Travelling inland – The Clarence River

After a 2 hour motor inland from Iluka, our first obstacle was the Harwood bridge. Although the new highway bridge has been built, the old bridge remains in use for local traffic. The old bridge isn’t high enough to let our 14m mast through, but with 24 hours notice they open the bridge for travelling yachts and we had booked it for 10:30 that morning.

We pulled up at little towns along the way which have public pontoons big enough for a couple of boats to stay for the night and welcoming pubs often overlooking the river. With lots of shallow water we sometimes posted a double watch on the bow.

Our first stop was Harwood. We were surprised by this large partially completed houseboat that pulled up behind us to resupply before heading up the river. It had come down the coast from Ballina that day crossing two bars and was heading up the river where it would be completed, although we didn’t spot it again as we travelled up stream. We had a great meal at the pub, and could see the boat from our dinner table. Overnight the temperatures dipped to significantly lower than we were used to near the coast.

Maclean was our next stop to resupply. There are many small trawlers in this section of the river although they were not active during the day. We met our first cross river ferry at Lawrence. These use cables across the river so we needed to time our crossing when the ferries were on the bank and the lines are slack. The ferries are surprisingly well used with queues of traffic on both sides of the river mid-week.

We stayed at Ulmarra overnight and enjoyed the great pub on the river and many small crafty shops. Again the temperatures overnight were about 1 degree celsius and we lamented not having more insulation! We do appreciate our little heater though on nights like this. The next day we did a day trip up the river to Grafton where the low bridge prevents any further progress for us upriver.

The next night we stopped at a small town called Brushgrove. Bernie especially enjoyed Brushgrove where we found a big park where he could chase his bumpers. Again there is a lovely local pub where we could have a beer and still admire our little home on the dock.

There is lots of sugar cane grown in the area, as well as the large processing factory on the river. On our last night back at Harwood they were burning the cane as we went for a dog walk along the river.

These guys were a feature up and down the river. At Harwood this Pelican would complain with a deep guttural growl every time we came out on deck and upset his normally quiet pontoon.

From Harwood we had a rainy and wet motor back to our now familiar anchorage at Iluka. The anchorage was steadily filling up with vessels preparing for the Queensland border opening (of which we are one).

We’ll be looking to move further north in the coming days, now that the border is open and we both have our QLD declaration passes at the ready.