Australian Time Out #7: We Broke the Drought!!!

7: We Broke the Drought!!!

Sydney 7am – Hungover!

Can you believe it – as soon as the bus pulls out of Sydney, the sky clouds over, and the first rains in SEVEN MONTHS began. Fate just couldn’t let us travel up the East Coast without a reminder that, yes, Australia doesn’t always look like Home and Away.

We are finally on the road – got on the coach at 8 am after a very heavy night out involving pub crawls and harassing pub singers. Don’t ask.

Was seriously worried about the seven hour Greyhound journey to Port Macquarie, but it really wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Great air conditioning and a Jackie Chan movie – what else can you ask for?

Port Macquarie

First stop on our East Coast trip, rain still hasn’t let up. The whole of the coast has been blighted by freak weather, which has broken the drought so we really shouldn’t complain (but we are). We stayed at Lindel Backpackers, who kindly picked us up from the bus stop and showed us around their small and homely hostel. We did take advantage of the Foxtel TV a little too much for our liking, as every time we left the building we would practically drown. A shame because Port Macquarie is a lovely little seaside resort.

Port Macquarie’s main attraction is its Koala Hospital, which was the main reason that I stopped off there, but we couldn’t see it as the weather was really too bad. In between rain breaks we walked around the town centre to the harbour, where to our amazement we spotted groups of dolphins in between the sand banks. Locals that walked by us smiled at our excitement – I couldn’t help thinking that anywhere else they would charge you for the sight, or at least advertise it to death – and I ended up falling in love with the little place. The only negative I can remember is the distinct lack of footpaths and extremely soggy feet. Get your finger out, Hastings Council!

Port Macquarie Beach Walk

We only stayed three nights, but a Scottish guy in our dorm had stayed at the hostel for one and a half months and was currently visiting a second time! A keen fisherman, he showed us how to gut a fish (yuk) and told us of the time he paid $60 for an all-day deep water fishing trip and ended up with enough catch to feed the residents for three days! How biblical! He directed us to the beach/mangrove walk, an attractive three hour trek down to the lighthouse. More dolphin watching to be done there. They also run regular Whale watching cruises.

We didn’t really go mad there as the residents of the hostel weren’t very up for it, and I think the rain dampened everyone’s spirits a little. We did meet a few fellow East Coast wanderers however, and managed to bump into them again in Coffs!

Coffs Harbour

Hopping on the bus again, we quickly arrived at Coffs Harbour, a larger seaside resort and a popular stop on the way to Byron Bay and Brisbane. Pickup by our hostel, Barracuda Backpackers, who explained that the layout of Coffs is a large triangle, it’s points being the jetty, the CBD and the beach/shopping centre.

Weather still terrible, we were happy to discover once again that our accommodation was clean and pleasant, the staff friendly, with a good common area. We headed out to buy food (our hostel situated at the beach and shopping point) and got soaked again!

Coffs seemed to have a lot to offer, but unfortunately it was a just too difficult to get around. The distances between points were massive – it took us two hours to get down to the botanic gardens via the jetty – not helpful when the weather isn’t great, and there really isn’t much to see along the way. Other travellers we spoke to mentioned this as well.

One morning we woke up to find the sun splitting the trees, and we ran down to the beach as fast as possible with most of the population of Coffs following us. Not a problem as the beach is extremely long, but of course it started to rain again and we all ran back to watch ‘Changing Rooms’ and Jerry Springer. God bless Foxtel!

By Monday Dan and I were thoroughly fed up, along with the rest of the residents, so our hostel brought us to Hoey Moey’s (Aussie slang – short for Hotel Motel) ‘Pizza and Pool Comp Night’ where we all got very drunk (winners of the $100 prize were the staff at Barracudas, hmm methinks I smell a fix up) and chatted all night. We met a Scottish couple who told me they worked in TV back home, but got fed up with the long hours, stress and bad pay so they packed it in and came over to do some serious relaxing and discovery. Another couple (he’s English, she’s Australian) met in England one year ago, but when her family moved back to Australia, he followed her. Awwh! He’s currently applying for de facto residency.

Things got a little hairy when one of the staff (young/desperate male) bought a round of Cock-sucking Cowboys for the single residents and ‘forgot’ to include us couples! We managed to ’slip his mind’ several times afterwards, even though I made a loud point of reminding him. The shot has been renamed ‘Leg Openers’. Luckily karma kicked in, he didn’t get lucky AND ended up puking the next morning.

Yes, it’s pretty big

Morale boosted (but weather still shite) a group of us visited the Big Banana, Coffs Harbour’s famous large fruit, which you can walk through! They have built a visitor centre there, complete with tours of the plantations, water rides and even a monorail around the attraction! They really love bananas! We had a few banana milkshakes and sent some postcards home.

So that was it for Coffs – we boarded the bus for Byron Bay later that afternoon, hoping that the hippie vibe would improve weather matters. Oh yeah and we saw a lot of the same people in Coffs that were in Port Macquarie. This backpacker conveyer belt really does work!

Things to do in Port Macquarie:

1. Do the Beach walk from Town Square to the lighthouse – beware, it takes three hours!
2. Go to the Koala Hospital – ring ahead to find out feeding times
3. Take a walk along the harbour and do some dolphin spotting
4. Walk amongst the mangroves and visit the ‘Historical Cemetery’

Things to do in Coffs Harbour:

1. Famous for its water sports – jet skiing, surfing, scuba-driving…
2. Take a walk to the botanical gardens along the riverside walkway (lookout for massive lizards and sleepy koalas)
3. Sunbake and swim at the gorgeously long beach, but watch out for jellyfish!
4. Visit the Big Banana – and have a banana smoothie.