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Published: July 18th 2012
Yamba
Water play area at caravan park we were staying atSunday 17th June 2012.
Today we were off to Yamba which is a sea side town (about 150 km north of Coffs Harbor), the drive was easy but we were starting to notice the change in scenery and vegetation, especially so when we saw our first sugar cane plantation, we missed a turn off and made a wrong turn, I think Kevin (our GPS) had a big night the night before, well at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
It is a bit of a pain to try and turn around when your about 12 metres long, when we missed the turnoff I had drive down a side road and do three-point turn however it ended up being about a twenty point turn, with Mandy standing in the middle of the road guiding me a checking for oncoming cars. The next time I turned, sorry Kevin told me to turn, down a dead end street, about 5 minutes from where we were camping, I was slowly crawling along and looking for a place to turn around when a woman screamed out from her second story patio that I could turn around a bit further down the road, I
drove a little further down the road executed 15 point turn (I’m improving) and heading back from whence we came, as I was driving back past the lady I stopped to wave and say thanks, it was then I noticed that she, her two husbands, their six kids, and four dogs had all come out to watch me turn around, must not be many exciting things happen in this neck of the woods.
Eventually we arrived at the park, it was a pretty new, and to the kid’s excitement had a water park type play area, with water slide and fountains, and big buckets that fill up and tip water over you, since it was a reasonably warm day it was back on with the swimmers and to the water park. The water was a cool, but not as bad as Coffs and Merimbula, we were the only ones there so the kids we up and down and slides, Chloe was a bit intimidated by the slides and the big bucket so she splashed in the shallow end. As the kids continued to play in the water Mandy and I sat back in the lounge chairs and enjoyed the sun,
Yamba
Maddy and Tay on the waterslide, with Mandy kicking back in the background, she read her book, whilst I listened to the footy on the iphone whilst keeping an eye on the kids.
After swimming we went for a walk down to the boat ramp and had a look, I told the kids that if the weather is good we might go fishing the next day.
The girls spent the rest of the afternoon riding their bikes around the park, whilst I pulled the fishing gear out, sorted them out and got all the lines rigged up.
Monday 18th June 2012.
First order of the day was into the town of Yamba for some much needed supplies; we located the shops and loaded up the essentials such as lolly pops for the kids, jube lollies for me and a bucket of malteasers for Mandy, and a few other not so important stuff such as bread, milk and vegetables. We then had a drive around Yamba it was larger than I expected, we stopped off at a bait shop and I picked up some prawns as I had decided to take the kids fishing down at the boat ramp at the caravan park.
After getting home and a quick lunch Maddy, Tayla and
Yamba
Maddy and Tayla stopping for a second for a quick photo. I headed off to fish. To say it was frustrating would have been an understatement; it took all of my patients not to throw the kids in the river. For example I would bait up Maddys line up, and cast it in for her, and then I would go to get Tayla’s ready and Maddy would have already wound hers in, they didn’t quite understand the waiting part of fishing.
Surprisingly Maddy started to get in to it, and Tayla was soon bored, I thought it would have been the other way around, so I taught Maddy to cast he line in, she got the hang of it, she was not quite ready to put the bait on herself but it was a start. We did not have much luck we caught a few toadies, annoying as they are to catch it was enough to keep the kids interested. Soon it was time to pack up, we headed back to the van fishless.
Tuesday 19th June 2012.
I got up early in order try my luck and do a spot of fish by myself, I got down to the river just after sun up, and got a good position.
Yamba
Chloe enjoying splashing in the water I didn’t have any better luck than we had the day before but it was nice to enjoy the quietness of it all. After a couple of hours I headed back to the van, once again fishless but feeling a bit more relaxed I think it was the first time I been away from Mandy and the kids for nearly a month it was nice to spend some quite time alone.
The rest of the day was pretty quite the kids caught up on their diaries and did some homework, whilst Mandy and I kicked back and enjoyed the sun.
Wednesday 20th June 2012.
We were off again today, after breaky we were soon packed and hitched up and it was time to hit the road, we had a fairly easy drive today, we were heading up to Byron Bay, we were not staying in Byron rather in a town called Mullumbimby which was about 20 minutes drive from there. We camped at the local Rugby League Ground, it was much cheaper than staying a caravan park they had power and running water and you could shower in the clubs changes rooms if you wanted. It wasn’t glamerous but
it was all we needed.
After setting up me and the girls headed into town to get some stuff for dinner and to give Mandy a break, Mullumbimby was pretty hippyish, in fact I felt a tad overdressed in that I was wearing thongs, most of the locals got about in bare feet. Anyway after getting my supplies we headed back to the van, were the kids made use of the open spaces and played ball and totem tennis on the rugby ground whilst I cooked a barbie for dinner.
Thursday 21st June 2012
Today we hit Byron Bay, we made the short journey in and when we got to outskirt of Byron we hit traffic and then the rest of the way in way we crawled along, though I left this shit back in Melbourne. Anyway, we finally made it in and saw signs for a Famers Markets so we headed across, it was just starting to finish up by the time we got there but we still managed to get some fine fresh home grown Bryron goodies, no not the green smoking type of goodies, but some corn, tomatoes, and apples.
After that we drove into the
Byron Bay
Maddy and Tayla on the beach town of Byron, I was expecting a quaint little surfie town and it was quite commercialised and not much different to Surfers Paradise sans the high rises, we drove down and had a walk along the beach, the kids collected shells and had a paddle in the water, we also walked up a little lookout there and took a few photos of the beach and headlands.
Feeling a bit pecking we decided to grab some lunch and eat it down near the foreshore, and since we were eating down by the beach we decided that fish and chips was the order of the day, now which fish and shop shall we go to,…..ummm….do you think we could find one, we drove around and around and couldn’t find one, there was every other cuisine in the history of fast food but no fish and chip shop, disappointed we decided to grab a pizza, surprisingly there was at least 10 pizza shops in Byron, wonder why? Munchies anyone? Anyway we had our pizza sitting in the sun looking over the beach. After which the kids had a play in the play ground, and it was then back in the car and back
to the van for the kids to do some homework and catch up on their diaries.
Next stop Queensland
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Kay Noy
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Yamba
Loving your writing Trav, it always give me a giggle. I look forward to the next intalment.