Coffs Harbour: beaches, botanical gardens, and a hangover

Leaving the Blue Mountains behind was going to be sad but after the harsh weather we'd been receiving I knew, yet again, it was time to go. Back into the bustle of Sydney I went for a mere 10 minutes as I located my bus, hopped on after a little bit of banter with the driver, and settled myself at the back. Two seats for me, thank you very much. 

I quickly got chatting to two fellow passengers, a 26 year old policewoman from London, and a 23 year old fellow bum (I say it light heartedly, post-uni) from Newcastle. We had a good natter about life, travels, the nerves we had about travelling up the east coast solo style, before I retreated to sleep... After all they had a full 13 hour bus ride ahead, I had just 7.5. 

We pulled over at dawn and waiting for four of us was a fellow Brit from the Aussitel Backpackers there to give us our early morning pick up. Perfect! Just a few hours to chill (aka sleep!) before we can check in. 

Only having two nights at the hostel I didn't want to waste much time so instead of resting up as the lovely guy behind reception suggested, I powered on through, showered, and left to explore. One woman from the hostel invited me along to a jetty jump with everyone... Hmmmm... Let me think. Jumping off a 6m platform, I don't think so. Judging by my accident last time I don't think it would be a good idea. I giggled about it anyway and told her my story with a smile on my face.

After hearing a lot about the botanical gardens (and my recurring theme of visiting gardens wherever I go, oops) and the potential to see koalas (I've STILL not seen one) I thought I'd make this my first stop. Crossing the road by the hostel you join the pathway following Coffs Creek, the river that you can kayak down. Follow the trail through the trees, eyeing up the spider webs (there are plenty), and glancing over to the creek on your right, and you eventually come to the gardens. It probably took about 15-20 minutes max. 





The gardens are beautiful, split into zones: the mangrove forests with the beautiful grey mangroves and their pneumatophores poking out of the sediment, the rainforest (dry to wet), the sensory garden, rare and endangered plants from the north, and more. I had a lovely chat with a man sat on the bench who upon saying hello was intrigued by my British accent. We had a little chat about travel and the size and expensive of Australia, he even said himself that the Aussie lifestyle had become ludicrously expensive for the newer generations... Crazy. We bid farewell and unfortunately, whilst I had a lovely hour or so exploring, I saw no koalas. C'est la vie! 





To the foreshore! 


Grabbing a bite to eat (Coffs Harbour is bloody expensive) and realising that I should stop eating out and actually rustle something up for half the price, I started heading towards the jetty. Unfortunately by this time the clouds started to roll in - hmph. Just my luck! I wanted to have an hour or two just lounging on the beach, not spending a penny, just taking it all in. Still, I had an enjoyable stroll down and watched people jumping off the jetty and feeling so nervous for them. 




Heading back home I tried to put on my "I'm confident!" face and chat to people... As always I got in with the raging alcoholics and smokers crowd, a very happy and friendly bunch of Germans and two Dutch who welcomed me in whilst we did a little pub quiz, came second, and proceeding to drink into the night.

Um.

To sum it up, it's currently 5pm and I've been on the beach for two hours doing sweet nothing because my poor head is recovering from the night before. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't take advantage of the free rental of boogie boards and surfboards but never mind, there are other places and it isn't the end of the world.




So it's time to leave this little quiet paradise and head up north to Byron Bay... Let's see what happens there!! All aboard the 6.25am coach. 


           



1 comments:

  1. Oh I miss beautiful (but expensive) Coffs. My bestie lives there I had many a fun time watching my Goddaughter 'jetty jump' x

    ReplyDelete

 

Blogger news

Blogroll

About

Follow on Bloglovin