We woke today to the increasing threat of cyclone Alfred with increasing heavy winds and rainfall. The cyclone is due to hit landfall on late Thursday and its impact is already being felt with long periods of heavy rain. After watching the local news and speaking to our hire car company we have taken the decision not to drop off in Brisbane given the severe weather conditions and instead will now be driving down to Sydney instead.

After making this decision, we decided to make the best of a lull in the rain and went into Grafton to do a heritage tour of the Victorian & Edwardian buildings that are scattered around this attractive city.

We started on Fitzroy Street passing the original Court House and then off to Sheriffs Office and finally Grafton Cathedral.

Later on in the day we found ourselves in the oldest part of the city on Alice Street & Fitzroy Street where we walked past some stunning houses, with so much character and charm.

By the time our walking tour was coming to an end the rain had returned and we were back in our Rains jackets.

Before the evening light disappeared we went for our last wander around Ulmarra and along Coldstream Road taking in the various galleries and antique stores.

Tomorrow we plan to start our journey south into the hinterland and have a 3.5hr drive to the market city of Tamworth, the epicentre of country music and the horse capital of Oz.