Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Coffs Harbour
Taken from atop Mutton Bird Rookery October 8, 2008
We are having a tough time planning our routes. It’s not trying to figure out where to go, it’s trying to decide where NOT to go. There’s just not enough time to do all we would like. Today our choices included beautiful beaches, fun little beach towns, lush rolling farmland with avocado, macadamia nut, and banana plantations and sugar cane fields, rainforest preserves and national parks that promise good birding and scenery, glitzy beach resorts, and great seafood restaurants. So where was our first stop? Target. We needed shampoo, a few snacks, and a new hair dryer for me since it’s cheaper to buy one than to buy the adapter for mine.
Coffs Harbour is home to Solitary Islands Marine Park and this morning we took a wonderful hike up a steep hill to the Mutton Bird Rookery. We saw more whales, lots of dolphins, and Joe picked up several new birds including a white-faced heron and a brahminy kite. He’s up to 30 now.
We walked the streets of a sweet little town, Bangalow, in the middle of macadamia orchards. On the way there we went a couple of miles out of our way
to the “Tidy Town” of Alstonville, just so we could take a photo of the sign, but found the town to be worthy of more of our time.
Cape Byron is the most easternly point in Australia and, of course, we had to take the hike to the point and the views were spectacular. We think it looks a lot like Costa Rica here. We are staying in Byron Bay tonight in Belongil Beachhouse right on the beach. It’s similar to a hostel, but we paid extra to get a room with a bathroom. There are so many young people here, all having fun. Tonight three Chinese kids were cooking up a bunch of fish in the communal kitchen. I watched and took notes… they had some interesting sauces. Byron Bay is known as a “new age” type of town and there are lots of yoga and meditation centers. Benlongil has a pretty cool Zen garden that I sat in for about ten seconds.
There is no such thing as free internet (at the places we’re staying anyway), so I type on my computer, then copy and paste onto the blog site and upload photos as quickly as
I can, so my apologies if things look a little rough. I usually just unplug a hotel’s computer’s modem and hook it into mine since no place so far has had wireless.
We continue to be amazed at the cleanliness of the towns, countryside and beaches. No houses need painting, no grass needs mowing, flowers are planted in every yard, there are no junked cars to be seen, and we never see litter. We grabbed lunch at a food court in a mall today and I watched how people cleaned up after themselves, even little children were wiping the crumbs off tables. I am also amazed at the friendliness and competence of the service workers. If you were watching the counter girl at “Sumo Salad” today, you’d think she thought she had the best job in the world. Heck, maybe she does.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.044s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0247s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb