Recommended by Sue we made our way to Bellingen YHA which had a superb view out over the valley of the river. V laid back hostel with another resident family who stay for free in return for cleaning and laundry! (There was one also at Coffs Harbour).

Today's adventure was tubing down the river Off we went in wet suits and 5 rubber rings - (Little Mate) LM his own and I was convinced he wouldn't be able to go by himself. The guys at the hostel looked at us wearily as we said we were taking all 3 children as the river was up due to the amount of rain over the last few days.

We got in (well I threw LM in as there was no landing area) tied the girls tubes to mine and LM sat with CT. Off we went - quite slow and calm at first but as we approached the first small rapid with a tree in the middle I started to worry. Steering with our hands didn't work and the girls started to get hysterical as we wrapped 3 tubes around the tree. I hung on to No2 so she didn't fall off!! The next rapid with a tree in the middle of we were ready for - I hit it first and kicked us off it! The rest of the float was fine and No2 decided she wanted to be untied!

BATS
That night sitting on the balcony we saw 1000's of huge bats flying across the sky - turned out to be fox bats coming down from the hills to feed on the fruit trees - leaving a trail of bat poo along the way.