We have friends who regularly spend time in their caravan at Kingscliff on the Tweed Coast. We often spend a few days with them, during their stay, normally straight down and back for a few days, but in November last year (2012) we decided to go the long way.

A few weeks earlier we did a day trip to Lamington National Park and on the way stopped for morning tea at a lookout with great views to the Numinbah Valley.

Numinbah Valley from Rosins Lookout

We were reminded that it had been many years since we had driven the Numinbah Valley and decided that we should do so. So, why not go first to the Mount Warning area and then on to Kingscliff. An additional reason for going this way was that we had not done much hilly country since we changed to a Mitsubishi Challenger as a tow vehicle. On the Numinbah Road we could give it a bit of a work out.

Challenger & Van

We left the Gold Coast Highway at Nerang and headed for Advancetown and then turned south towards the border with NSW. Just past Advancetown a left hand diversion leads to the recently extended Hinze Dam. We did not take the diversion on this occasion as we had visited on the return trip from Lamington. Suffice to say that it is worth a visit if you are spending time in the Gold Coast region.

Our first objective was Natural Bridge which is just north of the border and a short drive from the main road. The drive through the Numinbah Valley follows the Nerang River for a substantial part of the journey. While bush land is always in sight the road is bordered by farm land for much of the drive.

Falls at Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge has changed since we were there with developed timber decked walk ways, and a good amenities area, near the spacious car park. To see Natural Bridge at its best it is necessary to descend fairly long flights of stairs. But the day was warm and we seemed to be feeling our age a bit so we were content to explore the creek above the bridge and to look down into the area where water gushes when there is sufficient to actually gush. No gushing that day, sad to say. Just a steady stream of water over the falls.

After lunching at the car park we continued south, covering the last bit of road that lies within Queensland. The border is at the top of a hill. On the NSW side the terrain falls away sharply and is probably the most spectacular entry that you can make from Queensland into NSW. The view of the Tweed Coast and hinterland is excellent and worth stopping for, but if you are towing a van, as we were, you need to plan ahead. It is probably best to stop in Queensland and walk up through the border crossing to take photos.

While Queensland owns the Numinbah Valley, NSW owns Numinbah township and you pass through it as you ease down the steep gradient towards the Tweed Valley. Second gear with a regular touch of the breaks to maintain a suitable speed saw us safely down. As we had encountered some decent up grades earlier we felt we had a good feel for performance by the Challenger in the hills. Not brilliant, but adequate.

We had booked for two nights at the Mount Warning Caravan Park which is on Mount Warning Road into which we turned shortly before we would have reached Uki. The park was a pleasant surprise. The original park area is fairly heavily populated with permanents. There are also cabins in the older area. But an extension to the park, which seems to be on reserve land,  was exclusively for tourists. Pets are not permitted so the wild life is friendly.

Friendly Wild Life

Wood ready to go!

You cross a small stream to access this part of the park. On the left is the unpowered camping area and to the right are located the powered sites. The area is grassed. At intervals there are power stands, each containing four power points and four TV cable points. Vans group in fours with a bit of space between groups. Each group has at least one fire ring. The bonus was several piles of fire wood obviously cut from fallen trees but sufficiently dry to burn.

Next time we will bring a camp oven!

During my teenage years my father was a timber getter. During school holidays I would accompany him to his work site where one of my jobs was to boil the billy, at least three times a day. Not expecting fire facilities we had no matches or newspaper, but three sheets of paper hand towel, dry leaves and twigs and with one more sheet of twisted paper towel to convey a flame from the gas stove to the fire place and in no time at all we had a successful fire, before which we sat to have our dinner.

But you can’t keep a good camp fire to yourselves, so we invited a couple from a Maui motor home to join us. They were Austrians who had come on holiday to Australia because the recent eclipse of the sun was to occur on the man’s birthday. They were on their way to Cairns for the event. Discussions about the current situation in Europe were also part of the night’s entertainment. Very interesting and informative!

Jacaranda in Tyalgum main street.

When we are in the Murwillumbah area we try to visit the small town of Tyalgum. As some of you will know, Ruth’s mother died when she and her siblings were relatively young. To avoid splitting up the family an elderly single lady who owned and operated the bakery at Tyalgum sold up and moved to Sydney to house keep, thus becoming something of a surrogate mother to the family. So imagine Ruth’s delight when we discovered that the coffee shop where we had stopped for afternoon tea is operated in part in the old Tyalgum bakery. It was almost like coming home.

The old bakery is the building on the right.

Afternoon tea.

To round the day out we drove up to the Mount Warning car park, greatly enjoying glimpses of the magnificent mountain peak and the rain forest greenery that decorates the sides of the road side stream.

Mount Warning viewed from near Tyalgum

We didn’t visit Uki this time, although it is a good spot for a cup of coffee and a look around, if you have some spare time while staying in the Tweed or southern Gold Coast area. Instead we packed and moved on to catch up with our friends at Kingscliff.