Hanging in there (low mileage days)

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Days 11 - 21

Day 11 - Crescent Head

Day 12 - Hat Head

Day 13 - Scotts Head

[sorry for no detail for the previous 3 days - I'm going to have to figure out how to remember interesting items to jot down here.
I keep a 'daily log' on a voice recorder - not a notebook]

Day 14 - Coffs Harbor
I stayed underneath the old pier - the day was rainy and the pier dripped all day, it was a very uncomfortable stay (not to mention the paddle the following day).

Day 15-16 Woolgoolga
The paddle from Coffs to here was horrific. The wind was from the NE, though the real problem was the blue-bottles - I've never seen so many in the water. On this short stretch (about 15 or 20 miles) I was stung 4 or 5 times (I was able to get them off quickly, so they weren't bad stings). I would be paddling along - scoop them up with the paddle, then the wind would blow them in my face.

Stuck in Woolgoolga an extra day due to high NE winds. It was a nice little beach, so I didn't mind. I talked with a couple from Bothell, WA (just N of Kirkland) for a while, he (Dave) is an (ex?) Aussie and she (Lorraine?) lived and grew up in the Seattle area.

Day 17 - Sandon Bluffs
Difficult bar - coming in (and going out in the dark the following morning) I got a pretty good dunking by breaking waves across the bar.

Day 18 - Yamba
A bit of a surfy beach as I came in. I got hit by a breaking wave, that rolled me, I was able to recover and made a nice surf landing. (Actually, it was better to roll in this situation than stay in a broach, because, in a broach - you stay there all the way in).
Was followed by a 6 to 7 foot shark for a short ways off Pippi beach. I mustn't have looked to apitizing for him.

Day 19 - Evans Head

Day 20 - Balina
Stayed at (my first) caravan park (US - campground). It was nice to get a warm shower for a change (and not have sand blowing all around my stuff).
Another 'Seattlite' run-in. This person stays in Seattle for a month or 2, in Alaska in the (US) summer, and here part of the (US) winter.

Day 21 - Byron Bay
Another 'surfy' day.
Leaving the (somewhat notorious) Balina bar in the morning (3:30AM, dark, lighting in the south (coming southerly change)), I was able to avoid most of the LARGE breaking waves across the bar. When I was just about clear of the area, one got me. It wasn't too bad - it 'released' me rather quickly, so it was not much more that a thorough salt water drenching.

Where I am (on the beach) today - just inland is a caravan park. I walked up and there were 'bush turkeys' wondering all over the place. There was also a goanna (spell?) running about.

Today I'm at the eastern most point of Aus. In a day or 2 I'll be leaving New South Wales and entering Queensland.

Out for now,

Andy

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