Clarence River Cruise - Step 6 - Maclean to Iluka

Returning to Iluka concluded our meander down the magnificent Clarence River. Stopping the traffic on the Pacific Highway to raise the Harwood Bridge was only possible before the morning rush hour so an early start was required to be in position for a 06:45 opening. Happily, the chap turned up right on cue to release us to the seaward reaches.

We were greeted to a cracking dawn sky

Waiting for the Harwood Bridge to lift a span.(Image courtesy of Brenton Walker)

Up it goes - Sorry for the hold up commuters!

Once we'd returned to the Iluka anchorage we found Sans Souci had slipped in during our absence. We'd last seen Juliana and Hugh in Eden exactly a year before and experience informed us that all thoughts of an AFD (Alcohol Free Day) we now quite out of the question.

Hello, long time no see!

Surprise Visit

Being barely a 3 hours drive south of Brisbane proved too tempting for Lucas and Amy not to attempt a surprise Birthday visit. The Bloke was kept entirely in the dark and was shown no sign that there was anything out of the ordinary occurring. The Bloke himself had declared Maclean as our Friday destination. Our journey back to Maclean from Ulmarra completed in a day rather, than revisiting Brushwood and Lawrence. Now it was just a matter of maintaining radio (phone) silence and not giving it all away. Amy and I had been hoping for a Maclean rendezvous for 5 days, I hadn't even had to manipulate a thing!

Lily, Lucas, Tom and Amy hiding and ready to reveal themselves.

The is only one word to describe The Blokes face: GOBSMACKED!

An enthusiastic novice mariner. Lily jumped into Marilyn without hesitation.

One moment little miss. Life jackets please!

 Tom steering the pirate ship on Poppa's lap

Lily taking a turn.

Great work Team Oldfield!

Finding A Living Legend - Alan Lucas

Ulmarra is the home port of the Australian Coastal Cruising legend, Alan Lucas. He's authored multiple yachting publications and cruising guides. Our Cruising the New South Wales Coast: A sailor's guide to the ports, anchorages, rivers and lakes of Australia's First Sate, New South Wales, has been our 'Bible' over the last 12 months whilst we've sailed from Eden to here. The Bloke is already studying Cruising the Coral Coast (first published in 1968) which will come into effect when we reach our next destination after Iluka and across the state border into Queensland.

Alan Lucas aboard SV Soleares.

We were delighted to see that Alan's ketch Soleares was anchored and a few locals at the pub conveyed in hushed tones that the legend was in town i.e. on board. As it turned out he's a typical cruiser and didn't need to be asked twice to accept an invite for sundowners. Unfortunately we didn't meet his wife Patricia as she was away. Conversation was long and lively. 5 hours went by in a flash and we poured Alan and Brenton into their dinghies and shone our torch on them until they indicated that they were safely back on board their own vessels. Phew!

Brenton, Alan and The Bloke.

The morning after the night before.

Not the hair of the dog. Just coffee at the Pub.

After the coffee heart starter we went our separate ways, the Bloke to buy a paper and a second coffee. When we returned to Zofia a little package was sitting on the transom. Alan had made a visit and this was his calling card!

 

The most recent of Alan's publications.

Signed by the legend himself.

Feeling very chuffed as was Brenton because he received a copy too!

Clarence River Cruise - Step 5 - Brushwood to Ulmarra

Although the City of Grafton is just another 6nm away we think we'll call it quits now that we've reached the heritage listed village of Ulmarra. Obstacles to our progress include a road bridge at Grafton plus overhead power lines. We need 19.5m clearance. Although people have encouragingly proposed that we attempt to pass beneath them closest to the river bank, and claim that we'd slip under just fine, we're not messing with it. We're content with the distance traveled.

 

Carolyn noticed our track went inland and wondered if we'd suddenly been loaded on a truck.

As we've gone further upstream the water salinity has decreased and we're floating on only slightly brackish water. Further upstream at Grafton the salinity was recently tested and proved to be sweeter than most acceptable domestic tap water! The Bloke is hoping that the freshwater will terminate the critters that might be adhering to our below water surfaces. He won't be swimming to check on account of more warnings of shark nurseries!

Crew of Zofia aboard Marilyn.

Photo courtesy of Brenton Walker - SV Promise II

Our plan was coming together nicely. Our vision was to celebrate The Bloke's birthday at the Ulmarra Hotel. We ticked the box and were accompanied by Brenton, a cruising contact first established in 2014 in Port Lincoln (and with several touch-points in between). It's a relatively small community, and yachts keep playing tag up and down the coast.

View of the upgraded Ulmarra jetty.

 Do you think planners have allowed for the once-in-a-100-year flood event?

 Cute little ANZAC Memorial Park on the riverbank and next to the jetty.

Just one of many lizards supervising the Blokes Birthday lunch.

Ulmarra Hotel - A classic country pub.


J's Garden Cafe.
The best coffee in town!

Clarence River Cruise - Step 4 - Lawrence to Brushwood

Known as 'Brushy' to the locals, this became our next stop. Coincidentally this little town also had a pub so The Bloke elected to sample some unscheduled Fish and Chips as part of a pub lunch. How nice to be anchored with cows as our nearest neighbours!

Curious cows supervised Zofia while we docked on the new floating jetty opposite the pub.

Anchored at the fork of South Arm and the main Clarence River Channel.

  

The Brushwood town Triangle. Perhaps geometrically rectangular.

 

   

Early morning river mist.

Zofia in the mist.

Courtesy of Brenton Walker.

Clarence River Cruise - Step 3 - Maclean to Lawrence

A leisurely trip upstream was envisioned to the little town of Lawrence. They claim some amazing statistics there. The widest, narrowest, shallowest and deepest sections of the Clarence River occur at Lawrence. Not content to claim all those badges, a local even informed us that it had been put forward as a potential place for the Nation's Capital. Not much more than a village now, it did provide us with a pub/tavern to visit. This time just for a coffee and chat, in case you'd be worried about our 10:00am visit.

  

Colonial buildings backing onto the River at Maclean & The Rickety Bridge.

The landscape is a little more hilly with small landholdings sloping down towards the riverbank where you could park your boat.

Just before we reached Lawrence we encountered a couple of obstacles: overhead power lines plus the car ferry providing 24x7 service too and fro. Our Cruising guide instructed us to observe the flashing yellow lights and only to pass when they were off as it would indicate that the cables used by the ferry would be slackened, enabling free passage with a 3m clearance midstream. The Bloke did a couple of circles to become familiar with the pattern. We had recently 'met someone who'd 'encountered' the cables so we were very apprehensive and the ferry operator didn't really acknowledge our circling presence which was not at all confidence evoking.

Car ferry on a perpetual loop.

Tranquility

The title of Rickety Bridge is already in use but this single lane bridge could be in the grand final. Even cyclists are warned to dismount.

Reinforcements or repairs?

Hats on the wall of the pub. 

The Lawrence Tavern is less than 15 years old. The traditional old pub, by rights, should have been washed away in the floods. Locals congregated there and had water swirling beneath the seat of their bar stools. There were photos to prove it. Ironically, having survived multiple flooding events it eventually burned down, which shows that you've never got water when you most need it!

An enterprising local was able to get planning approval to build over the riverbank on the basis that it could be built higher than any previous high water mark. They re-tasked a railway turntable to support a circular house. The council couldn't knock them back as they'd creatively ticked every box. A win for the little guy!

Clarence River Cruise - Step 2 - Maclean: Tartan Town

Maclean is known as the Scottish Town in Australia and it sits on a high point and bend on the Clarence River. The public pontoon available for visitors to tie up to can handle 2 yachts. Amazingly it has water available and from 06:00 - 18:00 there is 240v power too - DE-lux! They want visitors to come and stay and we were happy to oblige. A 24 hour time limit on the jetty exists, although an old chap came along to get us to sign a visitors book and suggested we stay as long as we liked! Having taken on water and powered-up for a day, we returned to the enormous anchoring area opposite. Saturday night on a jetty, hidden behind a levee bank, close to a car park and 3 pubs is not our idea of a good night's rest. Pranksters have been known to untie boats at night!

The Bloke dropped me off to have a look around and raced back for Anchor watch. Yesss!

The town roundabout with depictions of historical local activity.

In acknowledgement of the large number of Scots people who settled here, lamp poles sport various clan tartans. They are everywhere!

Every Easter, highland games are held in Maclean and Pipe Bands march through the town as part of a Scottish themed parade.  We had deliberately stayed away and thought we'd time our visit for when the town was a little more tranquil (less bagpipes).

The Clarence River is long and wide and navigable.

   

I spotted a laundry attached to the local BP Garage on the main road as we motored in.

It was a ripper, and we are now clean and good to go and explore without offending anyone.

   

We enjoyed a pleasant Sunday pub lunch and walked it off by marching up the hill to locate the Scottish Bi-Centenial Cairn, complete with Clansman wind vane.

More tartan clad poles.

In addition to the bountiful jetty (water + power), we found plenty of convenient facilities that would enable a longer stay upstream. A lovely laundry exists just 1km down the road (I can barely believe I'm excited by a laundry). The walk is made more interesting by the existence of a couple of antique shops and more tartan clad power poles - there are at least 200 of them. A Spar supermarket is almost on the waters edge plus Fish and Chip shop (important for The Bloke's Friday-Night-Fish-and-Chips), coffee shops, etc even a Harvey Norman and Toy World. Lots of boxes getting ticked here. No need to rush on through.