WATCHING THE RIVER FLOW
Close enough to Sydney to make a long weekend visit worthwhile, yet far enough away to find some welcome peace and quiet, the Macleay Valley is a mix of beach and rural tranquillity.
Around 300km north of Sydney, this mid-north coast destination is an easy freeway drive all the way from Hornsby — well, Hexham aside. Heading south, it’s also mostly freeway from Brisbane. But from central NSW, the journey can be daunting on the Oxley Highway’s long descents of the Great Divide into Wauchope, and then north to the Macleay.
Whichever way you arrive, the region has seemingly endless accommodation and camping spaces, but they are matched in peak times with endless lines of traffic. If you plan to visit at Christmas, you’ll need to book months in advance.
For southerners like me, even winter seems relatively warm. While locals walk the beach with hoodies and tracky dacks, the waves can be brisk but temperate enough for a dip on a windless, sunny day.
