We have just returned from our annual half a week in heaven, enjoying all that Bellingen has to offer. To say that we love this place is a total understatement - for us, it is the home of all things good in the world.
A place where the restaurants serve locally grown produce. Where vegan, vegetarian, organic and gluten free menu options are the rule not the exception. Where ducks roam the backyards, not the menus. A place where musicians gather spontaneously and jam publicly under the shade of the local wholefood store awning. Where the earth is rich red and the grass is lush green, where the night sky is pitch black and the water ways are crystal clear. A place where trees have feelings, and love abounds. A place I need to be at least once a year to relax, refresh and revel in the natural beauty of it all.
One highlight from our trip was taking a daily afternoon dunk in the local swimming hole near our Aniseed Villa at the Broken Bridge Creek Reserve. Swimming for the first time in the crystal clear waters under the shade of the canopy with the sound of the softly flowing water filling the air we were tempted to feel like the only two people on the planet. That was until in a seemingly choreographed moment the community converged on our little piece of paradise. A cute little indie couple arrived on one side, him strumming casually on his guitar and her smiling sweetly as their dog fast become the center of attention, an elderly couple emerged on the other side carrying fold up chairs and settling on the side of the bank, and then from down an access road came a small herd of teens creating an immediate splash and filling the air with laughter and squealing...
Its moments like these that steal your heart for this place like Bellingen and make you want to visit again and again and again...
