beer run

May 22- Tuesday

Today we decided to go explore Nightcap National Park, which is north of here and inland just above Lismore. The Nightcap Range has the highest annual rainfall of all of NSW and you find large subtropical and warm temperate rainforest communities here that have links to the ancient super continent of Gondwana. In 1830 this area, known as Whian Whian, was logged, primarily for the rainforest giants, the beautiful Red Cedars that grew here. While we were on the 5k trek we took today, you could see the stumps of these huge trees rotting among the new growth. You could even see where the loggers had put their board holes in the trunk of these trees to get them about 8-10 feet off the ground where the truck slimmed down a bit to do their chopping. I do not know how they got the cut trees out of the woods, as the forest was so thick. There are giant eucalyptus trees in these woods, one took Greg and I, 4 sets of outstretched arms to encompass one large tree we saw. In the picture I have included today, you can see how large this particular tree is and the giant bird nest fern that has attached itself to the trunk. If you looked up on the trunk there were many huge stag horn ferns as well, it was quite a magnificent environment of assorted plants.

The woods are an interesting mix of eucalyptus and palm trees and ferns and many more plants I do not know. It is very different for me to be in an environment where I do not know any of the plants.

When we arrived at Minyon Falls (one of the “advertised” attractions of the Park) I thought we would be disappointed, as we had been walking along a fairly (that is putting it kindly) dry creek bed. Well, when we got to the Falls we were not disappointed, but pleasantly surprised. The Falls was nonexistent at this time; however the view to the bottom of the 100m drop the Falls takes was spectacular. Looking over the edge of the lookout the Park had built to allow viewing, the Falls made my whole body hurt it was so high off the floor of the valley. You could see the thickly wooded base of the Falls that opened into a shallow valley that was beautiful and you had a panoramic view of the surrounding area and off in the distance (25 miles) you could just see the ocean.

On our return home we planned to go through Alstonville because it is the home of the Northern Rivers Brewing Company. We had dinner out the other night and had some of their draft or draught (as the aussie say) blond ale that was excellent. Greg says it is as good as Sierra Nevada, his beer of choice at home (maybe it is just because he has been drinking second rate beers since we got here).

After some inquiring we finally found them in the back part of an industrial park in Alstonville. Good thing we weren’t looking for a big sign, as there was no sign. They were set up in a warehouse like situation and had two big tanks for making beer. The Dad was hand labeling some of their stout, which has won “Best of Australia 2006”, and the brewmeister was holding his 18 month old son who had some of the bluest eyes I have ever seen and red hair, a real cutie. I thought I heard a young man helping with the boxing, call him Dad, so you can see it was a family operation. I saw mom in the background. They were pleased we had sought them out and they agreed to sell us some beer under the table. Greg told the brewmeister (he was about 35) that Sierra Nevada was his fav and he agreed it was good beer. He also knew of Black Dog which has it’s roots in Bozeman, MT. We bought a 6-pak of the 4 types he brews, stout, blond, pale and gold ale and he threw in a 6-pak of his winter brew which is 6% alcohol, done especially for winter. He said he was getting a bigger “kettle” (I don’t really know what they are called) that will allow them to triple their production. He has been in business two years. All in all it was a fun visit and made our day, especially the beer drinker of the group, as he will have good beer to swig for the rest of the trip.