Bellingen 29 September – 3 October 2011

Stopped at Maclean for lunch, where Peter showed us where the floods nearly topped the levee when he was last there in the SES. Got to Bellingen in good time and tried to find a spot to stay, but it is definitely not motorhome friendly and it was hard to find somewhere for the night. In the morning, we got up early to go into the Global, but we were directed to a spot where we got bogged in the mud and needed to be towed out! Finally settled in a drier spot, but unfortunately more cold rain meant the whole site became a quagmire with thick mud making it difficult to move around the site. As we were concerned with getting stuck again, we ended up moving out of the campground before the track became impassable. We bumped into old friends Lindsay and Sue from the Mountains. They have just got a 4WD camper and are looking forward to travelling in the outback. Also caught up with Dave and Tanya (from Wongawilli) who were playing at the festival. Amongst the musical highlights were John Cleary, Dirty Dozen Brass Band (from New Orleans), Frank Yamma (beautiful Aboriginal singer), Band of Brothers (with the Gorgonian brothers), Grace Barbe (from Mauritius), Sunas (a Celtic group), Suara Indonesian Dance Group (great interpretive dances) and Mama Kin (who had John Butler singing with her) . While we enjoyed the variety of musical acts, we were not impressed with the organisation of the festival and won’t make it back again.