Dorrigo

I woke to synchronised chomping this morning, early; the cows in the adjacent paddock had chosen to munch their breakfast just over the wire fence from my tent. They’re such gentle animals and they just gazed at me before getting on with their meal, while I worked out what was going on.

And by the time we had our breakie,within the hour , we'd acquired another dog. I don't know where it came from or where it went to, but it stayed with us for about an hour.

Dorrigo is a funny little place. A quiet country town with hardly anybody about and very few places to see. One of the blokes on the campsite told us that he went into town last night and couldn’t even find anywhere to eat. And on a Saturday night! Maybe they avoid outsiders or something and just go home.

Even more reason to find things to do then, and that’s exactly what we did. The Dangar Falls are just down the road, a waterfall about 20 m high that sheds water over a cliff edge and into a swimming hole. 

This area is known for its falls, hence the highway being called Waterfall Way. There are more in the Dorrigo National Park, and we planned to go there next but came across a really weird train museum, all mothballed and apparently derelict on the edge of town.

It’s the World’s largest collection of rolling stock, privately owned, and it opened briefly in 1986 before shutting again. A leaflet explained that they do hope to reopen it eventually, but they have no money, blah de blah. 

But it presents a very strange sight; rows and rows of train carriages, all on rails, and all joined up, just standing there. They are obviously from different ages, and some are badly in need of some urgent TLC.

Over the way, were are the engines. Loads of them again, all lined up on the same track. there is no indication of how they got there either as there are no train tracks leading to the place. I guess they got low loadered in, put on tracks and left.

Dorrigo is also home to the World’s smallest motorcycle museum. Its actually more like a 1960s American diner with a bike and a few bits of motorcycle clutter but its still vibrant and well used as a coffee and grub mecca for passing riders.

 A bit like an Ace Cafe only a fraction of the size. And I mean fraction. Its run by a Juan from Argentina, and the grub is exceptionally good.

After about an hour there, we went up to the National Park, walked on the Skywalk  - a wooden bridge/platform thing that extends off the hillside and over the tree canopy.

Perhaps not  the thing for height scaredy cats, it does allow you to see for kms, right out over the landscape, which is pretty impressive.

The Park has several walks too, so we wandered along one, nicely named the Wonga Walk. Not sure what that means but its a 6km loop through rainforest, past waterfalls, and under canopies of vines and chatty birds, plus the odd big goanna. I initially saw a long black tail slidinging into the vegetation at the side of the path and thought it was a snake but when it emerged from under a fallen tree trunk, I realised it had four legs and didn’t resemble a snake in the slightest. 

I do like the way that these things are laid out; you wander along the track and periodically see information boards telling you what is what. But its not over the top, either in content or frequency. It would be good to go in there early morning or at dusk ( both can be done) to see more of the wildlife, but we have to leave tomorrow so it wont be feasible.

Apparently there are five different types of rainforest in the World heritage site. I don't think I'd ever though about it before; a rainforest is a rainforest, a place full of trees where it rains a lot.  Yes but no; they are all different. However, they are still  full of trees and it does rain a lot in there. 

The walk took several hours and was well worth the effort. I felt quite self righteous too, particularly as I didn’t succumb to an ice cream upon completion.