Blogs from Sawtell, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

We had a very lazy morning this morning before heading across to the beach to have lunch at The Kiosk again. Well, actually, I was lazy and Bernie spent the morning on the phone with Centrelink and MyGov trying to sort some stuff out for his parents. Unfortunately, after spending most of the morning in phone queues and talking with useless call centre staff, his problem remained unresolved. Aaargh! The BLATs at The Kiosk were very good on Friday so we ordered the BLATs again and enjoyed them while we watched a young boy tearing around chasing the brush turkeys. The brush turkeys ran away, but can’t have been too bothered by the harassment as they returned pretty quickly to resume pottering around the kiosk. It was frustrating that there was no parental intervention to dissuade ... read more

Today we drove inland along Waterfall Way to Dorrigo. Our first stop was at the very accessible Dangar Falls situated just out of Dorrigo township. It was very civilised here at Dangar Falls with toilets AND Gordi’s Coffee Caravan. If you were a local it could be a nice Sunday morning sort of thing to do – walk out to the falls and have a coffee?? There is an overlook at the top of the falls and an excellent trail down to the base of the falls so we were able to view and photograph the falls from two angles! We backtracked along Waterfall Way to the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre. We visited the rainforest centre in 2019, but it was very late in the day and we just had time to walk out the Sky Walk ... read more

We had a lovely relaxing day today. We didn’t set the alarm seeing as we didn’t have to reach a new destination by tonight. After a late breakfast we walked to Boambee Head along the walking track and then returned along the beach. Making our way up from the beach, we found The Kiosk Sawtell Beach and decided that it was time for lunch. Two BLATs later we made our way back to our apartment … via the bakery with two French vanilla slices! We had a short outing to Toormina Gardens (local shopping centre) for some supplies before lazing away the rest of the afternoon on our lovely sunny balcony. Friday night fish and chips for dinner from Fries On The Side directly across the street from our apartment. How convenient. Steps: 11,986 (8.12kms)... read more

Staying on the Coffs Coast was an opportunity to revisit some of the places where we had enjoyed family holidays down through the years. It was also an opportunity to explore some family history. The family history exploration unfolded into a personal episode from the SBS series of Who Do You Think You Are. We randomly chose to stay at Sawtell Caravan Park, where we discovered on arrival, the Sawtell Historical Society office attached to the Park Office. After noting that the Historical Society was open the next day, we took a drive around Sawtell and Coffs Harbour to check out the beaches, creeks and ocean baths, as we were eager to get in the water. We were a bit nervous about swimming in the ocean in the Ballina area. First stop the next day was ... read more

Perhaps I jinxed us by publicly declaring how well the girls were sleeping. Perhaps the girls are yet again trying to teach us something about expectations... but it is amazing how quickly you can become undone by a few rough nights. Those pre-molar teeth seem to be causing some grief after all. Hence the lack of blogging because my bed time has become 7.30 again instead of 8.30! Anyhow, this is meant to be a travel blog so I guess I should be writing about exciting things we are doing rather than having a whinge about the lack of sleep we have been having. Despite foggy brains and hurting heads we have still been determined to make the most of our holiday. Since I last wrote we went to bongil bongil national park for another rainforest ... read more