Ebor is a handful of buildings on the high tableland, and it sits at the point where the Waterfall Way stops climbing and settles down to the serious business of crossing the Great Dividing Range. At roughly thirteen hundred metres it is cold, often misty, and in winter it sometimes sees a dusting of snow that brings out cameras and slows the traffic. The settlement is little more than a roadhouse, a few homes and a small shop, but it has a reputation far larger than its size.
The reason is the falls. Just off the highway, the Guy Fawkes River drops in two stages over a basalt cliff into a deep gorge, a tall, thin ribbon of white against black rock, and a short walk from the car park leads to viewing platforms at the top and a lookout on the edge. After heavy rain the roar is audible from the road. The walls of the gorge are columnar basalt, the cooled remnants of old lava flows, and the whole scene has the stern look of a place that was shaped by fire and then by water.
Out here the highway is a pleasure. The road runs fast and open across the tableland, with long, flowing curves, big skies and not much traffic, and the air has a clean, eucalyptus scent. The surface is generally good, though frost can linger in the shade on winter mornings and patches of fog appear without warning. Kangaroos and wallabies graze near the road at dawn and dusk, and cattle sometimes drift across unfenced sections, so keep your speed within what you can stop from. Wind on the open sections can be gusty, which makes the weight of a loaded bike more obvious.
There are no big towns nearby. Dorrigo, about thirty-five kilometres behind you, is the nearest place with a decent range of services, including fuel, so top up there rather than count on a pump here. The local roadhouse sells hot food and drinks, and a pie by the window while the clouds drift over the ridge is exactly what the place is for. Guesthouses and cabins are scattered through the area for those who want to stay for the night.
The country around is wild. Guy Fawkes River National Park lies to the north-west, a rugged wilderness of gorges and forest, and Cathedral Rock National Park, with its granite tors, is a short distance to the south. Wedge-tailed eagles ride the thermals above the gorge, and the nights are loud with insects in summer and silent in winter.