Coffs Harbour

We decided to stop in Coffs Harbour to break up the journey to Byron Bay. No one had anything particularly nice to say about it, but it was about halfway so we decided to see it for ourselves. The town itself is very ordinary (but it did have a camera shop which was crucial after our camera in the rain disaster), but the harbour area and beaches were nice. Our hostel, Aussitel Backpacker's, was also very good. They picked us up from the bus station and drove us to the scenic lookout. The hostel manager was a friendly Canadian and he pointed out all of the beaches and the Muttonbird Island Reserve with views over the harbour and all of the beaches. That night the hostel was having a barbecue that Stephen and I happily signed up for.

We decided to walk into town to inquire about cameras first. As we began to walk back to the hostel from town, we noticed the sky darken perceptibly. Having learnt our lesson in Newcastle, we immediately donned our South American rain ponchos. We barely made it back to the hostel before the rain started. Fortunately, there was a large covered patio at the hostel so they were able to go ahead with the barbecue.

The next day, we purchased a replacement camera and charged it at the local cafe. We then went for a swim at the surfing beach and climbed to the top of the Muttonbird Island Reserve. It had great views of the Solitary Islands (a popular diving spot in the area). It is a unique area because it is where the tropical currents from the North meet the more temperate currents of the Tasman Sea. Four species of sea turtles, the endangered nurse sharks and cuttlefish all thrive in the waters around Coffs Harbour. Stephen and I were lucky enough to see a sea turtle swimming along right next to the rocks below us. We didn't even have to go diving to see him. He must have been searching for barnacles or other shellfish to eat. It was very exciting! I didn't quite manage to get the new camera out in time as it was in a plastic bag in its new fancy, hard-backed case.

Stephen's blurb...

To break up the journey to Byron Bay we stopped at Coffs Harbour for a couple of nights. Not much to say really. It has a harbour, great diving - they all do; a large banana statue that they think is funny and a wildlife island with the odd bird on it although we did see a turtle in the sea. The scenery around is nice though - lots of tree covered hills, palm trees, banana plantations etc The next place had a giant prawn on the roof - hilarious...

Coffs Harbour
Good things
Haircut man from Croydon filled me in on the latest Premiership action and that Spurs had actually won something but that Leyton Orient hadn't.
Replaced dead camera for one similar to the old one, so that Becky can work it without having to read a manual


Bad things
Paid $360 instead of a number of reasonable $150 options for 7 million pixels and huge battery sucking screen but with knobs in the same position as the last one. So that's alright then.