Coffs Harbour, 14.-15.03

Day 1, 2

It’s Wednesday night. 9 pm. Our bus arrives at Coffs Harbour after a lazy 7-hour drive from Surfers Paradise. It’s our first stop along the coast. And the first night away from home. Yeah, incredible, isn’t it, I call it home. Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast. Monte Carlo Av. 3 months is a short moment of time, yet long enough to feel as if you’ve always known this place, these streets, these shops, these beaches. These people. People. It’s probably what I’m gonna miss most. People I met, people I worked with, people I lived with. At least some of them. And the word never, as in ‘I’m probably never gonna see them again, at least most of them’ is just frightening. But then again, we chose to go. I chose to go. Although I had been asked to stay. Go where? Go traveling. Down to Sydney and Melbourne.

Coffs Harbour, the biggest town between Newcastle and the Gold Coast, is our first stop. We spend a night at Aussitel Backpackers and a whole long day walking around the city doing some serious sight-seeing. The good spirit of the first days on holiday. Eager to discover, to see, to hear, to experience. It’s a beautiful sunny morning, perfect for a little walk down the road to the marina and the nearby Muttonbird Island with a walking access from the harbour’s northern breakwall. Named for the more than 12 000 pairs of birds who migrate there from late August to early April, it marks the southern boundary of the Solitary Islands Marine Park. And although we don’t get to see many birds, we have a nice little breakfast picnic at the far end of the island, and think to ourselves: isn’t that just so much better than the past couple of mornings in the Chinatown (read: Terrace Café). It’s quiet, as far as my eyes can see and ears can hear. With a little exception to the 3 Italians photo-shooting at the cliff edge in front of us. At least they speak an understandable language, at a reasonable volume. So the calm morning may continue. The views on the harbour are beautiful. Safe from all the storms between the island and the shore, it’s like a little marine park of yachts, boats and little ships. Back from the island, we head to the city centre, and finding nothing special in there, walk some good 5 km to the Clog Barn and Big Banana, the two Coffs main attractions. The first one is a miniature Dutch village with windmills, a clog barn with a ridiculously large range of collectable spoons, plenty of clogs, and Big Oma’s coffee house. The fact that Amsterdam and the Netherlands are amongst the few places back in Europe that I’ve really wanted to visit but haven’t had the chance yet, makes this tiny clog barn a cute little discovery on our otherwise so Aussie adventure trip. And, Martijn, if you happen to read this, then yes, my next trip back home is gonna be down to visit you and the magic mushrooms ;) But back to Australia, back to Coffs Harbour, the ‘banana republic’, where banana growing is still big business. Welcome to ‘Bananas 101’. Lesson 1: as Monty Python was the first to discover, the Earth is banana-shaped. Lesson 2: banana oil is actually made from petroleum. Lesson 3: bananas are, in fact, herbs. Big Banana offers a funny mix of a theme park and a banana plantation, although I have no idea what’s ice skating and a snow slope got to do with banana growing – just another Aussie wonder I suppose :) Anyways, we walk through the park.. notice the banana bunches pointing up on the banana trees.. and just as there is nobody around, try one. Iaccc. Lesson 4: never try a green banana! Our 20-km walk ends up back on the jetty. It’s sunset. It’s holiday. It's beautiful. And we take the bus to the next city - Port Macquarie..