Bananas but no Whales

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Our next stop on the mighty Greyhound took us to Coffs Harbour, a small city right on the tourist track famous for diving and water sports. After a whistle stop tour of the main area by the mini bus driver, she took us up to a look out point to show us the main landmarks to get our bearings of the town, we took a stroll down to the local shops to get some supplies in. The hostel had a very young adventure feel about it the room was a good size but a little over shabby, the main lounge, kitchen dinner had everything in it but could have benefited from having some division.

After a good night sleep and a hearty breakfast it was time to set off again on another day of exploration and to see if we could spot any migrating Whales that we had been told where making there way up the coast. As it was Autumn and soon to be Winter we were out of season for many of Australia’s treats and shows but were in the right place for the mass whale migration, apparently.

We walked down to the main harbour and out around the harbour walls to Muttonbird Island, a large breeding ground for strange Australia wild birds. Unfortunately the island is used to shelter the harbour and the harbour wall connects the island with the main land, great for tourists and to see the island but it means that foxes now can prowl over the island too. There was a great view from island, both out to sea and back to the mainland, unfortunately although we stood and stared for a very long time the Whales didn’t want to play ball, so still no luck on whale spotting.

Once we had watched the surfers for a little while we headed back to the hostel for lunch and to plan our afternoon. Now Australia is a big country and I don’t know how it came about but some people have decided that it should have ‘Big’ things in it and Coffs Harbour is the home of the ‘Big Banana’. There are many others from the ‘Big Oyster’ to the ‘Big Rocking Horse’ littered around the country and we have past some others since but the ‘Big Banana’ was our first.

So we were off, we found a bus that took us close and then we were told it was only a short walk, so that was fine because we had all day and we knew what that saying meant.
Just on the outskirts of the city on the highway stood a ridiculous big yellow Banana, with a café and gift shop you could also take a banana plantation tour and view a history of banana film if you were so inclined. We just took advantage of the frozen chocolate coated bananas and that filled our need. So after a few photos we headed back again.

On the walk I did see some very big spiders but Alice was never too pleased when I wanted to point them out to her.

The next morning started very early as we had to catch the early bus to Byron, now when we boarded our first bus in Sydney we had a brand new bus and a young and hip driver, but as we had worked our way up the buses had got older and this one had a driver to suit. We didn’t know whether either or both would make it to Bryon without conking out.

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Photos

Coffs Harbour
the Main Beach

Coffs Harbour
the view from Muttonbird Island

Big Banana time
yes chocolate coated banana on a stick!

Big Banana
it's ok it's not real