The Quest for Surf

Well hello, Mitchell here...

Another week has come and gone and it saddens me to say that we only have 9 more epic days of Australia remaining.  Regardless, the good times keep rolling on and I’ll fill you in on last week:

Bryn and I spent 3 nights in Port Macquarie, parked in the Foy’s carport. We rolled in early Saturday afternoon and made sure to swing by the Koala Hospital for the tour.  It was a very happy yet sad place to be, as the koalas we all saw were all ‘permanent care’ due to various things like blindness (due to chlamydia), amputations and brain injuries. They are all in good care and although peculiar creatures, koalas are undeniably adorable. I could tell you some cool facts about them but I encourage you to check it out and I’ll carry on...

Candace, Mike, Connor and Katie Foy (former Creston BC residents) were very welcoming of us into their home and extraordinary hosts.  Candace and Katie met up with us in the CBD before convoy touring us around to the beautiful beaches. They live just outside of Port Macquarie in Bonnie Hills, and literally only 1km from Rainbow Beach (yes, it’s a surf beach!). Mike promptly took me out for a quick sunset surf before Australian BBQ back at theirs.

Sunday we started with another surf, then hit the road to check out a few nearby sites. We popped the top on the the convertible Bug up to North Brother lookout before spending the afternoon at Bago Vineyard. We had intentions to keep driving beyond that, but some live music, chilled wine and snacks in the hot sun tempted us to go back to the beach... to surf, obviously!

(Side note: The quest to get as many waves as possible, seems to never end, with the odd blue bottle sting, and sea water filled sinuses and ears. Bryn has been very patient with the quest and has even been seen ripping it up on her body board, aka the shark biscuit!)

Monday and Tuesday, Candace was able to juggle her schedule to allow time to take us to the Wildlife Park, photo shoot Bryn and I at the beaches, and meet us for lunch. She also was generous enough to give us some top quality Visi products to help our bodies run better throughout our journey.  It’s a top end product and I believe it’s available in Canada.

Tuesday night, we made tracks to a Crescent Heads campground across the road from Delicate Beach. It was a very cool campground with total surfer vibes.  We spent the one night there then the day in town.

In Crescent Head, we enjoyed the views, had lunch and squeezed in a surf before heading to Southwest Rocks for a Valentine’s day dinner and drink. That night, we camped amongst eastern Grey kangaroos in Smoky Cape Campground.  We tried to befriend a solitary fella beside us, but his bogan accent was far too thick for us to carry on a conversation.

We briefly checked out the old jail at Trial Bay Gaol before darting it to Nambucca Heads. Now, maybe we didn’t do it properly but we preferred Crescent Head over the highly recommended Southwest Rocks. Nambucca Heads was brief but made for a fun day on the shark biscuit. Quickly, we moved on towards Coffs Harbour to close out the day.

In Coffs Harbour, we finally acquainted ourselves with one of the many free flat plate BBQs found in public parks, before driving up Waterfall Way to camp. Although this spot was not completely intentional, it set us up nicely to visit Dorrigo Rainforest, and we even crossed paths with our buddy Sean, from Seal Rocks.

The rainforest walk was meant to take 2.5 hours, but with the gluten free pie shop closing in the early afternoon and Bryn’s fear of snakes, we did it in 1.5hours That was even including a 15 minute waterfall shower in the middle! In the end, we have yet to encounter any slithering suspects and had our fill of meat pies. I should mention that the wild and windy road down from the mountaintop rainforest was quite the drive with some spots only allowing enough room for one vehicle.

Wanting to slow our pace for the weekend, we put some road behind us and drove to Yamba, arenowned surf hot spot.   Perhaps a bit of a splurge, but the holiday park we stayed at for two nights was only 200m from Turner’s beach, had power, shade and a pool!  So yeah, it was well worth it and made for a great weekend of surf, exploring and enjoying each other’s company.

As I write this amongst the defeating ocean, We are currently sitting at Spooky Beach at Angourie. It’s an aptly named town, meaning “Noisy Ocean.” It May not always be this loud though, as the swvell had picked up a ton and I managed to catch a couple overhead waves!

Anyway, thanks for tuning in. We have 4 days to do a 3 hour drive to Brisbane, so I feel like our pace will slow this week. Heck, we drove 30 minutes more for dinner and sleep at Shark Bay!

Also, Bryn is a fine driver in Australia