Coffs Harbor

Spent Easter weekend in the beachside town of Coffs Harbor - located about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane along the eastern coast of NSW. Although the beaches a little further to the north are a lot better known, this stretch of coastline is about as nice as it gets if you like the beach. We went to a couple over the busiest weekend of the year and pretty much had them all to ourselves.





The place we stayed was this small, self-catering "Queenslander" tucked away in the hills...and up in the jungle. No danger of sleeping late - the racket of the various bird calls at sunrise guaranteed that we were up with the sun as well.



Our nearest neighbors. One of the perks of the place was all of the eggs we could eat courtesy of the 4 laying hens.


One reason we opted to stop here for a few days was the close proximity of a couple of terrific National Parks. In fact, much of this area is World Heritage listed due to the unique nature of the rainforest around here. Apparently, this forest is truly ancient...harking back to a time when Australia was part of the super continent of Gondwana millions of years ago, ie before the various land masses separated to become the modern continents of Africa, South America, Europe & Asia. Spent a particularly enjoyable day in one of the parks - Dorrigo - about an hour from Coffs and home to some great walking tracks thru the bush.



The trails in the park were really well done. This track wound its way for about 2.5 miles through the jungle, with occasional views of some towering cascades like this one. The bridge provided a perfect viewpoint of the creek, the falls, and the jungle panorama below.







Did a short side trip on the way home and stopped off in the town of Glenreagh for lunch...with this oversized dingo in front. The Aussies seem to love these things. Coffs is also the home of the "Big Banana" - a theme park/working banana plantation celebrating everything banana. There's also a Big Lobster, a Big Pineapple, and a host of other "Big" attractions along the remote highways of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.




Spent most of Saturday and Easter Sunday chilling out on this beach. Found a Pandanus tree about halfway down that provided a shady spot and so camped out for the day, walked along the beach and read our books for a few hours. The surf was up, and the remote beach was unguarded, so we didn't risk going in. Saw a total of 5 people all day.


Here's a short clip that will explain why we didn't go in the water. Great surf, but a little to big to tackle without swim fins.