After a leisurely breakfast we went into the town of Byfield (1 shop, sml school and 2 house) to see what they had for morning tea but nothing there provided any inspiration so we moved on. I was planning to put the vehicle in 4WD after all this bitumen and head out to Stockyard Point and Nine mile beach but on the way there Jacky spotted a pottery & art gallery sign and put the hard word on me about the lack of such places in out itinerary up to this point. There were some very nice pieces, in particular their “Byfield Fern” collections. The coffee mugs were $29 ea, tea pot $125 and a small vase for $69, just a little more that we were prepared to spend on a dinner set.

By the time we left the gallery it was near lunch time and there was a perfect place for a picnic lunch on the way to Stockyard point called Water Park Creek so we enjoyed some jaffles and a leisurely walk along the creek through the rain forest and saw the Byfield fern that only grows in this particular area.

The unique Byfield Fern

Finally we were off to Stockyard Point, about 5kms up the road there was a warning to drop tyre pressures, so we obliged as the sand was starting to look a little soft. From here the track does indeed get quite soft and it climbs for about 2km up a large sand hill. We had only travelled about 200m when we came across a Prado blocking the track, he was having multiple attempts to get up the very first part of the hill and just spinning his wheels and digging the track up more. Finally I went up and spoke to him and asked what his tyre pressure was and he admitted he hadn’t let them down yet. Some people!!Fortunately I was able to reverse down an select another bypass track and go around him.

Nine Mile Beach, Byfield NP

The views from Stockyard Point were pretty spectacular, the campsite was not and considering the large sand hill I would of had to get over pulling the trailer, I was glad I had decided to stay with the 2WD campsite.

The Mighty 100 Series, on Stockyard Point