The Rainforest Way

This time we went to "The Rainforest Way". I will be writing about the 5 day trip we did so that you can plan your own itinerary around it. There are couple of blogs already but I felt there is still a big gap in those and hence providing more information here. If this helps you with planning then please leave a comment. If you like to add to this based on your experiences, I will include those in here so that it can become a holistic blog about "The Rainforest Way" trips.

How is "The Rainforest Way" different from "The Waterfall Way"?

Last year we went to "The Waterfall Way" and this year our destination was "The Rainforest Way". I mention this to differentiate between the two. Basically you should do both when you have time. If you like to choose one over the other, then following can help you decide - 

• First one is obvious, the "The Waterfall Way" is full of gorgeous waterfalls and few forests whereas "The Rainforest Way" is full of Forests and Mountains and the waterfalls on "TRW" are no good. But, the walks in the forest and drive is much more awesome.

•  "The Waterfall Way" can be done in lesser time than the TRW.

• "TWW" is nearer to Sydney (500 Kms) than the TRW (740 Kms).

What is "The Rainforest Way"?

This is the name for many roads which are at NSW/QLD border and some of these crosses borders few times. These drives cover World Heritage rainforest in several national parks, including Nightcap National Park, Border Ranges National Park, Tooloom National Park, Wollumbin National Park and Mebbin National Park. The area has significance when earth was one massive piece of Land named Gondwana (though history dates back to Pangea and to Kenorland before Gondwana times).

The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, World Heritage Area, contains the most extensive areas of subtropical rainforest in the world, large areas of warm temperate rainforest, and the majority of the world's Antarctic beech cool temperature rainforest. These extraordinary areas still contain ancient and primitive plants and animals from which life on Earth evolved.

To be exact, "The Rainforest Way" is collection of following Routes (I gathered these made-up names from the official Rainforest Way link that I have pasted in Reference section below in this blog) - 

• Mallanganee and Richmond Range (NSW)
• Wollumbin-Mount Warning View Circuit (NSW)
• Minyon Falls (NSW)
• Tweed Range Scenic Drive (NSW)
• Hinterland Way Scenic Drive (NSW)
• Lions Road (NSW and QLD)
• The Scenic Rim Way (QLD)
• The Lost World Circuit (QLD)
• Springbrook – natural bridge circuit (QLD)
• Main range drive (QLD)
• Tamborine Circuit (QLD)

Disclaimer

This entire blog is based on my search through materials available at this time. I did my best, however, there are two things you should know about. 

1. We did this trip during COVID time when QLD border was closed. So, we did only half of "The Lions Road", did not do "The Scenic Rim Way", "The Lost World Circuit", "Springbrook – natural bridge circuit", "Main range drive" and "Tamborine Circuit". Adding these would definitely add many more days to the trip. You can feel free to research those on your own and add more days to below suggested Trip. 
2. Due to COVID, all Visitor Centers were closed so we could have benefited more with some additional information, if they were open. I'd suggest to take this research as basis and do your own research plus visit the Visitor centers at those locations to get more clarity and they may probably give you a lot more information specific to the Routes to make it the best experience.

Where to Stay?

There are actually few places which as per me are good to stay and near to all Routes. Those are Lismore, Kyogle and Nimbin. However, if you have read my disclaimer, this analysis is based on if you have to cover only NSW side of Rainforest. If you intend to cover all of the Rainforests Ways then you may consider some other places as well and Murwillumbah may be a good option. I will let you choose. I actually went to Google Maps and drew Maps for myself and then drew conclusion that these three places suited best to me. Also, airbnb search for budget and good houses resulted in Geneva, NSW to be more affordable (4kms from Kyogle) to stay so we stayed there.

I have pasted the Map I created, and included some tips on how to create your own - 

Here is link to my Map - https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1pKGRN76woaR9vuCvzfddSbkVFz7MDaD6&usp=sharing 

Quick Tutorial on - How to draw your own Map?

• Go to https://www.therainforestway.com.au/routes/
• Select a Route and then expand the Map on that page which will open that page in https://www.google.com/
• Click the ... menu there and select Download KML option
• Go to Google My Maps and then import this KML on a new Layer of that Map

Day Wise Itinerary

Okay, enough of side talks, lets delve into the day wise Tour details and some pics to make you feel excited. 

Important! - Before you read further, I want to remind you that the Rainforest Way is about Forests, Mountains and Scenic Drives as well. So make sure you take routes that covers these drives that I mention instead of shortest path to destination as otherwise you will miss a lot of scenries on the way.

Day 1 - Sydney to Port Macquarie

10AM start from Sydney

11:30 AM Norah Head LightHouse. It's a beautiful LightHouse, we actually went here in our last trip to Port Macquarie and not this time, but included here so that you can do it.

3:30 PM From Kew we took a detour to North Brother Lookout, Laurieton and then made our way to Port Macquarie via "The Ocean Drive". This is a scenic detour and it increased our journey time by few hours, but we did not wanted to follow the direct previously taken highway route to the destination.

Do check Day 9 below as I mention some more locations in this route on our way back. You may want to merge this day itinerary with that day and then adjust your plan as per your choices and time of Start.

Day 2 - Port Macquarie to Kyogle

10 AM Checked Out

11:10 AM Smoky Cape Lighthouse. We actually could see Whales taking turns to breathe from here. It also has a Captain Cook Lookout here. Quite a lovely sight.

Trial Bay Gaol - This is another historic sight and has a Prison of Convicts history time. I would say that its a must see as well. We saw it during out last visits to this area so did not go here this time, but its highly recommended.

12:40 PM V-wall Nambucca Heads. Its a good walk with Art work on Rocks. You can do your own art on a rock there but for that you need to carry paint with you. It gave us some creative positive vibe.

We took lunch at an Indian Restaurant which is near to Woolworths. We liked their food a lot and it was our second time to their place.

Nambucca Heads also has a boardwalk, but we did it in our last trip so skipped this time.

3:00 PM We took a halt at the Forest Sky Pier at Coffs Harbour. On the way there is The Honey Place in Urunga which we skipped to save some time, but you may want to include it.

You may be interested to visit Australia's first Sikh Temple which is "Guru Nanak Sikh Temple" @ Woolgoolga as well. You may find some peace and also some good Indian food to eat.

Do check Day 8 below as I mention some more locations in this route on our way back. You may want to merge this day itinerary with that day and then adjust your plan as per your choices and time of Start.

Day 3 - Hinterland Way Scenic Drive

8 AM Checked Out. Now we checked-out so early (our norm is usually 10 AM due to kids) as we had booked Byron Bay Cruise which starts @ Burnwick Heads, NSW and it's roughly 1.5hrs from Kyogle.

10 AM We on-boarded the Cruise. Its a good 2hr tour and staff onboard is very knowledgeable and amicable and breakfast served was awesome. We saw some Pelicans, variety of fishes, Trees all from top of the Cruise. They also have a 3hr tour which includes Kayak and more, but our kids being small, we opted for a simple Cruise. Its little expensive in my personal view if you are doing only the Cruise without Kayak, but kids enjoyed it.

The other option which we did not do due to lack of time was Macadamia Castle. My kid chose to do Cruise over Animal experience and so we went for the Cruise.

12:30 PM We were at the Crystal Castle. This place is awesome and has world's biggest Crystals brought from Uruguay in South America. We liked the place. They have Meditation session included in the ticket, several beautifully placed Crystals and you can buy crystals if you like them at their Souvenir shop and they have a Cafe as well if you like to buy your lunch here. It has many positive vibes with large Bamboos, Buddha statue and some walks within it.

2:00 PM We returned back via "Coolaman Scenic Drive" to Bangalow town. You can do some shopping from local market here or sip a coffee or snacks. Remember that Rainforest Way is about Scenic drives as well so follow the drive :).

3:30 PM We reached Byron Bay Lighthouse. Its awesomeness overloaded. Its scenic, with noisy ocean, A good walk from Lighthouse down to the Beach and you can take photo at the farthest point of Australia in the East. Don't miss the view from here. Parking fees apply.

5:30 PM We left back for Kyogle to our Airbnb.

Day 4 - Minyon Falls

Now this road is not well documented, so we decided to start from the Lismore Visitor Center so that we can have good enough information, but, it was closed due to COVID. I highly recommend you to visit here so that you get most of this day.

10 AM We anyways started from Lismore Visitor Center and took lunch at Little Delhi Restaurant (more like a Food court setup). Staff here is friendly and food tastes good, only point to note is that its Food Court Style setup with limited choices.

11:30 AM We went to "The Rocky Creek Dam". Its a nice sight and you can see a Dam on a river and there are several walks here. We did the Platypus walk and will also recommend the same. Its an easy roughly 1km walk and we loved it. Of course you can try other shorter or longer walks here.

12:30 PM we left for seeing Minyon Falls. This is a 100mtr drop and there is a scenic layout. There are two driving Routes to this place, one is via the Minyon Falls Road and the other one is via the Rosebank. I am not sure which one you should take, we took the Falls Rd one. The drive has gravel road and is scenic and good for sure and I'd recommend it. The Minyon Falls lookout is near to the parking area, but if you want to reach to the bottom of falls, its roughly 4Km walk which we skipped to save time and with kids it would probably be tiring given we wanted to cover more areas.

Now the official document says walk to the Protesters Falls, but we really could not find from where to walk to that Fall, so we missed it.

The other thing to do was the Channon Markets which is open every second Sunday of the month. Ours was not a Sunday.

From Minyon Falls via Rosebank, Dorrouhby, Dunoon, The Channon we continued further via the scenic Turntable Creek Road which is very good drive after Channon.

We continued to Mount Nardi. The official document says that there are views of volcanic landscapes from here, but honestly I did not admire any view from here. There are better views of that landscapes in Day 5 from the pinnacle and so I think this part can be skipped. There is a 19km walk from here though if you are interested to do that.

I will let you read more and decide for yourself if you want to come to Mount Nardi or not.

3:30 PM We came back to Nimbin Village which is Australia's Hippy Capital. You will definitely feel the change when you come here. We had some Coffee and snacks and did some window shopping. You can also see sunset from Nimbin Rocks which is just 2KM from Village and there is no direct access to the Rocks. A word of caution is that Google Maps took us probably to a Mountain when we typed Nimbin Rocks and the way was really really dangerous for a Sedan. Hope google fixes it by the time you reach there.

Day 5 - Wollumbin (Mt Warning) View Circuit

Now, depending on your place of stay you may want to start this track from another location. As we stayed in Kyogle, we started it from the Mebbin National Park, Official documentation starts this one from Murwillubah.

10 AM Checkout and started for Mebbin National Park. Again a reminder is that do the drives not using the shortest path which Google suggests, but to do the actual recommended drive path. So, we entered Mebbin National Park not via the Cadell Road, but instead we took a longer route first to Terragon and then followed Byrill Creek Road to make it to the Mebbin National Park.

11:30 AM We did the Byrill Creek Walk, its an awesome 900 mtrs loop walk which takes you to Byrill Creek via Ancient Fig Trees and these trees are awesome sights, I mean so wide and huge, it cannot be missed.

12:30 PM We started to Chillingham village via Tyalgum village. You can type Bush Tucker Garden Chillingham in google maps to reach a Bush Tucker Farm. The visit to farm is free and you can see various farm produce growing there. It was season of chilli, lemon and oranges when we reached. We talked to the Farm owner who has a shop outside and they were very friendly and showed us Finger Lime which we had never seen and tasted earlier. We also saw Budhha Citron Hand fruit never seen earlier.

If QLD border is open, you may want to drive to Natural Bridge and Nerang, which we did not do.

1:30 PM We took a route via Murwillumbah to Uki town hoping to see some Art work as advertised, but could not locate any such shops. May be you can get more information about it at the Murwillumbah Visitor Center.

2:30 PM We went to the Wollumbin - Mount Warning National Park. The clouds were on top of the mountain peak. You can do the Rainforest boardwalk here and smaller Lyrebird track. This seems to be a not to be missed destination, but unfortunately the park was closed for unknown reasons so we missed it :(.

Again, remember to take Tourist Drives 32, 34 and 36 on this route map instead of just the shortest path routes.

Day 6 - Lions Road and Tweed Range Scenic Drive

As half of Lions Road is in QLD with its border closed, so we combined two routes in single day.

10 AM We started on Lions Road as it starts from Kyogle itself via Wiangaree, taking the scenic Lynches Creek Road to Simes Road and to the Border Loop Lookout. From here (and on the way) you can view the rail engineering feat of the Border Loop as it spirals through the mountain. There is also a nature walk here. Not the most beautiful than other walks we have in the same day, so if you are short on time then may skip.

11:00 AM As we could not enter QLD, we then back-tracked via Simes Rd and turn to the Border Ranges National Park. We took the awesome Tweed Range Scenic Drive and were exposed to Plethora of awesome nature walks. I'd recommend to take as many as you can here as all looked awesome. As we have kids so we opted for those which were <= 1Km and enjoyed all of them.

Park entry fee applies $8 per Car.

These are some of the walks which we did and will definitely recommend:

• Red Cedar Loop (750 mtrs) - To see Red Cedar Trees, they are really tall and Red bark and a good short loop walk
• Helmholtzia Loop (1200 mtrs) - Great view of Brindle Creek, sort of must see views of Jungle
• The Pinnacle Walk (300 mtrs) - View the most scenic spot of all days at the edge of Ancient Volcano.

Based on time you have you can cover many more walks in here for rest of the day which we did not cover due to less time left:

• Palm Forest Walk (2000 mtrs)
• Falcorostrum Walk (750 mtrs)
• ... ( > 2000 mtrs walks )

4:00 PM We started out of the Border Ranges Park towards Wadeville to have a coffee and then back to Kyogle.

Day 7 - Mallanganee & Richmond Range

10 AM We started to reach to the Mallanganee Lookout. You can see views of the Richmond Range from here. Personally I did not appreciate the view as much as I did others, but if you are on this route then it will just be 20 mins time spent here.

The other thing you may do after this is to do the Culmaran Trail in Cambridge Plateau picnic area renowned for its rare spotted Gum species which we skipped to save some time.

You can also do 4WD'ing in the Upper Clarence Valley. And there is also Toonumbar National Park but we did not explore both.

Next we made our way to Tooloom Falls via Tabulam Historic Bridge. We drove on the bridge which is very old and liked the feel of it. We then took a U-turn and drive past the Bridge once again via Bonalbo to Tooloom Falls.

On the way you will pass through Yabbra State Forest and that drive is good with really tall trees on both sides of the road.

12:00 PM We were at Tooloom Falls. Its a good picnic spot and land title belongs to Aboriginals. You can see the small but wide waterfall.

1:00 PM We started for the Tooloom National Park on the Urbenville-Koreelah Road but were misled by Google Maps into a dead end and could not make it to the National Park. If you reach there then you can do Tooloom walking track and Tooloom Lookout.

2:30 PM We sipped a coffee on a road side cafe and made way back to our stay.

Day 8 - Kyogle to Port Macquarie

10 AM Checked-out

12:30 PM We reached MuttonBird Nature Reserve @ Coffs Harbour. This has really good views and a great walk. You can climb the Island via proper pathways and if you are lucky you will be able to spot Whales as well during their Migration season. 

Near to it also is Coffs Harbour Jetty. You can walk on the boardwalk.

The other good option to do in Coffs Harbour which we could not do due to limited time was the Dolphin Conservation Center, they have a 1hour animal Tour and we will come back to do the same someday as looks very exciting.

4:30 PM We were at Port Macquarie and went to see the Tacking Point LightHouse. The Lighthouse is small, however it has got really magnificent views and you can walk to the Lighhouse Beach from here. They also have a Little Bay here. We really liked the views and so do not miss it.

Day 9 - Port Macquarie to Sydney

10 AM Checked-out 

10:20 AM Sea Acres Rainforest Center in Port Macquarie. It has a very beautiful Rainforest Board Walk, ticket is $9 per Adult. You can see variety of Rain forest trees and some information about those which is quite good e.g. Fig Tree growing on a host which kills the host in a fight for Nutrients, etc. We bought some souveniours from that Center as well. Its also just 300 mtrs walk to Shelly Beach (if you like to do it, nothing special there though).

11:20 AM Koala Hospital, this was our second time to this Hospital as my kids love Koala. You can find few of them here for Treatment all the time. There is also historic Roto House here to see.

12:00 PM We started for Bago Vineyards & Maze. If you want to have Wine tasting then you have to book online 1 day in advance. Otherwise you can do same day Cheese Tasting and buy wine from Cellar doors anytime. They also have a good boutique chocolates which we really loved. The key highlight of this place is "The Maze". I think this cannot be missed and is one of the best I ever did, kids and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

1:30 PM We started back for Sydney. We also took a long way back via "The Lakes Way". For it, go to Forester Beach and then you will find it (check on Google Maps). It takes you through incredible beaches like Seven Mile, One Mile, Cellitto and many more beaches and is a beautiful way. We also intended to do the Seal rocks for the "Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse" but could not find any time. Also, taking this way will make your 4hr drive as a 6hr drive.

Some Travel Tips

• There are less number of petrol pumps, so fill the pump to full if its at half tank to avoid any situations. While coming from Port Macquarie to Kyogle, we missed a turn at Grafton and google took us from a unique way where we could not find any Petrol and we had to go back 30kms with just 2 dots of Petrol, it was an adventure in its own with raised heartbeats.

• 4G/3G is absent at several places, so download maps on your devices before driving to these routes and you may want to also download songs or carry CD/USBs with songs.

• Carry lunches with you, as you may find cafe's at some routes and none in some of these.

• Start early, possibly by 8 AM to spend more time, or cover more or to come earlier in evening to relax. Our above timings mainly starts at 10 AM and we could comfortably finish sight seeing by 5PM and returned back by maximum 7PM to home.

• Do look at links in References as well specially the Routes

References

Few more links that we referred to plan our own trip. Worth seeing to be able to plan your own trip.

• https://www.visitnsw.com/things-to-do/drives-and-road-trips/rainforest-way
• https://www.therainforestway.com.au/routes/

Enjoy!

Hope that this blog helps you in some ways. Enjoy your trip!!