Day 20- Crystal Creek

It was soooo dark here last night that i had to leave the bathroom light on all night for Darcy. We'll have to get some kind of night light for him i think. Jordy was up super early and ready to go. He chased the scrub turkey for a while. Darcy tried too but was too slow! But he pointed at them and called "dook!" and toddled and crawled towards them. We gave the boys some bread to feed them with which they enjoyed. Then Jordy spent half and hour with a caterpillar crawling up and back and up and back on a stick and then on his hands and up his leg and over his belly. I was surpised that it survived but he was really gentle with it.

Then before it got too hot we packed a picnic and jumped in the truck to go for a drive.

The road to Paluma is quite narrow and windy. It's certainly not tourist season yet- we only passed two cars during the full 20km trip up the mountain and one of them was a decent sized truck that nearly cleaned us up. He was obviously a local bloke and not used to seeing much traffic on the road let alone another truck cos he was hooting down the road.

Beautiful drive. It was amazing to watch the vegetation change in the space of 5min from bush to tropical rainforest. It looked so much like Dorrigo (or they way Dorrigo looked when the rivers were full flowing) with the strangler vines and other trees that i recognise but can't name, and the waterfalls that flow right beside the road.

Not much at Paluma itself. Just a tiny village but there are some great walks and lookouts that would be worth doing. I did a really short walk that was really relaxing and i would have loved to have done the 2km walk, just not by myself so much and it's not Tim's cup of tea.

Called in to Little Crystal Creek on the way back down the mountain. Had our picnic at the BBQ area which is amazing well set up. And then went for a walk to the creek. Absolutely stunning! There was a series of swimming holes with beautiful waterfalls and a roman arch bridge that was built during the depression. The kids loved it. Darcy kept clawing at Tim to be put down and then made like spider-boy climbing all over the rocks, and Jordy just scambled over the place and wanted to swim in the pools. To be honest i did too but it was a little cool up there. Would have been worth it though cos it was just glorious. I think the rainforest and waterfalls must be a real sensory memory thing for me from my childhood because i could just sit there chill out for hours.


Had a hard time convincing Jordy to get back in the truck but we came back to camp, ate some more! and then went back down to the creek for a swim. Splashed around for ages. The waterhole is really deep so you can dive and bomb of the rocks which was fun cos i have not done that for ages. I drove out to the main road for a bit to check on the weather up the coast and phone for prices on a couple of camps for the next few days. Then back to get a roast chicken on for dinner. Bathed the kids, and early meal and time for bed.

I think for me the creeks and walks were a definate highlight of our trip so far, it's the kind of thing that i just love and find really rejuvenating, so it is going down in the 'highlight' section :) although i know Tim would not agree (not enough "things" to do cos walking and looking apparently don't count as "things"!) LOL!