NSW North Coast road trip

Feb-March 2025

I was asked to dog sit dear little Alice for 10 days in February at Safety Beach, near Woolgoolga, while Carol and Wayne went to New Zealand. Alice lives next door to my good friends Sommer and Stefan and their delightful daughters, Ella and Lilly, so I was excited to have a reason and the time to catch up with them and enjoy the beach life. And Alice is pretty cute.

I had two important jobs while in Woopi: look after Alice and do the Lilly school run. Every morning, Alice and I would follow the short path to the beach across the road and go for a stroll. Some mornings Lilly would join us and we’d spend an hour or so inspecting jelly fish, finding interesting shells and talking to other dogs on the beach. I generally had to drag Lilly to school and promise I’d be at the bus stop to meet her after school with lots of fun things planned – we spent the afternoons baking, crafting and exploring while nattering away about anything that came to mind.

On recovering from a yucky dose of the flu, my Mum got the train from Newcastle to Coffs Harbour to join me at Woopi for a few days with Alice and explore the area. Mum came along with Lilly, Alice and I for our morning and afternoon walks to the beach. Lilly tried her very best to convince us she needed to be Mum’s tour guide of Woopi and surrounds and therefore couldn’t possibly go to school but we didn’t fall for that.

Mum, Alice and I walked the headland at Woopi, enjoyed lunch at a local cafe, explored the shops and went for a swim in the ocean. It was all very pleasant. We shared a few meals and outings with Sommer, Stefan and Ella and thoroughly loved the relaxed coastal lifestyle Safety Beach provides before welcoming Carol and Wayne home from their holiday and farewelling sweet Alice (who was probably grateful to no longer be made to go for a walk every morning!).

Given we were in the neighbourhood, Mum and I headed a few hours north to visit Kathie and Ron at Wyrallah. Sadly, the time had come for Kathie and Ron to sell the farm, and this visit turned out to be my last – 21 years after my first visit with Scott in July 2004 on our way to Splendour in the Grass at Byron Bay.

More sadly was the fact this was the last farm in my life, with other farm dwelling friends and family downsizing over the years and moving to towns as they got older. I was going to miss the farm immensely. I have many fond memories of the house and the farm: Scott’s pizza oven parties; the woodfired oven and stove as the heart of the house; the snail shaped herb garden; the ever giving passionfruit vine; the hole in the bedroom floor that Scott cut to hide his precious things as a teenager; the computer corner where Scott would call me on Skype – this amazing new technology where I could see him while we talked(!); long chats with visiting friends and family on the side verandah and then on the deck in recent years; the spot where Ron would sit with his beer, watch the sunset and call to tell me about his day; the back bathroom not to be used by guests and the loo in the laundry where the green frogs liked to reside. I remember wading through flooded paddocks following Scott on some random mission, walking with Kathie to the front gate and back, strolling with Ron and Dora (the horse) through the bamboos, and trekking up the hill behind Scott and PK to either enjoy pancakes for breakfast or savour wine and beers with cheese and M&M’s at sunset. I will miss Ron being so gracious in creating jobs for me to help him with and chatting with Kathie in the kitchen over tasty leftovers or desserts late into the night. I will also miss helping harvest the bamboo shoots, spotting koalas in the trees up the back, hearing stories about the neighbours and watching Dora enjoy her morning molasses.

Scott will stay behind and keep sentry over the farm – his tree is now 16 years old and is strong and tall. Dora, who is approximately 30 years old, will also stay behind to continue her reign over Webber Road with the new owners promising to maintain Dora’s diet of molasses and carrots.

After a wonderful few days with Kathie and Ron (and Dora), Mum and I headed to the coast again to catch up with PK and Nat and their offspring, Arlo and Olive, in Pottsville. We had a great time swimming in Mooball Creek before dining in downtown Pottsville – it was so nice to see them. Mum and I then tootled slowly up the coast road and arrived on the Gold Coast just as Cyclone Alfred was brewing in intensity.

Mum and I made the most of a break in the rain with a quick walk to the beach to check how big the waves were (BIG!) and a look at the local art gallery. We also made the most of 50c bus tickets to visit darling cousin Meg and her hubby Nick and daughter Scarlett a few blocks south.

We had a super fun evening catching up and laughing about the world. But our livers were in dire straits the next day after consuming a significant amount of very nice wine.

My original plan was to road trip all the way to Noosa but Cyclone Alfred put the kybosh on that, so we reorganised ourselves and various people to then head south again. We stopped in at Byron Bay to visit Mum’s art school friend Jan who took us on a detailed local’s tour of Byron, showing us how the tides, sand dunes and environmental flows had changed as result of development and generally to the detriment of the town. It was still very windy. From Byron we stayed another night with Kathie and Ron, before scooting down to Laurieton where we visited Kay and helped her enjoy the first fruit from her Dragonfruit plant.

Our final stop of the road trip was Eleebana Shores where we were safely out of cyclone country and pretty tired after a lot of driving over the last few days. We enjoyed sharing the stories and photos of our travels with Janette and Steve and reflecting on how convenient it is having lovely friends and family dotted across the countryside to allow such enjoyable road trips and adventures.