We ended the day with a quick detour to the mouth of Bellinger, at the village of Mylestom.
As you can see, the escarpment isn’t so far away on this part of the coast, so one can easily go from the mountains to the sea in an hour or so.
We’ll take another wander around this coast line in my next post.
North of Gleniffer wound the Promised Land loop. A name like that generates high expectations. Let’s see what we found.
Rolling pastures and rainforested hills.
Old wooden bridges over a clear, cold stream.
Never Never Creek that would be a perfect place to cool off on a steamy summer’s day.
It was obvious even after a quick drive-through why the early settlers thought this vale the land of fairy tale. Enchanting.
Ten kilometres north of Bellingen lies the hamlet of Gleniffer, in the vale just below the Dorrigo escarpment. It’s a good place to go on a leisurely drive or cycle. Last time I was here was over 10 years ago, but it hasn’t grown much since.
The community was built on dairy, and there were still a few cows grazing although they were more beef cows.
There was a cute church.
And a hall. And not much else. But everything was well-kempt, meaning that there must be an active community hereabouts.
Elsewhere on the mainstreet, the architecture ranged from art deco…
Through to country.
But on a weekday the entire community seemed to congregate along cafe alley – a short street full of coffee shops!
In the summer, I would think that people would go down to the Bellinger River. It was flowing quite placidly when we were there, but is quite prone to flooding.
Next stop for us was the Mid-North coast. We visited the river town of Bellingen. The main street was quite impressive for a place built on timber and dairy.
The pub was beautifully preserved and was built in a style that’s really different to the pubs inland. It’s also the hangout of David Helfgott, who lives nearby.
Next door was the old general store, now trading as a clothes shop.
The town was full of residents in the winter, and even though it had a bit of a hippy feel, wasn’t as inundated by tourists as those towns further north.
Static and Silence 