The Terrors of Cyclone Debbie

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Today I am writing my blog from Byron Bay.

But let me first write about the last couple of days in Coffs Harbour.



So I spent the last 3 days in Coffs Harbour at some park right next to the beach.

While driving up to Coffs Harbour the first thing I started seeing on signs was “The Big Banana” which in the wrong context is probably not a place I would normally go to, still I decided to take the turn and low and behold there was a huge banana just sitting in front of some cafe. I parked in the parking area to make some photos of this huge banana. While walking around it I noticed a little gift shop where they have everything banana related, from T-Shirts to Key Rings and even Banana Butter which by the way I really need to try some day.



It seems like Coffs Harbour and possibly the towns around it are known for its banana produce as everywhere there are banana trees and farms that sell them to be found. I quite like Coffs Harbour it’s not to big but still loads of stuff to see and do.



After I saw the Huge banana I headed towards a holiday park where I read online that the Wi-Fi there was amazing and unlimited. Me being quite limited to Wi-Fi the last couple of weeks saw the opportunity to catch up Shows I watch on Netflix and just give myself a relaxing day.. Yes I know I just had one but that was because the weather was terrible.. shht haha.



Arrived at the park the women assisted me friendly and I got a spot all the way in the back of the park where it was quiet and about a 2 minute walk to the beach. Once I had drank some tea I decided to go check out the beach. My camper van was surrounded by trees so I didn’t notice so bad but man as soon as I walked on to the beach I got hit with sand in my face and 90km per hour winds.



I sat on the beach for about 5 minutes before I decided I had ate enough sand and headed back to my camper. This was the moment of truth for me to test the Wi-Fi. Yep the Internet was correct the Wi-Fi at this park was holy, it was unlimited and fast.



I made my bed and decided to have a relaxing evening just watching Netflix while it was storming outside. I’m quite upset about the weather I must say, I come to Australia for the amazing weather and I get a Cyclone Debbie making life miserable. For the last week I’ve had nothing but rain and hard winds. I’m hoping as I go more north it might get a bit more sunny again but I doubt it as I’m just going towards Cyclone Debbie instead of away from her.



After My relaxing evening I woke up quite early made myself some canned spaghetti and went towards some must see areas on Coffs Harbour. First I went towards a lookout called Korora Lookout. It was about a 30 minute return walk from the carpark. The walk there was beautiful you could look over all the banana fields and they had some weird sculptures on the way there.

There was some radio tower building there as well full of graffiti which looked great.



Once I arrived at the lookout where I had a nice cloudy lookout over Coffs Harbour. Man I hope I get to see at least 1 lookout without clouds soon.. The view was quite incredible though. Could see the mountains the distance and the sea, beach and city in front of me.



Afterwards I walked back towards my camper and drove about minute further to a more famous lookout called Sky Pier Lookout which is quite literally a pier off the side the mountain overlooking the area. Also this view was amazing and to be fair seeing it on photos does not do justice to what it really looks like, then again I have that with most of the photos I take.



After looking over the lookouts I headed back to the car to go to my next destination which would be the clog barn. Now this is quite funny. As I live in the Netherlands it’s always funny to see things related to the Netherlands. Especially as the Netherlands is such a tiny country but some how always finds itself in other huge countries. It does not matter where you go you always find Dutch people or things related to Dutch people. Well this was no different, in this clog barn they sold anything Netherlands related and even made custom clogs for you. You could watch them make them. In the back of the area they had a mini version of a lot of the famous buildings in the Netherlands including the Martini toren which is a famous tower from the city of Groningen from which I live close to. After taking a lot of pictures of all the buildings and having a laugh at the fact that they had a miniature train go though all of it and moving windmills I headed back to my camper. I quickly drove over to a huge shopping centre and explored that, I found an amazing Element Cap I wanted to buy but decided against it and I’m thinking now I probably should have so if I find it again I’m buying that. I roamed all the cool shops I could find and headed into Wool Worths where I got myself some food for the evening and headed back to my Holiday Park.



I made myself some sausages, mushrooms and baked beans. After I had eaten I hopped in the TV Lounge to watch some news regarding the Cyclone. The worst seemed to be over regarding the cyclone but I decided that it was still going to be quite floody up North so I decided to stay two more nights instead of one.



I woke up the next day to rain, the weather conditions were basically rain - sun - rain - sun every 5 minutes and I had no plan of getting wet, I check online for some indoor activities but they were all quite expensive or group activities which when you’re by yourself is not an option. I had my laptop fully charged so I decided to stay in for a bit and see if the weather would change at all. I watched youtube loads and some Netflix before going on a beach walk for about an hour. After the walk the weather was still not a lot better so I decided I was not going to go anywhere and just had a relaxing day.



Now today it’s Monday April 3rd 2017 and I woke up early, the weather was still shit and I was contemplating whether I stay another day on Coffs harbour or head up north again. The flooding seemed to get less in a lot of places but was still an issue. I thought a little while before deciding I’ll just see how far I’d get. Well obviously you know I got to Byron Bay as thats where I am now but man was it a struggle to get here, I left at 10 and arrived at 16:00. That drive normally takes about 3 hours. What happened was I drove all the way somewhere and all of a sudden there were police telling me to go aside, they asked me where I was headed to which they replied that I was not going to get there, I had to go back about an hour then take another road. I asked them if I missed a sign saying flooding but nope thats just where they stand and tell people, 1 Hour after the turn.. 10/10. At least they were friendly enough and showed me the route to take on my phone.



Once I started coming through towns close to Byron Bay I started noticing the damage the Cyclone has caused, all the houses had all the stuff that was damaged in the front garden. Basically it looked like a war zone. It was sad to see really they were cleaning up while it was still raining. Once I arrived in Byron Bay it was raining very hard so I decided to just find a sleeping area for the night and explore Byron Bay tomorrow, from what I’ve noticed so far they are very in to their surfing as just driving though it I must of seen at least 10 Surf shops. I found a holiday park about 10 minutes away from the town centre and will be headed there tomorrow and I really hope this weather gets a bit better. Thing is - It’s still 20/25 degrees but it’s just raining and very windy all the time so it’s no good.





Thanks for reading anyway and let’s hope for some better weather!

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