creepy as the view of the falls also included the most recent victim of Dorrigo… 
After our quick visit to the falls, we headed out of town to Dorrigo National Park for a scenic view of the mountains and our hike through the subtropical rain forest. The view turned out to be not so scenic...
Check out what it looked like when we were there...
And then here is what it's suppose to look like on a nice day...
But no matter, our spirits were not dampened and decided to continue on with our plan to hike the rain forest. And boy was our hike an adventure… at the start of the 2 hour hike there was a Leech warning sign.
None of us gave it a second look we tucked our pants in as advised and continued on our merry way figuring we’d just be careful and stay on the trail. It was beautiful, lush trees, birds singing, and the fog of the day just sitting between the tall trees… it truly was breath taking. We were all walking at a moderate pace because we kept stopping to take pictures and enjoy the scenery… that was until Jaclyn looked down at Alison’s leg and said “what is that on your pants?” Oh yes… that is right, there was a HUGE leech crawling on that back of her leg. We got it off quickly using the Flicking approach and then slowly as we all looked down at our sneakers we realized one by one that we all had leeches all over our sneakers!!! After a short panic from all of us, okay our screams could be heard echoing out through the forest, we got them all off, but it was inevitable they would come again because they were all over the wet trail that we were walking on. It was like being in a science fiction movie. Needless to say the rest of the hike was a bit quicker than the first portion. 
We walked at a very steady pace, okay at times we were sprinting, with leech checks about everyone 5 minutes where we would find at least 2 or 3 on one of us. Jimmy kept telling us to just enjoy the walk, but it was hard given that all we could think about were all the leeches that could be in our shoes and sucking our blood from our feet! We finally reached the end of the trail high on adrenaline from the hike both because it was a cardiovascular activity and because we were scared shitless of the leeches. But we were quickly reminded of how creatures of this sort do not bother the Aussie’s as we warned a husband and wife with their small son to watch out for all the leeches as they were starting the hike. They said, “yes, we know we are use to them” as they let their little kid basically crawl around on the ground with the leeches…. once again got to love the Aussies!
After a final leech check at The Beast, we packed up once again and started the journey back to the coast for our next stop, Cresent Head! The drive out of Dorrigo was much better than the way in. There was no rain and we got to see more views of the rain forest, waterfalls along the road, enjoy a cup of coffee in a small country town and of course we continued our hunt to see a kangaroo.
Finally turning off the Pacific Highway we cruised down a scenic route towards the coast and we reminded once again by the kangaroo crossing signs on the road that while in Australia we should get to see a Kangaroo in the wild. We had no idea that soon as we were jamming to the Dizzy Rascal tunes that were blasting as the wind was blowing through our hair, we would soon scream… kangaroo!!! 
Low and behold right before our very eyes a full family of roos were on the side of the road in a footie field. The Beast screeched to a hault and Alison jumped out for a photo shoot with the roos. We couldn’t believe our luck at the great photos it isn’t everyday you get that close or at least we thought so. Despite thinking that Cresent Head would be our destination, we saw the small surf and cloudy skies and decided that a picnic would have to do and we quickly moved on towards Forster/Pacific Palms.
Forster/Pacific Palms was everything we had hoped for… secluded beaches, the beautiful scenery of Booti Booti national park, and lots of wildlife. We arrived at the Holiday Park around 5:30pm immediately parked the camper in what would soon become our favorite site and headed to the beach to check out the scene. Let’s just say wow! The sand was so fine that it made squeaking noises when you walked on it and the water was crystal blue… it was the perfect spot for our jump shot photo shoot (we have posted some for your viewing pleasure!).
Our feasting all week had gotten the best of us so we opted for Guacamole Chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, and other pickies rather than a full dinner with a full evening of drinking wine, aren’t you proud of us?!?!? and playing cards (warning Stacy… Melanie is now obsessed with the game Shithead and will want to play when she returns, be prepared!).
Off to bathhouse Jaclyn and Jimmy went to wash up for bed as Melanie and Alison tucked themselves in to bed. Startled by Jaclyn tapping on the camper window whispering, “come here come here, get up get up, you have to see this!” To our surprise, there was a little joey (aka baby kangaroo) less than 30 feet away from the bathhouse.
Needless to say we were all ecstatic that we stayed and watched for over an hour. During this time Melanie tried to sneak a closer peak at the joey and as she got closed we all heard a growl… oh yes, the big mama kangaroo appeared to protect her young. It was awesome! After a while we decided it was time to finally get to bed… so off we went back to The Beast dreaming of kangaroos and blue skies for the next day! P.S. Once again, more pictures to come, it just takes a while to upload them all!
1 comment:
I am freaked out just reading about the leaches!
-Rachel
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