Trip Planning Braggadocio and Dorrigo Rainforest Hike

When it comes to traveling, I'm a planner.  And not just a planner, but I spend hours upon hours scouring the internet, doing Google blog searches, for any and all information I can find on the very best places around.  I figure if I'm only going to be someplace once, I want to see the things and eat at the places that I'd most enjoy (and if I'm hardpressed, I guess I think of my family as well...).  Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if I missed, say, a terrific cup of coffee at a cute cafe, or worse yet, an amazing chocolate shop with a resident wombat??  My hands tremble at the mere thought!

(if a wombat-adorned chocolate shop exists, I beg anyone reading this to write and tell me now before I leave this country because I will find a way to get there, come hell or high water)

I write all this because despite my travel-planning ways, we woke up in our hotel in Armidale, NSW without a clear plan of where to go next.  We knew we had to be at Bongil Bongil National Park (motto: So Nice We Named It Twice!) by Saturday morning for an Aboriginal Bush Tucker, Tools and Weapons tour.  But with no camping allowed at the park, I was unsure where to go--not a great position to be in at the start of a long holiday weekend where anyone and everyone is traveling.  There are only 22 million people in this whole country, but during a long holiday weekend they all seem to go wherever we want to go.  And with a husband tapping his foot and three antsy kids, I spent a frantic 30 minutes with my trusty iPhone and iPad working overtime to draft a plan.

I'm well aware of Australians' disdain for tall poppies and their view of Americans as loudmouthed braggarts...but can I take a moment and pat myself (lightly) on the back here?  Because I scored bigtime sitting on a concrete planter during this hasty motel parking lot trip planning when I scored the last room at the Bellingen YHA.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, because I also squeezed in a perfectly-timed mid-drive rainforest hike.  (again, let me pause to demurely bask in the glory of myself...)

Dorrigo National Park is a World Heritage-listed park that seemingly comes out of nowhere--we had just driven through terrain that bore an uncanny resemblance to Sonoma County, California when all of a sudden we were in a lush rainforest.

The Crystal Shower Falls hike was just the right length to stretch our legs, and you can't beat a picnic lunch right smack in front of a waterfall.

Behold, the obligatory waterfall pictures...

excuse the wrinkles and Sam's bad hair; we've been camping...and we're getting older.
I'd probably better add a youthful appearance to the picture...

much better

Then we were off to Bellingen, where I sit so contentedly writing this post and continuing to revel in my luck. And now I shall retire to bed, so declaring my undying love for this town I'm in must wait until tomorrow...